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What is a literature review(includes link to Grant and Booth article about 14 types of reviews) |
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Why write a literature review |
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How is a literature review structured and organized |
What is a literature review? |
A literature review provides an overview of the scholarly writings published on a topic by scholars and researchers. Specifically, a literature review:
The literature review forms the justification for your research. It is the platform upon which you will build your argument, place your research in context, and demonstrate how your research improves the discipline. |
Why do we write literature reviews? |
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.
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How is a literature review different from an annotated bibliography? |
A literature review is written in the style of an expository essay; it comprises an introduction, body and conclusion, and it is organized around a controlling idea or thesis. An annotated bibliography is simply an alphabetized list of sources accompanied by comments. Moreover, while a single source appears just once in an annotated bibliography, it may be referred to numerous times in a literature review, depending upon its importance in the field or relationship to other sources. Finally, a literature review includes its own intext citations and bibliography or works cited list. |
How is a literature review different from a traditional research paper? |
A literature review may stand alone and be assigned or published as a discrete entity. Or it may constitute one section of a larger research paper or one chapter—usually the first—of a thesis. Whereas the main body of a research paper focuses on the subject of your research, the literature review focuses on your sources. Put another way, in the research paper you use expert sources to support the discussion of your thesis; in a literature review, you discuss the sources themselves. |
How is a literature review structured? | ||||||
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How is a literature review organized? | ||||
While covering the range of matters listed above, a literature review—like any expository essay—should still have a single organizing principle expressed in a thesis statement. Some common ones are these:
Note: A literature review is about the existing literature on your subject and provides background for your own research findings or commentary. However, it is NOT primarily about you or your relationship to the literature. Therefore, a literature review should NOT be organized as a narrative of your own research process. A literature review that says essentially "First I found this source, then I found this one ...." is NOT acceptable. |