SSA
Literature Review
What is a literature review, then?
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize briefly each article that you have reviewed. While a summary of what you have read is contained within the literature review, it goes well beyond merely summarizing professional literature. It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of the relationship among different works, and relating this research to your work. It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to provide a theoretical framework and rationale for a research study (such as a thesis or dissertation).
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?
The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper will 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 contributions.
Why do we write literature reviews?
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.
Who writes these things, anyway?
Literature 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. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.
Literature Review
Critical Analysis
Step 1: Review Literature Review guidelines
Read through the provided guidelines so that you become familiar with the common core elements to produce a MS PowerPoint presentation: e.g. title page, abstract, body—topics e.g. 1) summary, 2) critical analysis, 3) conclusion, [text citations, and quotations if applicable].
Step 2: Topic will be provided by Professor
It will help you considerably if you understand the company’s technology you are researching on which you intend to do a critical analysis.
Step 3: Abstract
1. State the title of the work, the author’s name and the date of publication
2. Outline main ideas of the literature and identify the author’s thesis
3. State your own thesis statement and your main idea about your company e.g. Business Process Modeling techniques are useful in working with Big Data technologies.
Step 4: Summary
1. Briefly outline the main ideas of the article for e.g. who, what, where, when, why and how.
2. For example:
This book is about… The author argues that…
The setting is… The research was…
The main character… The main points are…
Step 5: Critical Analysis
1. Assess whether the framework from the Literature Review can be applied to the technology used by the prospective company. Use the topics from the Literature Review article.
Step 6: Conclusion
1. Restate your thesis in new words
2. Summarize your main ideas if possible with new and stronger words