Write a Literature Review
Take a step-by-step approach to writing a lit review.
Tip
Not every source you found should be included in your annotated bibliography or lit review. Only include the most relevant and most important sources.
BOOKS (sorted by title)
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Conducting Research Literature Reviews
Call Number: MSE C Level Q180.55.M4 F56 2010 c. 1Also available at SAIS -
Designing and Managing a Research Project
Call Number: MSE B Level HD30.4 .P65 2011 c. 1 -
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy (EBOOK) by
ISBN: 9781449694906Publication Date: 2013Covered at the most basic level are the fundamental principles of searching, organizing, reviewing, and synthesizing. Woven throughout the text are visual examples and a single case study. -
How to Perform a Systematic Literature Review (EBOOK) by
ISBN: 9783030496715Publication Date: 2020The systematic review is a rigorous method of collating and synthesizing evidence from multiple studies. Practical guidance is provided on the fundamentals of systematic reviewing and also on advanced techniques such as meta-analysis. Examples are given in each chapter. The authors advise some freely available or inexpensive open source/access resources (such as PubMed, R, and Zotero) to help students how to perform a systemic review. -
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Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences
Call Number: MSE B Level H62.P457 2006 c. 1 -
Writing Literature Reviews
Call Number: MSE B Level H61.8.G34 2009 QUARTO c. 1 -
Writing Science Right (EBOOK) by
ISBN: 9781351713771Publication Date: 2017Learn about how to define your audience, decide on a good organizational structure for your writing, achieve a readable style, build effective sentences and concise paragraphs, and more. Includes a wide selection of samples. -
Writing the Literature Review (EBOOK) by
ISBN: 9781462536917Publication Date: 2018Each step of searching for, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing prior studies is clearly explained and accompanied by user-friendly suggestions, organizational tips, and examples. Also featured are excerpts from peer-reviewed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods articles. It focuses on crafting different types of reviews (e.g., systematic; traditional-narrative), and highlights distinct characteristics of each type.
You're not Alone!
Organizing Your Review
Your lit review should not be a summary and evaluation of each article, one after the other. Your sources must be integrated together to create a narrative on your topic. Consider the following ways to organize your review:
- By themes, variables, issues.
- By varying perspectives regarding a topic of controversy.
- Chronologically, to show how the topic and research have developed over time.
Main Components of a Literature Review
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Introduction
- Describe the topic and provide a basic definition.
- Parameters of the topic. (What does the topic include and exclude?)
- Why did you select the literature you did?
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Body
- Historical background.
- Definitions in use.
- Mainstream ideas vs. alternative theoretical or ideological views.
- Principle questions being asked.
- Current research studies and discoveries.
- Methodologies.
- General conclusions.
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Conclusion
- Summary of agreements and disagreements from the literature.
- General conclusions.
- How does your thesis fit in?