GA
ChrisLee
litreviewpresentation_1.pptxLiterature Reviews
Planning and Writing Them
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You’ve done the hard part!
You did your secondary research with your annotated bibliography
Now, take that research and compile it into a cohesive, useful narrative that explains the “conversation” around the topic you’re going to be looking into
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What is a lit review?
Lit reviews usually are at the beginnings of research articles
Summarize the “conversation” on the subject and establish why your study is important
Look at Zakreski article, Greene article – see in the beginning of their articles, they summarize and explain what others have had to say about the topic
Your annotated bib should easily transition into what will be the first part of your paper, the literature review.
Duggar has lots of citations; 16 in her bib. She talks about lots of different ideas here to lay the groundwork for what she is going to do
Greene has fewer, but has more to say about them
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Three functions of a lit review
Your literature review will become the first part of your research paper. Thus, it should do three things:
Include a short introduction that defines or identifies the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature (this is called establishing a territory)
Synthesize other research on the topic, explaining what is known about it
Conclude by stating what is missing, what is controversial, what is not yet known, or what needs to be resolved in the discussion. This will provide the transition later to your own study and your research questions (this is called “establishing a niche”)
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How do I write it?
Your literature review should synthesize all the information from your annotated bibliography
You can organize the information chronologically
You can organize the information by topic
by least-most recent studies or vice versa; clump everything by what was found, what
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How do I write it, con’t
Your lit review should have an intro, body, and conclusion
This is not true of ALL lit reviews, but it is a good general rule to follow
The intro will serve at the intro to your paper
The body will establish the “conversation”
The conclusion will serve to transition your paper into a discussion of your study
The body can (and probably should) have multiple paragraphs, based on how you’ve organized it
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About the conclusion
In the conclusion, you want to establish why your study is important
You need to somehow point out a gap in the knowledge, a question you have about other research, or a counter-point you want to raise
If you can’t prove that your study authentically adds to the conversation, then you really shouldn’t be doing the research
Leads to your methods section
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Example lit reviews
See the link on Isidore on the “Info on Lit Reviews” page, “Example Lit Review”
From York College in New York – web.York.cuny.edu/~washton/student/Org-Behavior/lit_rev_eg.pdf
Also see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/994/04/ (link on page)
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THE END
