| What is a review of literature? |
A review may be a self-contained unit -- an
end in itself -- or a preface to and rationale for engaging in primary
research. Your review will be both. It will be a self-contained
unit for the initial submission, but you will integrate your review into
your term paper.
Generally, the purpose of a review is to analyze critically a segment
of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and
comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and
theoretical articles. |
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| Writing the
introduction |
In the introduction, you should:
- Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern,
thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature.
- Point out overall trends in what has been published about the
topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, and
conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or a single
problem or new perspective of immediate interest.
- Establish the writer's reason (point of view) for reviewing the
literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and
comparing literature and the organization of the review (sequence);
and, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not
included (scope).
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| Writing the body |
In the body, you should: One very taxing
issue is how much of the literature to cover. Unfortunately, there is no
simple answer, as you will have to decide what is appropriate in your
case. As a start, think about providing answers to questions of this
type:
* What has been
done in my field of research?
* What is relevant
in terms of my research
interests/objectives/questions?
* What do I need to
cover given the scope of my topic, my level of
study and the time I have available to write my term paper?
* Why might I cover
certain bodies of literature and not others?
Think about your answers to the above questions, and try these
strategies to get going:
- Examine books, journal articles, review articles in the
Journal of Economic Perspectives, and studies and other types of
literature (reviews, theoretical articles, case studies, etc.)
according to common denominators such as qualitative versus
quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific purpose or
objective, chronology, etc.
- Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or as
little detail as each merits according to its comparative importance
in the literature, remembering that space (length) denotes
significance.
- Provide the reader with strong "umbrella" sentences at
beginnings of paragraphs, "signposts" throughout, and brief "so
what" summary sentences at intermediate points in the review to aid
in understanding comparisons and analyses.
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| Writing the conclusion |
In the conclusion, you should:
- Summarize major contributions of significant studies and
articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the
focus established in the introduction.
- Evaluate the current "state of the art" for the body of
knowledge reviewed, pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps
in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or
issues pertinent to future study.
- Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between
the central topic of the literature review and a larger area of
study such as a discipline, a scientific endeavor, or a profession.
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