Help me not choke
November 28, 2010 1:40 PM Subscribe
After being out of school for a few years I'm now back for my graduate degree. It's taking some getting used to, and one of my final projects is a group literature review where we each take one aspect of our larger topic (universal accessibility of information resources) and look at a smaller facet of it. I'm struggling a little to wrap my head around the format of a literature review, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice / or links to guides for writing one effectively.
For what it's worth I'm admittedly pressed for time (there's an object lesson for next semester). Right now I'd like to aim for an outline of my part of the project (which should be around 8 pages single spaced) and then work on drafting over the next week.
For what it's worth I'm admittedly pressed for time (there's an object lesson for next semester). Right now I'd like to aim for an outline of my part of the project (which should be around 8 pages single spaced) and then work on drafting over the next week.
The purpose of a literature review is to show what's out there in terms of ideas on your area of focus, then to provide a well-rounded critique, pulling in ideas from the literature you've reviewed as they relate to your opinion on the subject. Here's a link to some good tips/questions to ask before laying out your review. Good luck!
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
posted by sassy mae at 2:13 PM on November 28, 2010
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
posted by sassy mae at 2:13 PM on November 28, 2010
A literature review is exactly that - a review of the literature on the topic.
First, you'll need a good selection of articles and books/book chapters on the topic. Make sure you're not only relying on what you can get online, as some of the seminal articles on the topic may only be available in print format. Review the bibliographies of the sources you've found, as well, to see if there are any other relevant articles you should read. If certain articles are cited by multiple authors, that's a clue that you should include those, too. Depending on how thorough you need to be, you may want to consult your local academic librarian about using something like Social Science Citation Index to see what other articles have cited the seminal articles.
That said, look at many of the scholarly articles you've found. Some of them start out with literature reviews themselves.
Once you have a number of articles, you'll undoubtedly see common themes emerge, which should help you form an outline. At that point, review the articles, and describe the contents, research, and results. Keep an eye out for and note any commonalities, places where the topics diverge, or where results conflict with other results. This should get you started on the right track.
Good luck!
posted by metarkest at 2:22 PM on November 28, 2010
First, you'll need a good selection of articles and books/book chapters on the topic. Make sure you're not only relying on what you can get online, as some of the seminal articles on the topic may only be available in print format. Review the bibliographies of the sources you've found, as well, to see if there are any other relevant articles you should read. If certain articles are cited by multiple authors, that's a clue that you should include those, too. Depending on how thorough you need to be, you may want to consult your local academic librarian about using something like Social Science Citation Index to see what other articles have cited the seminal articles.
That said, look at many of the scholarly articles you've found. Some of them start out with literature reviews themselves.
Once you have a number of articles, you'll undoubtedly see common themes emerge, which should help you form an outline. At that point, review the articles, and describe the contents, research, and results. Keep an eye out for and note any commonalities, places where the topics diverge, or where results conflict with other results. This should get you started on the right track.
Good luck!
posted by metarkest at 2:22 PM on November 28, 2010
If you're having trouble coming up with seminal articles, recent articles, or just stuff not on Google, feel free to make an appointment with a reference librarian at the appropriate library on campus. With an appointment, usually you give them your topic ahead of time and they do a bit of work to see where best to guide you.
Not to mention, universal accessibility of information resources is something librarians grapple with, so the librarians at your university library might be able to provide some inter-disciplinary insights if that's something you're looking for.
Please note that it's not within the scope of a reference librarian's job to help you organize the lit review into something coherent, but we can help you find previous lit reviews done in your field as examples (they're published in journals fairly often) as well as sample theses and dissertations from previous classmates that have lit reviews. So if you feel it would be helpful to see an example, that's another area a reference librarian (or your professor, if the past theses/dissertations are stored by the department) can help you with.
posted by librarylis at 5:46 PM on November 28, 2010
Not to mention, universal accessibility of information resources is something librarians grapple with, so the librarians at your university library might be able to provide some inter-disciplinary insights if that's something you're looking for.
Please note that it's not within the scope of a reference librarian's job to help you organize the lit review into something coherent, but we can help you find previous lit reviews done in your field as examples (they're published in journals fairly often) as well as sample theses and dissertations from previous classmates that have lit reviews. So if you feel it would be helpful to see an example, that's another area a reference librarian (or your professor, if the past theses/dissertations are stored by the department) can help you with.
posted by librarylis at 5:46 PM on November 28, 2010
« Older It's a Satchel, Like a Purse, But Not | Looking for Photoshop Flyer/Poster Mock Up... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here's a decent guide I found from googling literature review how to:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html
PS, pro tip - go to office hours and ask the professor what s/he wants.
posted by k8t at 2:12 PM on November 28, 2010 [1 favorite]