Literature Review- A review may be a self-contained unit — an end in itself — or a preface to and rationale for engaging in primary research. A review is a required part of grant and research proposals and often a chapter in theses and dissertations. Generally, the purpose of a review is to analyze critically a segment of a published body of
knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles. A. Narrow & Research Topic: Your topic needs to be narrow and specific. If it is too broad it will be too difficult to research. You must limit you research. Once you have narrowed your topic sufficiently, you’ll want to locate a range of materials published by experts or scholars in this particular area of study. Examining bibliographies to locate reoccurring names can lead you to the works of key researchers in the field. Scanning for titles of studies that are cited repeatedly can also lead you to influential texts in the area. At this point, you’ll want to gather more materials than you plan to include in your literature review to allow for the winnowing of substandard or poorly related materials. When you are reading the materials you’ve collected do so with an eye toward writing your literature review. B. Scope: You will be expected to incorporate at least 15 closely related sources into your review. All students must turn in hard copies of the first page of the sources used in the Literature Review to the instructor. While all relevant material can be used, the majority of your source should come from peer reviewed journals that were published in the past 20 years. C. Length: There is no length requirement. D. Technical requirements: All papers should exceed general writing standards for the appropriate college level. Papers that are poorly written may be penalized a full letter grade. If you are concerned about your writing proficiency, please make use of the Student Learning Center. Papers should comply with APA (American Psychological Association) citation style throughout. APA resources are readily available on-line. All papers must be typed and double-spaced with standard margins and use a non-script typeface in a 12-point font. E. You must submit a copy to the instructor as well as submit it to your Literature Review in Turnitin.
Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or as little detail as each merits according to its comparative importance in the literature, remembering that space (length) denotes significance.• Group research studies and other types of literature (reviews, theoretical articles, case studies, etc.) according to common denominators such as qualitative versus quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific purpose or objective, chronology, etc. • Establish the writer’s reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the review (sequence); and, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included (scope). In the body, you should: • Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or a single problem or new perspective of immediate interest. • Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature. •When writing the introduction, you should:
Provide the reader with strong “umbrella” sentences at beginnings of paragraphs, “signposts” throughout, and brief “so what” summary sentences at intermediate points in the review to aid in understanding comparisons and analyses.• Select only the most important points to highlight; useing quotes sparingly. •
Assessment of sources features:•
o Provenance/Authority: what are the author’s credentials?
o Objectivity: even-handed or prejudicial/biased?
o Persuasiveness: least/most convincing?
Summarize major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established in the introduction.•o Value: does it contribute significantly to an understanding of the subject? When writing the conclusion, you should:
AVOID SLANG/USE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE• AVOID 1ST PERSON • Other helpful hints: • Evaluate the current “state of the art” for the body of knowledge reviewed, pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or issues pertinent to future study. Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between the central topic of the literature review and a larger area of study such as a discipline, a scientific endeavor, or a profession. “University of Wisconsin-Writing Center http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html” •
o “conducted a study” instead of “did a study”
o “examined” instead of “looked at”
o “utilize” instead of “use” (where appropriate)
o “great deal” instead of “a lot”
REVISE AND REWRITE: Good writing takes hard work. Give yourself enough time to take a break from the paper. Time away from the paper provides perspective regarding organization and allows the opportunity to find technical errors.• BE CONSICE: Delete unnecessary words, phrases, and sentences to drastically improve your writing. Scientific writing is concise and to-the-point. •o “Furthermore, …” instead of run-on sentences
CITATIONS: It is imperative that you use good citation habits. It is plagiarism to use other writers words and ideas. It is a good idea to keep a citation log, where you write down all your source information on one page or on index cards as you are doing your research, rather than trying to go back and find all the information at the end of your project.•