Guidelines for writing a literature review (Part 1)

Guidelines quoted from: Helen Mongan-Rallis (2006) (link). This guide assumes you have decided a specified research topic and commenced the identification and analysis of pertinent papers in the literature. (lichgo)

Step 1: Identify and Analyze the literature

Overview the articles, Group the articles into categories and Take notes.

• In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
• It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries
• A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize briefly each article that you have reviewed. While a summary of the what you have read is contained within the literature review, it goes well beyond merely summarizing professional literature
• It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of the relationship among different works, and relating this research to your work
• I also recommend that you (a) locate examples of literature reviews in your field of study and skim over these to get a feel for what a literature review is and how these are written (I have also provided links to a couple of examples at the end of these guidelines (b) read over other guides to writing literature reviews so that you see different perspectives and approaches.
• It is a good idea, as part of your literature search, to look for existing literature reviews that have already been written on this topic.
• As part of your search, be sure to identify landmark or classic studies and theorists as these provide you with a framework/context for your study.
• Group the articles into categories
• Note emphases, strengths & weaknesses. Your role as a reviewer is to evaluate what you read, so that your review is not a mere description of different articles, but rather a critical analysis that makes sense of the collection of articles that you are reviewing. Critique the research methodologies used in the studies, and distinguish between assertions (the author’s opinion) and actual research findings (derived from empirical evidence).
• Identify major trends or patterns: As you read a range of articles on your topic, you should make note of trends and patterns over time as reported in the literature. This step requires you to synthesize and make sense of what you read, since these patterns and trends may not be spelled out in the literature, but rather become apparent to you as you review the big picture that has emerged over time. Your analysis can make generalizations across a majority of studies, but should also note inconsistencies across studies and over time.
• Identify gaps in the literature, and reflect on why these might exist (based on the understandings that you have gained by reading literature in this field of study). These gaps will be important for you to address as you plan and write your review.
• Identify relationships among studies: note relationships among studies, such as which studies were landmark ones that led to subsequent studies in the same area. You may also note that studies fall into different categories (categories that you see emerging or ones that are already discussed in the literature). When you write your review, you should address these relationships and different categories and discuss relevant studies using this as a framework.
• Evaluate your references for currency and coverage:  before you begin writing, you must evaluate your reference list to ensure that it is up to date and has reported the most current work. Typically a review will cover the last five years, but should also refer to any landmark studies prior to this time if they have significance in shaping the direction of the field. If you include studies prior to the past five years that are not landmark studies, you should defend why you have chosen these rather than more current ones.

Step 2: Summarize the literature in table or concept map format

• Including one or more of the tables that you create may be helpful in your literature review
• You can plan your table or do the entire summary chart of your literature using a concept map
• Examples of tables that may be relevant to your review:
  • Definitions of key terms and concepts.
  • Research methods
  • Summary of research results

Step 3: Synthesize the literature prior to writing your review

• Consider how you reassemble your notes: Galvan (2006:72) captures the difference between an annotated bibliography and a literature review very well: “…in essence, like describing trees when you really should be describing a forest. In the case of a literature review, you are really creating a new forest, which you will build by using the trees you found in the literature you read.”
• Create a topic outline that traces your argument and Reorganize your notes according to the path of your argument and Flesh out your outline with details from your analysis