A literature review is a type of academic writing that provides an overview of existing knowledge in a particular field of research.
A good literature review summarises, analyses and synthesises the relevant literature within a particular field of research.
It illuminates how knowledge has evolved within the field, highlighting what has already been done, what is generally accepted, what is emerging and what is the current state of thinking on the topic.
What is ‘literature’?
Literature refers to published information on a particular area of research, such as books and journal articles of academic value. However, your literature review does not need to be inclusive of every article and book that has been written on your topic because that will be too broad.
General Steps for Writing a Literature Review - Wesleyan University
Here is a general outline of steps to write a thematically organized literature review. Instead of theme, you can also structure your literature review around methodologies used, chronological developments, or exploring conflicting perspectives - whatever makes the most sense for your research.
As you read articles, books, etc, on your topic, write a brief critical synopsis of each. After going through your reading list, you will have an abstract or annotation of each source you read.
Find common themes in the works you read, and organize the works into categories. Typically, each work you include in your review can fit into one category or sub-theme of your main theme, but sometimes a work can fit in more than one. Write some brief paragraphs outlining your categories, how in general the works in each category relate to each other, and how the categories relate to each other and to your overall theme. Consider only themes and patterns that are relevant to your research question.
Based on the knowledge you have gained in your reading, you should have a better understanding of the topic and of the literature related to it. Perhaps you have discovered specific researchers who are important to the field, or research methodologies you were not aware of. Look for more literature by those authors, on those methodologies, etc. Also, you may be able to set aside some less relevant areas or articles which you pursued initially. Integrate the new readings into your literature review draft. Reorganize themes and read more as appropriate.
For each thematic section, use your draft annotations to write a section which discusses the articles relevant to that theme. Focus your writing on the theme of that section, showing how the articles relate to each other and to the theme, rather than focusing your writing on each individual article. Highlight gaps in the research, and link them to your research question.
Now that you have the thematic sections, tie them together with an introduction, conclusion, and some additions and revisions in the sections to show how they relate to each other and to your overall theme. Summarise how the information you've found justifies the need for your research question.
Your literature review should be an introduction to your research. It should cover the important background that people should know to understand why your research is interesting and important. It could also be titled 'Introduction'.
You will have a lot more notes than you will include on your poster, and that's okay. It's still important to have these notes, as they will help you design your methodology and analyse your results.
For Sokratis, it's okay to keep your notes as dot points or colour coded notes rather than writing up a formal literature review. You'll submit these notes at the end of Term 2 as a checkpoint for feedback.
