Introduce the topic and define its key terms
Establish the importance of the topic
Provide an overview of the important literature on the concepts in the research question and other related concepts
Identify gaps in the literature or controversies
Point out consistent findings across studies
Arrive at a synthesis that organizes what is known about a topic, rather than just summarizing
Discusses possible implications and directions for future research
Again, literature reviews are more than a summary of the publications you find on a topic. Lit reviews are a very specific type of research, analysis, and writing. As you begin your literature review, here are some common errors to avoid:
Ignoring contrary findings and alternative interpretations
Using findings that are not clearly related to your own study or using findings that are too general
Dedicating insufficient time to literature searching
Simply reporting isolated statistical results, rather than synthesizing the results
Relying too heavily on secondary sources
Overusing quotations from sources
You are writing as an expert on the topic, and you will make claims about what your topic is like in the real world. You need to support these arguments with citations from the existing literature. You’ve written papers that support an argument before, and this part of your paper is only different in that it ENDS with a question instead of answering a question.
For this assignment, you must cite at least ten (10) journal articles or a combination of two (2) books and eight (8) articles. Journal articles here refer to scholarly or scientifically reliable journals (peer-reviewed), not popular, journalistic, or trade publications.
Citations/References:
APA style – https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_overview_and_workshop.html
You need to cite your sources within the body of your paper and have a “References” list at the end.
Formatting:
This paper should be about five (4-6) pages in length (without the works cited page). If you go much over six pages, you are probably including information not relevant to your current paper and/or overly reliant on summarizing. If you are well under four, you have not spent enough time explaining how the previous research connects with your idea.
General Formatting Guidelines for Writing Assignments and Papers:
DOC, PDF, or RTF
Do NOT include a cover sheet.
Margins should be one inch. (MS Word’s default is 1.25”)
Double-space and use a 10-12 point readable font (Times New Roman is standard).
What I’m looking for:
I’m looking for a clearly written account of how your project fits into the existing literature. It is important to keep in mind that your project is the real focus of a literature review. The sources should cement your project, not overwhelm it. I am also looking for a thematic literature review. Meaning that it should not be organized “by articles” but “by topics” or “by themes.” What this means is you will want to identify key themes from any particular article and especially shared themes across articles and write about them in a way that relates them together.
Some examples of literature reviews can be found at https://libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420828 (Links to an external site.) (but don’t just copy other people’s work/ideas!)