How to present a literature review

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. It has three main purposes:

1. 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.
2. It gives an up to date picture of current thinking on a topic and a fair evaluation of the main ideas. Ask questions and look for answers. Be willing to learn something new about your topic; you might even change your views completely. The better you perceive the current state of knowledge on the topic, the better your research can be.
3. It establishes your expertise on your particular topic. You'll find that careful treatment of the details is part of being thorough; learning to do so is part of the degree requirements.

Preliminaries and introduction

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.

Content

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:

• strengths,
• things that don’t make sense (logical fallacies, gaps),
• topics where it contradicts itself (inconsistencies),
• assumptions, and,
• major implications.

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.

The content is like a book review

A book review is a short article that tells readers about a book and gives a fair evaluation of its main ideas. Most academic and professional journals contain reviews of new books that may interest their readers. The purpose is usually to update readers on new ideas in their field. Authors often submit books in the hope of a favorable review, so that they will sell more books.

Lecturers also ask students to write them to assess their understanding of particular books.

A book review normally has the following parts:

1. Clearly report the author's the main purpose for writing the book.
2. Clearly report the main points of the book.
3. Does the book 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 vistor, 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 will interpret what they say quite differently from a young armchair amateur, or a prominent academic writing on the same topic.
4. Write a critique* identifying any of the following:
• its strengths,
• its unique features,
• things that don't make sense (logical fallacies),
• topics where it contradicts itself (inconsistencies),
• the main ideas that make up the point of the whole book (its constituent elements),
• its assumptions, and,
• its major implications (i.e. what will change as a result of this book).

Another way of expressing this is the MEAL Plan, which can be a helpful way to construct paragraphs when writing literature reviews:

• Main Idea: Topic sentence stating the claim that the paragraph is advancing.
• Evidence: What does the writer say? Give a paraphrase and or direct quotations from the source.
• Analysis: Explain the source and give an evaluation. It needs to fit the claim of the main idea of the paragraph.
• Lead Out: Give a conclusion that indicates how this paragraph fits into your paper and prepares readers to transition to the next paragraph.

The MEAL plan is helpful but might not always be appropriate. For example, if several articles say almost the same thing, it might be better to report and comment on them together.

Adapted from Wαlden Acαdemic Guides Link, which adapted it from Duke University's Thοmpsοn Writing Prοogrαm (n.d.) "Paragraphing: The MEAL plan." Link

Conclusion

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.

Presentation

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.