Extratropical transition of tropical cyclone
No, it is not sufficient to just discuss the behavior as it moves into higher latitudes. ET occurs because of environmental reasons, not geographical reasons. 

How much of a beginner are you? My answer below may be a bit over your head if you do not know much about tropical cyclones. If that is the case, I suggest looking back at the theory and basics of tropical cyclones (structure, maximum potential intensity, etc.) to get a good grasp of what separates tropical cyclones from extratropical cyclones. 

If you are specifically looking at quantities, I suggest looking at cyclone phase space diagrams. The variables in these diagrams include the thermal wind for different levels, as well as baroclinicity. FSU has examples of cyclone phase space diagrams for different storms.

Edit: I remembered two recent articles that review ET. They are Evans et al. (2017) and Keller et al. (2019).