Literature Review

Roberto Vargas

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

The scholarly conversation

Research Paper

What the Lit Review is NOT!

Annotated Bibliography
Only a Summary
A book review

+Integrated analysis of scholarly writing

What the Lit Review is NOT

+Can be arranged thematically, chronologically or by questions

- A summary + an analysis

+Makes judgements on the literature:

- Identifies inconsistencies, gaps and contradictions in the literature

+Is guided by your perspective

i.e. If you write a lit review chronologically, you might be emphasizing how your topic has changed over time

- Highlights key findings

What the Lit Review is NOT

+Demonstrates why the topic is significant to education

+Discovers relationships between ideas/research

+Provides clues for future research

- Ensures that researches do not duplicate work that has already been done

-Areas to focus

+Demonstrates you are familiar with the topic

From: https://guides.library.vcu.edu/lit-review by Sergio Chaparro

Find the good & bad review

Thematic or Chronological

Theme 1

Theme 2

Theme 3

Article 7

Article 8

Article 5

Article 6

Article 3

Article 4

Article 1

Article 2

Article 1

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

Article 3

Article 4

Article 4

Article 5

Article 6

Article 7

Article 7

Article 7

Article 8

INTRO

Why is it important?

How is it Organized?

How does it relate to other work?

Methods

Body

Headings/Subheadings

Critically analyze the research

Important trends

Present your connections

Conclusion

Indicate any further research

Summarize evidence

To think about....

"... how many sources do you need to establish the importance of a theme? Twenty?... in a database containing millions of sentences, full-text search can turn up twenty examples of anything... this might strengthen confirmation bias."

-Ted Underwood,

Theorizing Research Practices We Forgot to Theorize Twenty Years Ago

Roberto Vargas

rvargas1@swarthmore.edu

 

 

 

http://guides.library.vcu.edu/lit-review

http://libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420475

https://laverne.libguides.com/c.php?g=34942&p=222060

Big thanks to the following libguides: