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 anthropology

+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

Is this a lit review?

Find the good & bad review

Thematic or Chronological

APROACH

CHOSE TOPIC

RESEARCH

SCOPE

Be organized

SO WHAT?

REVIEW LIT

Steps

Be organized

Read

Discover relationships between sources

Identify themes/ideas

Write

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

Body

Organize your Lit Review Body

Chronological

Methodological

Thematic

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:

Writing a Lit Review (+ Zotero)

By Swarthmore Reference

Writing a Lit Review (+ Zotero)

Presentation for Ed thesis class (Elaine) - created by RV

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