Introduction with a general thesis Historical background/context for your topic taken from an article found in an encyclopedia Three subcategories for your 15 sources Conclusion (these will be given and expanded on) [Proper citation and footnotes in Chica

Re: Literature Review

The goal of the literature review is to write about the debates or approaches among scholars on your topic.

 

In other words, you need to identify, compare, and evaluate the viewpoints in the books and articles that you have selected. The assignment is not simply on a historical event, but rather on how historians have interpreted that event.

The literature review is not two or three book reviews cut and pasted together. You have to synthesize your material and construct an argument in support of a thesis.

You need to bring up the authors and their theses/approaches up front. See John Witek's article to learn how a literature review should be.

 

The format should be like this:

(a) An eye-catching or thought provoking opening paragraph with a clear thesis at the end.

(b) Give a brief history or social/cultural context of your topic. For many of you, your draft currently is at this stage--about a historical event or a cultural practice.

(c) Identify and evaluate "so-and-so" books/articles about your topic. This is the central part of the literature review. You do not have to write on every book or article, but you need to group (synthesize) them according to their particular "school" of thought or interpretation.

(d) Repeat the same analysis for another "so-and-so"

(e) Do it again for another group of authors if there are more of them. 

(f) Conclusion: Provide your own assessment on the current scholarship. Such as: Where is it going? Is there a gap in the research? Is there a bias in the current research? Or, what is the strength in the studies?

Start with (b), go from (c) to (e), write (a) and (f) last!

Here are some stock-phrases from John Witek’s article that you may want to try to incorporate some of them into your literature review. As you can see, they are about the authors and the contributions/interpretations/insights/etc. to the field or the topic. If your paper does not have these stock-phrases, it is very likely you write about the event rather than the literature review about that event/topic.

Page 194:

A significant advance in our understanding of the development of…has resulted from the publication of … one by…, the other by….

One of its chief strengths is…

So-and-so’s work differs that…

Both writers are aware…

So-and-so’s work is especially helpful…

Major trends in research on… have ranged from…to studies of…

These are part of an emerging pattern of scholarship that continues to evolve from…

Page 195:

Such research highlights … issues whose study in only beginning to set a trend…

Studies about…focus both on… and on…

So-and-so’s multi-volume of….is based on extensive research pursued for many decades. Its wealth of data on… and on…offers an incomparable glimpse into…

The researches of so-and-so led to the publication of his/her authoritative work on…

Page 196:

So-and-so have written lengthy… that could well be developed into…

So-and-so has also shown that…

These documents research is still in progress.

Page 197:

Recent historiography on… has focused on…

Of all the [Jesuit missions in Asia], only [the Molucas] have now been thoroughly documented, by so-and-so.

Recent studies on… have caused us to realize that…

Studies of these phenomena underline the need to…

Page 198:

This methodology reveals…

Publication of the…helped lay the groundwork for further research.

In a series of … as parts of an ongoing project…

Page 199:

The principle foci of research on… have been the search for…, studies on…, and….

For an understanding of …, the works of so-and-so are indispensable. His/her introductory…lays out…

The [apostolate of Xavier and his immediate successors in Japan] has been analyzed from several perspectives. The last volume of… so-and-so depicts in great detail.

Despite so-and-so’s clear admiration for so-and-so, this is a critical [biography] that highlights… and also casts light on…

One of the more glaring needs in this field is…

Page 200:

… are the focus of some significant research by….

Sociological analysis of… explains some of the difficulties…

Such-and-such is the theme of one of the more important recent work.

In such-and-such, so-and-so has argued that…

So-and-so underscores…

Page 201:

Such-and-such are the focus of several recent works… So-and-so has published an important… on… that touch on…

A complementary, scholarly study offers… on… Its more than…are very helpful for attaining some impression of the impact of the…

All of these studies…have been widely received within certain circles, but they cannot compare to…

An analysis of …remains an unfinished task.

Several lines of inquiry about … have been particularly effectively pursued in recent years-studies about…

Updating the earlier work of so-and-so, this …offers more details and includes…

Page 202:

Before… [no#] noteworthy studies about… were completed, so-and-so focused on such-and-such from a… perspective as…

This lengthy article moved the focus from… to…

So-and-so sketched a remarkable…

Scholars in…. have evinced a generally positive appreciation of...

Assessments of… are one of the more significant advances in recent studies of…

Page 203:

So-and-so has argued that…

So-and-so had earlier discussed…, but so-and-so was unaware of…

In a further analysis of…, so-and-so contends that…

So-and so were unaware of each other’s work, and neither reflect any acquaintance with…scholarship…

So-and-so also has discussed…

So-and-so has surveyed…

The encyclopedia article by so-and-so remains a fundamental guideline.

Page 204:

So-and-so has surveyed the differences…

So-and-so, in the same collection of essays with so-and-so, notes that…

So-and-so has studied…

So-and-so has outlined in a perceptive essay some of the essential elements necessary to develop a comparison of…

So-and-so has portrayed…

So-and-so has pointed out its lack of…

So-and-so thereby shows some of the pitfalls of such a comparative view….

Page 205:

These…studies in any case suggest frameworks for analyzing… in a wide perspective.

There are many questions that need answers before such… can be undertaken. Perhaps the first need is more…, like….

Moreover, none of these… in… has been subjected to [an economic historical analysis].

I will take points off for technical errors. So, please observe the Chicago Manual of Style. The citation in the bibliography is NOT THE SAME as in the footnotes. Here are just samples of two most common citations, a book and an article. There are many other scenarios.

Bibliography for a book:

Last name, First name. The Title of the Book. City: Publisher, year.

Footnote for a book:

First name Last name, The Title of the Book (City: Publisher, year), page number.

Bibliography for an article:

Last name, First name. “The Title of an Article.” The Title of the Journal 123 (Month Year): first page-last page.

Footnote for an article:

First name Last name, “The Title of an Article,” The Title of the Journal 123 (Month Year): page number.

Since this literature review is about authors and their works, you have to mention their names. When you mention an author for the first time, give the full name. In the subsequent mention(s), you can simply use the last name. Well, but if there are two or more authors with the same last name, then you have to mention the whole name, so readers know whom you are talking about.