1) Brief introduction: 100-150 words approximately
2) Rationale: 100-150 words approximately (Use literature in the section to put your rationale into context and support your ideas):
• Outline your reasons for proposing a literature review in relation to nutritional therapy.
• Why is this area important to clients, and or, to nutritional therapists?
• Are there any gaps in the evidence base for nutritional therapy to support why you should be looking at this area?
• Is there any UK local or national guidance that may influence this area of nutritional therapy? What influence would it have?
3) Aims of the literature review: 100-150 words approximately (bullet points):
• What do you aim to find out, if you were to undertake the literature review?
4) Research question: 50-100 words approximately:
• What main research question/s would you have to guide your literature review?
• This should be a question that generally produces some discussion. Try to avoid research questions that give yes or no, or, effective or not effective answers.
5) Overview of the literature: 1000-1500 words approximately: the main part of the proposal.
• The overview of the literature review section should start to answer the research question.
• This should present a detailed overview of the findings of the research in light of the methods used, in relation to your chosen subject are.
• You will need to construct an argument that clearly discusses the subject area in your research question.
• What are the findings of the studies?
• How important are these findings and how would they influence the practice of nutritional therapy and clients?
• What kinds of research designs are being used to investigate this area? How useful are these designs?
• What kind of questions are the research studies investigating?
• What are the strengths and weakness of individual studies or overall designs?
6) Users and beneficiaries: 150-200 words approximately:
• Discuss who would benefit from the findings of such a literature review and why.
• What community based groups or individuals would benefit from the findings of the review?
• Explain how you will ensure that the findings meet their needs and how you will communicate the findings to them.
