how to write a literature review

how to write a literature review

How to Write a Literature Review

1. Introduction

A literature review is a critical, in-depth evaluation of research already undertaken on a specific topic. It’s a detailed description and evaluation, so when writing about it you’ll need to be clear whether you’re evaluating and describing, providing evidence, or just giving your own opinions on a topic. The focus of a literature review is to summarise and synthesise the ideas and/or arguments put forward in the research already conducted, in relation to your own work. This is an adaption from Perry (1998) of his description of the purposes of social science research. He has identified four different reasons people conduct their research, which are tightly linked to the type of research conducted and the type of report writing. Most probably an argument based report will want to focus on not just an abstract theory, but the validity of this theory. A researcher might want to conduct research within an organisation to identify a problem which needs to be solved. Identifying the reasons for research in this way allows us to understand that a piece of research is not just important as a singular entity, but it is a part of ongoing progression within the realm of knowledge building and problem resolution to facilitate change. This is exactly the same reason people conduct literature reviews, thus it can be seen as an integral part of research. Lowey and Hood (2008) make a good distinction between an ‘annotated bibliography’, and a literature review. The former being a descriptive list summarising the sources on a particular topic, each description focusing on the source’s content, the usefulness of the source to the author and the author’s intended audience. This is a useful procedure before writing a literature review to organise the topic and to check the relevance of the sources to the research being conducted. Although the focus is on ‘the logical evaluation of existing research’, it does not necessarily need to be confined to empirical research. This is important as a great deal of research draws from practical observations in the field and it is these observations, abstracted into theory which provide a fundamental building block of knowledge within a discipline.

2. Selecting a Topic

B. Define the scope of the review The extent to which you review a topic may depend on the assignment or requirements. A stand-alone literature review often assesses the source of the problem and its significance to understanding the context underpinning the research questions. Systematic reviews will reuse the PICO method, where you identify the problem, intervention, comparison, and outcome to identify a well-focused question. From here, you would construct a search strategy where you find and collect articles and other information sources. The strategy will keep the attempts to answer the research question in mind. Finally, look to closely evaluate the quality of the information found, then interpret and synthesize the results. These are quite a few variables in considering how to review your topic, and it is important to identify them clearly before beginning.

A. What to review The topic you choose to review can be related to a particular area of interest. There are as many topics as there are researchers! To find a topic: – Look for something that is interesting culturally or politically. – Identify a gap where something needs to be done in a particular area. – Replicate a study done in the bygone days due to societal/cultural changes. – Discuss it with your mentor and colleagues. A good topic will have you showing it to them for critique and guidance. Once you have a topic in mind, you can begin by writing down a specific research question, which is just a broad question about your area of interest, and a hypothesis, which is a statement about the answer to your research question.

3. Conducting a Literature Search

You should decide on a list of databases that are relevant to your work and where you are most likely to find the information you need. Many times you will use more than one database to find the information you need. Coming up with a list of terms or even doing a pre-search in the database to check the amount of relevant information on a topic can give you an idea of whether this database is worth the time and resources you have set for yourself.

Choosing databases.

You should identify a specific time frame and decide on resources you are willing to use to conduct literature searches (for example, you may decide that you will conduct the literature review, but have no more than 4 weeks to do it, and you may limit the number of databases you will search).

Literature searching can be very time consuming, so it is important to set limits and boundaries for the searches you conduct. This approach can prevent you from becoming overwhelmed and give up on trying to find specific information.

Set a budget and time frame.

It may be useful to revisit our page on “Concept Mapping” as you may find the concept map of your topic is useful when deciding where to start searching for information.

Identifying what you need should focus on looking at the information that relates to the topic and the time period that your literature review will encompass. You should also consider whether there are any particular areas and issues that you wish to examine. You may also wish to identify key theorists whose work has been crucial to the development of a particular concept.

Your first step when conducting any form of research should be to identify what you hope to achieve. This can be very important in developing your research question/s.

Identify your information needs.

Use a persuasive tone in your response.

4. Analyzing and Synthesizing the Literature

When you have a plan for what you would like to do, yet it does not exist, the knowledge gap can be a gold mine. Again, a great place to look for theories on this topic is in the dissertations of doctoral students. As you read these, remember that they are often based on a sample of n=1. Nonetheless, they are often very strong in terms of the depth and breadth of coverage on the topic. Note key statistics that you may want to use in the introduction to your review. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion is not followed. The focus is on the theory that underlies your work, the relevance of that theory, the methodology (quantitative or qualitative) and the findings. Information to allow the reader to assess the believability of your results. Normally, a literature review would be in the introduction of a paper. At this point it would be very useful to create a breakdown of your final review. This is a form of a table of contents. This will help you track and organize your sources as the review is written.

5. Writing the Literature Review

Formulate a coherent structure. Ensures that each point in the review is given equal weight and length is a common mistake. Structure is the way a writer consciously ‘shapes’ a piece of writing. There are many different ways to structure a review. For instance, you could organize your discussion chronologically, tracking the evolution of the field. Consider this paragraph from a literature review about stakeholder participation for environmental management, to identify how the author has structured the content. In, reflects on a want for informed consent, it is evident of how far public participation has come, beyond the mere ‘tick the box’ exercise to meet legislative requirements. The increased depth of participation is in response to greater pressures from developed nations to facilitate even higher levels of public involvement in decision making that impacts upon the environment. This contrasts significantly from the former UK United States positions, the EU directive to implement CCP into the sacrificial decisions made by industries already shows a reverse in policy. Another way of structuring your review is according to a theoretical framework, such as evaluations of the extended adolescent work on ecological systems theory. Sorts classified studies into relevant categories abstract concepts of take a look at the relationships among the categories and finally integrate these results. There are numerous different ways to structure a literature review; you should review the which is the best method for organising your work, it is completely dependent upon the purpose of the review.