WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW
Northeastern
Seminary (
*The
first step to a literature review in a research paper is a clear statement of
the research problem. You cannot begin
to write a literature review until you have precisely described the research
problem.
*The
statement of the research problem and the literature review are mutually
supportive. The statement of the
research problem clearly defines the subject area to be treated. The literature review demonstrates that the
research problem has received prior attention, and shows that further research
is needed to resolve the problem. James
B. Fisher states, “To be EFFECTIVE, a literature review must be a CLEAR,
COHERENT, and PERSUASIVE analysis of the current state of the literature.”
“Writing
the literature review requires a systematic approach:
(1) Gather the information
(2) Organize the information by
logical categories
(3) Draft the report
(4) Review/revise for accuracy,
completeness, consistency.
Integrating
a LITERATURE REVIEW with the PROBLEM ANALYSIS section of [a paper] . . .
*proves that other researchers
find the topic worthy of attention, and
*argues that, while some
progress has been made in the field, more work needs to
be done.”[1]
*Subject
concepts in a literature review must be related. Do not mix unrelated concepts.
*Provide
a full bibliographic citation in a footnote for each resource cited in the
literature review.
*Each
resource cited in the literature review must also be cited in the bibliography.
*Organize
the cited resources according to a logical order (usually by date).
*“To
organize your review, start with a very terse outline. The outline should go from the general to the
particular. The start is usually a
general statement that anyone can be interested in and agree with. . . Then you hone in on the current state of
knowledge in a specific area of that field.
Then a controversy or question that hasn’t been solved. . . Cut from the
lit. review anything that is not necessary from your outline. . . After writing the outline, write a paragraph
for each of your sentences. The
paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that may well be the sentence from
your outline. Topic sentences are
CRUCIAL. They make the organization of
the paper clear to the reader, and they help the writer stay on topic. Within the paragraph, move from the general
to the particular. Put the important
things early in the paragraph and early in the sentence, because this is where
the emphasis naturally falls. . . If an idea is not tightly related to the
topic sentence of the paragraph, be ruthless and cut it out. Your lit. review should culminate in a
compelling rationale paragraph. This is
where you state the hole in the literature that you will address, and how your
study will seek to fill the hole. By
this time, though, the reader should be able to guess, and should be asking the
question themselves.”[2]
Why
do a literature review? “(1) to identify
gaps in the literature; (2) to avoid reinventing the wheel; (3) to carry on
from where others have already reached; (4) to identify other people working
the same fields; (5) to increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject
area; (6) to identify seminal works in your area; (7) to provide the
intellectual context for your own work, enabling you to position your project
relative to other work; (8) to identify opposing views; (9) to put your work
into perspective; (10) to demonstrate that you can access previous work in an
area; (11) to identify information and ideas that may be relevant to your
project; and (12) to identify methods that could be relevant to your project.”[3]
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Last Modified
13
September 2005
[1] James B. Fisher, Successful Grant Writing (Dayton, OH: Center for Leadership & Executive Development/University of Dayton, 1999), 5.6.
[2] “Some Tips for Writing a Literature Review,” available from http://ego.psych.mcgill.ca/courses/450/revtips.htm ; accessed 23 January 2003.
[3] “Literature Reviews,” available from http://deakin.edu.au/dlt/library/Research/litrev.html ; accessed 18 January 2001.