Network Defence

A literature review is a description of the literature relevant to a particular field or topic. This is often written as part of a term paper or project. A critical literature review is a critical assessment of the relevant literature. It is unlikely that you will be able to write a truly critical assessment of the literature until you have a good grasp of the subject, usually at some way into the project.

How does a literature review differ from other assignments?

The review, like other forms of expository writing, has an introduction, body and conclusion, well-formed paragraphs, and a logical structure. However, in other kinds of expository writing, you use relevant literature to support the discussion of your thesis; in a literature review, the literature itself is the subject of discussion.

What counts as 'literature'?

‘Literature’ covers everything relevant that is written on a topic: books, journal articles, newspaper articles, historical records, government reports, theses and dissertations, authoritative Web sites, etc. The important word is 'relevant'. Check with your professor when in doubt.

A literature review gives an overview of the field of inquiry: what has already been said on the topic, who the key writers are, what the prevailing theories and hypotheses are, what questions are being asked, and what methodologies and methods are appropriate and useful.

A critical literature review shows how prevailing ideas fit into your own thesis, and how your topic agrees or differs from them.

This depends on what the literature review is for, and what stage you are at in your studies. Your professor should specify a minimum number of references.

The number of references in a literature review is given in the syllabus:

The literature search

Find out what has been written on your subject. Use as many bibliographical sources as you can to find relevant titles. The following are likely sources:

· Bibliographies and references in key textbooks and recent journal articles. Your professor can help determine which are the key texts and relevant journals.

· Authorative Web sites,

· Abstracting databases, and

· Citation databases.

Many abstracting journals and electronic databases are available through the University Library's Aladin system (https://www.aladin.wrlc.org)

Using the specialist librarians

The University Library has two specialist librarians devoted to the School of Business Administration:

Mason Yang – specializes in information technology and management science

Marcia Dursi – specializes in other business topics

They can help you decide which databases and bibliographies are relevant to your field, and can advise you on other sources for your literature search.

Noting the bibliographical details

Write down the full bibliographical details of each book or article as soon as you find a reference to it. This will save you time later on.

Finding the literature

The full text of many journal articles can be found on electronic databases found through the Aladin system.

Once you have what looks like a list of relevant texts, you have to find them. The Aladin system provides information on material available at Marymount or other university libraries in the area.

If the book or journal you want is not held at Marymount, you may be able to access it through inter-library loans. Check with the library annex on the 5th floor of the Ballston Center or the main library on campus.

Reading the literature

Before you begin to read a book or article, make sure you written down the full citation as stated above.

Take notes as you read the literature. You are reading to find out how each piece of writing approaches the subject of your paper or project, what it has to say about it, and (especially for research students) how it relates to your own thesis:

· Is it a general textbook or does it deal with a specific issue(s)?

· Is it an empirical report, a theoretical study, a sociological or political account, a historical overview, etc? All or some of these?

· Does it follow a particular school of thought?

· What is its theoretical basis?

· What definitions does it use?

· What is its general methodological approach? What methods are used?

· What kinds of data does it use to back up its argument?

· What conclusions does it come to?

Other questions may be relevant. It depends on the purpose of the review.

You should never just sit down to read academic works as if they were novels or magazine articles. Academic study is not suited to such an approach, and the chances are you could spend hours reading and then not have a clue what you have been reading about. Instead, think about the following:

· Be selective Check through the items on your list. Which are basic texts, and which are more detailed? (Will you need basic information or more specific information for your assignment?) Which are the most accessible to you? (Texts which are crystal clear to one person may be incomprehensible to another, and vice versa—this is not a matter of 'intelligence', but of a preference for a particular presentation and style) Which are reasonably available? (It is no good pinning your hopes on a book if there is one copy in the library and 30 students wanting it.)

· Set a realistic time frame for any reading task Do not read any longer than you can concentrate. It doesn’t matter if your attention span is short—just set your tasks accordingly.

· Never read without specific questions you want the text to answer If you want your reading to stay in your memory, you must approach your text with a list of questions about the particular information you are after, and search the text for the answers to those questions. Don't just read with the hope that an answer will appear.

· Never start reading at page 1 of the text If there is a summary, a conclusion, a set of sub-headings, or an abstract, read that first, because it will give you a map of what the text contains. You can then deal with the text structurally, looking for particular points, not just reading ‘blind’ and so easily getting lost.

· Read only as much as you need to get the information you are after For example, if a piece of information you need is in the abstract of an article, why read the whole article unless you have time to spare? If a point is clear from reading a summary, is there any benefit in reading through the complete text of a chapter? If you are interested in the overall findings of a study, do you really need to read the methodology and results sections? Always keep in mind what you need, what is relevant to the question you are asking the text.

· Don’t panic if you cannot get hold of a particular text Information may be found in various places. Think about looking further afield and being creative in your information searches.

Writing the review

Having gathered the relevant details about the literature, you now need to write the review. The kind of review you write, and the amount of detail, will depend on the level of your studies.

An annotated bibliography deals with each text in turn, describing and evaluating the text, using one paragraph for each text.

In contrast, a literature review synthesises many texts in one paragraph. Each paragraph (or section if it is a long thesis) of the literature review should classify and evaluate the themes of the texts that are relevant to your thesis; each paragraph or section of your review should deal with a different aspect of the literature.

Like all academic writing, a literature review must have an introduction, body, and conclusion.

The introduction should include:

· the nature of the topic under discussion (the topic of your thesis)

· the parameters of the topic (what does it include and exclude)?

· the basis for your selection of the literature

The conclusion should include:

· A summary of major agreements and disagreements in the literature

· A summary of general conclusions that are being drawn.

· A summary of where your thesis sits in the literature (Remember! Your thesis could become one of the future texts on the subject—how will later research students describe your thesis in their literature reviews?)

The body paragraphs could include relevant paragraphs on:

· historical background, including seminal texts;

· current mainstream versus alternative theoretical or ideological viewpoints, including differing theoretical assumptions, differing political outlooks, and other conflicts;

· possible approaches to the subject (empirical, philosophical, historical, postmodernist, etc);

· definitions in use;

· current research studies;

· current discoveries about the topic;

· principal questions that are being asked;

· general conclusions that are being drawn;

· methodologies and methods in use

Citations

All citations should be in the American Psychological Association (APA) format, the standard for the School of Business Administration. The overall format is:

Contributors' names (Last edited date). Title of resource. Retrieved from http://Web address For example:

 Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

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