FSV Literature review

Literature Review Outline

I. Introduction (3-4 pages1) a. Describe the overall topic that you have been investigating, why it is important to the field, and why

you are interested in the topic. b. Identify themes and trends in research questions, methodology, and findings. Give a “big picture” of

the literature. II. Theme A2 (4-6) pages

a. Overview of characteristics of the theme (commonalities, differences, nuances) b. Sub-theme – narrow but grouped findings related to the theme

i. Study 1 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 2 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

iii. Study 3 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) c. Sub-theme – narrow but grouped findings related to the theme

i. Study 4 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 5 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

iii. Study 6 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) d. Etc., etc., etc. with other findings that fit Theme A; studies can be repeated if there are multiple

findings that fit under more than one theme. However, no need to re-write methods/participants in detail (just enough to remind the reader about the study).

i. The paper only requires a minimum or 10 academic sources, so you may only need to use 2 studies per sub theme or have only one sub-theme with 3 or 4 studies.

ii. Almost all literature reviews have a theory section. You should consider putting one into

your literature review, but it is not required.

III. Theme B – follow a, b, c, and so on from above (4--6 pages)

IV. Keep repeating with themes—This is a short paper (15+ pages) so you may only need two themes.

V. Conclusion: An evaluation/critique of the existing literature. Write several paragraphs. (3-4 pages)

a. What are the contributions of this literature to the field? b. What are the overall strengths? c. What are the overall weaknesses? d. What might be missing? e. What are some next steps for research? The next steps should explicitly address how to “correct” for

strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.

VI. References

• Make sure to use proper APA formatting. Information on APA can be found at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/1/.

1 It would be hard to do a through job in less than this page count. However, if you are very concise and can

meet content requirements in less pages, then I will not take off any points. I do not want to read filler. You

will get a better grade with less than 15 pages than 15 pages with a lot of filler. 2 The theme is a broad word or phrase that synthesizes a narrower group of related findings. E.g., a theme of “Resistance” would include types of resistance, resistance to whom, resisting what, etc.