Ross Woods, rev. 2019, '20, '21
A literature review is simply a set of organized notes from a reading project on a particular topic or issue, with your evaluation of each source. Examples are easy to find because most theses and dissertations have a chapter containing a literature review. (Look near the front; it's usually about chapter 2 or 3.)
The literature review has three main purposes. First, it should justify your core research question and any sub-questions you have. All relevant aspects of the research question should appear in the literature review. Second, it gives an up to date picture of current thinking on a topic and a fair evaluation of the main ideas. Third, it establishes your expertise on your particular topic.
Literature reviews are good assignments by themselves. If you have been given the task of writing a literature review as an undergraduate essay, it will most likely be specified as an essay of between 1,500 words and 2,500 words, but the number of items probably won’t be specified.
Don't treat the literature review as an unhelpful, onerous chore. First, the purpose is to learn something new about your topic, so ask questions and look for answers. You might even change your views completely. Second, careful treatment of the details is part of being thorough; learning to do so is part of the degree requirements. Third, the better you perceive the current state of knowledge on the topic, the better your research can be.
The preliminaries are simple: A title, your name, the date of submission, and your tutor’s name.
Write a brief introduction explaining your purpose. This will most likely be to explore a topic or issue of some kind and say why it is important. You might need to specify the boundaries of the topic. One or two paragraphs is usually enough for an essay.
While many of your sources will be books and journal articles, you can also use chapters of large books, anthology articles, and Internet sources. (Try to use a range of sources, and not just the Internet.) In most cases, you’ll be looking at the works of individuals, but you can also study leading figures and major movements in the field.
Your content comprises your comments on sources relating to your topic. For each source, say why it’s relevant, important, and unique. Then clearly report the main points or ideas. Make sure you include in-text references to every source you use so that you don’plagiarise anything.
Consider anything that would affect your interpretation. Did the author have a particular purpose for writing? Or a particular audience? Did the source have a particular background that you need to tell your readers about? For example, if an author wrote about a particular country, is he/she a local person or a vistor? If the person is a visitor, how long did they live there? Did they work in the field they are describing? (If the author was a military veteran writing about a battle, you might interpret what they say quite differently from a young armchair amateur, or a prominent academic writing on the same topic.)
Write a critique. This does not necessarily mean find fault
; you might find that the source is excellent. Identify any of the following that are helpful:
Be polite in your critique. Use the same kinds of expressions that you’d have others use to critique you, as long as you are direct enough for your readers to get your point.
At the end, write a conclusion so your readers know what you concluded. You should mention general patterns, trends, or themes that you can see in the literature. Present your conclusions in an advanced a state as you can justify from the literature. The conclusion should show that you have achieved the purpose that you stated in the introduction.
Then type it up for presentation according to the guidelines. Present your critical review at a publishable standard of layout and typing with accurate grammar and language style. It must include a bibliography of all your sources. See the guide.
Find six or seven dissertations on topics similar to yours. Look through the literature review chapters to locate the major recurring themes. Look at the way they grouped items based on major themes, included the minor themes, and arranged everything in a readable order.
Get articles on each variable, theory, or questionnaire that you discussed in your preliminary proposal.
Arrange topics into an outline.
When you have a working outline, ask your supervisor for advice and to approve your direction.
You might find it helpful to draw up a matrix with research questions in one dimension and articles in the other so that you can easily see topics on which you have done most reading and those that you that you have given much less attention.
While you're looking through dissertations, look though the bibliographies for references to recent publications that are relevant to your topic, and look at the methodology chapters for ideas for your methodology.
When you have a working outline, ask your supervisor for advice and to approve your direction.
To save time and graduate sooner, try to increasingly focus your reading and writing as you progress through the literature review. You can safely omit reading (and writing) anything that is unrelated to your research questions. If you have already written anything that is irrelevant, take it out of your main document and save it in a separate file and folder for items that appear to be no longer relevant. (It is usually unwise to delete it completely; as your understanding of the topic deepens, it might become useful later on in a way that you could not have anticipated.) If you spend three pages of in your literature review refining your discussion of something that is not relevant to your final research question, you have cost precious time in your journey to graduation.*
“How many items?” Answer: “It depends.” It depends on how much has been written, when it was written, and the size and complexity of the topic. If a lot has been written recently, you should ask your lecturer whether you should narrow the topic. If your literature review is part of a dissertation, then it needs to be comprehensive. In other words, it is not complete until all relevant documents have been reviewed.
“How far do I have to go back?” Some schools don't permit students include anything older than five years. It depends on the topic. In my view, students should include older writings if they are are still useful and helpful.
“Do I only include original research items or can I include critiques of research?” You can include critiques because they contribute to the state of knowledge on the topic.
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* Based on “Working Backwards: Moving Past Brain Freeze and Writing Your Problem Statement.” Moliver, Nina. Unpublished paper.)