The literature review
The literature purpose of this guide is to provide advice on how to develop and organize a research paper in the social of research flaws to ndent and dependent ry of research terms. An oral g with g someone else's to manage group of structured group project survival g a book le book review ing collected g a field informed g a policy g a research proposal. Literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of , arlene. Literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. The analytical features of a literature review might:Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, y in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to purpose of a literature review is to:Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being be the relationship of each work to the others under fy new ways to interpret prior any gaps that exist in the e conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous fy areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of the way in fulfilling a need for additional your own research within the context of existing literature [very important]. Los angeles, ca: sage, of literature is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally that become part of the lore of composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your of literature form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. Educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].
About literature review
A form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future ological review. Review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Thinking about your literature structure of a literature review should include the following:An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,Division of works under review into themes or categories [e. Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic.
Literature review for
Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent er the following issues before writing the literature review:If your assignment is not very specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions:1. What types of sources should i review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? The exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. A good strategy is to begin by searching the homer catalog for books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. Ways to organize your literature your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of german economic power after the fall of the soviet your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the ic [“conceptual categories”]. Reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time.
For example, a review of the internet’s impact on american presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are sections of your literature you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. What other sections you include in the body is up to you but include only what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship are examples of other sections you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:Current situation: information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature y: the chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a ion methods: the criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and rds: the way in which you present your ons for further research: what questions about the field has the review sparked? Writing your literature you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for your own summary and interpretation of the ize and er to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and center. Common mistakes to are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research s in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;.
Do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevent sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;. You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. Conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. You begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research , chris. Are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've adequately reviewed the literature:Look for repeating patterns in the research findings. Web of knowledge] citation database and google scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the , anthea. University of southern / tips & tools / literature this handout is handout will explain what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and . The “literature” of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. Literature” could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on british colonial methods in africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn acl. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these is a literature review, then? Literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
Literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or how is a literature review different from an academic research paper? Main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new do we write literature reviews? If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research writes these things, anyway? Reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. For other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word “review” in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the internet or in an electronic database. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period.
Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is currently of interest to scholars in this field and what is gies for writing the literature review. Literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. Literature review may not have a traditional thesis statement (one that makes an argument), but you do need to tell readers what to expect. Develop an organization for your review at both a global and local level:First, cover the basic like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the uction: gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational : contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for more information on each). Create an organizational method to focus this section even help you come up with an overall organizational framework for your review, consider the following scenario and then three typical ways of organizing the sources into a review:You’ve decided to focus your literature review on materials dealing with sperm whales. This makes you wonder about american whaling methods during the time portrayed in moby dick, so you find some academic articles published in the last five years on how accurately herman melville portrayed the whaling scene in his your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials above according to when they were published. Thus, the review loses its chronological your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on biological studies of sperm whales if the progression revealed a change in dissection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Under this method, you would combine the recent studies on american whaling in the 19th century with moby dick itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century ic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. For instance, the sperm whale review could focus on the development of the harpoon for whale hunting. The only difference here between a “chronological” and a “thematic” approach is what is emphasized the most: the development of the harpoon or the harpoon more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order.
For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might examine how they are portrayed as “evil” in cultural documents. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are you’ve decided on the organizational method for the body of the review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out. A thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or mes, though, you might need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. Here are a few other sections you might want to consider:Current situation: information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature y: the chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a s and/or standards: the criteria you used to select the sources in your literature review or the way in which you present your information. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and ons for further research: what questions about the field has the review sparked? Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (gastil, 1990). Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review’s focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or and mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, check with your ize and er to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. The authors here recapitulate important features of hamilton’s study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study’s significance and relating it to their own the literature review presents others’ ideas, your voice (the writer’s) should remain front and center. So check over your review again to make sure it follows the assignment and/or your outline.
Then, just as you would for most other academic forms of writing, rewrite or rework the language of your review so that you’ve presented your information in the most concise manner possible. Finally, double check that you’ve documented your sources and formatted the review appropriately for your discipline. May reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout (just click print) and attribute the source: the writing center, university of north carolina at chapel you enjoy using our handouts, we appreciate contributions of wikipedia, the free to: navigation, a focused scientific review with pre-defined methodology, see systematic has been suggested that this article be merged into review article. Literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such reviews are found in academic journals, and are not to be confused with book reviews that may also appear in the same publication. 1][unreliable source] a narrow-scope literature review may be included as part of a peer-reviewed journal article presenting new research, serving to situate the current study within the body of the relevant literature and to provide context for the reader. In such a case, the review usually precedes the methodology and results sections of the ing a literature review may also be part of graduate and post-graduate student work, including in the preparation of a thesis, dissertation, or a journal article. Literature reviews are also common in a research proposal or prospectus (the document that is approved before a student formally begins a dissertation or thesis). Fourth type, the systematic review, is often classified separately, but is essentially a literature review focused on a research question, trying to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high-quality research evidence and arguments relevant to that question. A meta-analysis is typically a systematic review using statistical methods to effectively combine the data used on all selected studies to produce a more reliable result. And rangarajan (2013) distinguish between the process of reviewing the literature and a finished work or product known as a literature review. 5]:193–229 the process of reviewing the literature is often ongoing and informs many aspects of the empirical research project.
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Scholars need to be scanning the literature long after a formal literature review product appears to be completed. The process of reviewing the literature requires different kinds of activities and ways of thinking. 6] shields and rangarajan (2013) and granello (2001) link the activities of doing a literature review with benjamin bloom’s revised taxonomy of the cognitive domain (ways of thinking: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating). For a person doing a literature review this would include tasks such as recognition, retrieval and recollection of the relevant literature. Understanding may be challenging because the literature could introduce the scholar to new terminology, conceptual framework and methodology. In bloom’s third category applying the scholar is able to make connections between the literature and his or her larger research project. This is particularly true if the literature review is to be a chapter in a future empirical study. Analysis of the literature allows the scholar to develop frameworks for analysis and the ability to see the big picture and know how details from the literature fit within the big picture. When scholars use bloom’s fifth category evaluating they are able to see the strengths and weaknesses of the theories, arguments, methodology and findings of the literature they have collected and read. 7] when scholars engage in creating the final category in bloom's taxonomy, they bring creativity to the process of doing a literature review. They may be able to find a fresh and original research question, identify a heretofore, unknown gap in the literature or make surprising connections. By understanding how ways of thinking connect to tasks of a literature review, a scholar is able to be self-reflective and bring metacognition to the process of reviewing the literature.
The process of reviewing the literature and writing a literature review can be complicated and lengthy. Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: using bloom's taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews". Writing literature reviews: a guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (6th ed. This page on your website:As part of their research program, many students are instructed to perform a literature review, without always understanding what a literature review article is a part of the guide:Select from one of the other courses available:Experimental ty and ical tion and psychology e projects for ophy of sance & tics beginners tical bution in er 30 more articles on this 't miss these related articles:2quantitative and qualitative research. Literature review can be a precursor to the introduction of a research paper, or it can be an entire paper in itself, acting as the first stage of large research projects and allowing the supervisor to ascertain that the student is on the correct path. A literature review is not simply a chronological catalog of all your sources, but an evaluation. Good literature review should avoid the temptation of stressing the importance of a particular research program. They want to be re-assured that it is a serious paper, not a pseudo-scientific sales some literature reviews can be presented in a chronological order, this is best example, a review of victorian age physics may certainly present j. Otherwise, this is usually perceived as being a little lazy, and it is better to organize the review around ideas and individual a general rule, especially for a longer review, each paragraph should address one point, and present and evaluate all of the available evidence, from all possible differing points of ting a literature review evaluating the credibility of sources is one of the most difficult aspects of a literature review, especially with the ease of finding information on the only real way to evaluate is through experience, but there are luckily a few tricks for evaluating information quickly and is such a thing as too much information. Failure to do this will completely invalidate the literature review and potentially undermine the research project. Check into the credentials of any source which you rely on heavily for the literature review. It may be a little extra work for them, but there will be even more work if they have to tear apart a review because it is built on shaky ting a good literature review takes patience and is a matter of practice.
If your research program is well constructed, a less-than-perfect literature review will not affect the results.. Take it with you wherever you research council of ibe to our rss blakstad on to write an introduction - introducing the research ch designs - how to construct an experiment or atic reviews - evaluating previous g an abstract - how to write a ch paper outline ign upprivacy ture review: conducting & literature ture review: conducting & guide will provide research and writing tips to help students complete a literature review for conducting a lit g "the literature". Lit reviews from communication ture review sample ture review sample ture review sample an exemplary literature review? You an instructor who has received an exemplary literature review and have permission from the student to post?
