PREPARING A

LITERATURE REVIEW

Why do a Literature Review?

A literature review demonstrates to your reader

that you are able to:

Understand and critically analyse the background

research

Select and source the information that is

necessary to develop a context for your research

Furthermore…the Literature

Review:

Shows how your investigation relates to previous

research.

Reveals the contribution that your investigation

makes to this field (fills a gap, or builds on existing

research, for instance).

Provides evidence that may help explain your

findings later.

Provides wider knowledge of the field / subject area.

Confirms or discounts any conceptions you have about the topic.

Ensures duplication of research is avoided.

What is a Literature Review?

“…a select analysis of existing research which is

relevant to your topic, showing how it relates to your

investigation. It explains and justifies how your

investigation may help answer some of the questions

or gaps in this area of research”

What it is not:

“a summary of everything you have read on the topic

and it is not a chronological description of what was

discovered in your field”

Literature Review Outline

A longer literature review may have headings

this:

Groups the relevant research into themes or

topics

Gives focus to your analysis, by grouping

(compare & contrast)

Compare & contrast approaches,

methodology and findings

The Broad Specific Approach

Articles that discuss the BROAD ISSUE(S)

Articles addressing issues that overlap with your

specific topic

Articles directly related to your topic.

The Broad Specific Approach

Briefly explain the broad issues related to your

investigation; you don't need to write much about

this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the

breadth of your subject.

Articles that discuss the BROAD ISSUE(S)

The Broad Specific approach

Then narrow your focus to deal with the studies

that overlap with your research.

Articles addressing issues that overlap with your

specific topic

The Broad Specific approach

Hone in on any research which is directly related

to your specific investigation. Proportionally you

spend most time discussing those studies which

have most direct relevance to your research.

Articles directly related to your

topic.

How to get started

Identify what you will need to know to inform

your research:

What research has already been done on this

topic?

What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to

explore?

What other research (perhaps not directly on the

topic) might be relevant to your investigation?

How do these sub-topics and other research

overlap with your investigation?

Note your own thoughts

Jot down your initial thoughts on the topic: use a list

or a Spider Diagram to explore areas you wish to

explore further

This is important, it prevents

Unfocussed reading

Irrelevant reading

Different Types of Literature

Which types of Sources to

read?

This is subject specific

Human Sciences (Psychology, Social Science,

etc.)

Primarily Academic Journal Articles - Preferable Peer reviewed academic journal articles.

Journalism

Periodicals, reviews, articles,

newspapers, books

Business

Articles, case studies, reports,

Primary sources, books

Peer Reviewprocess by which a

scholarly work (such

as a paper or a

research proposal) is

checked by a group of

experts in the same

field to make sure it

meets the necessary

standards before it is

published or accepted

How far back to go?

Take direction from your lecturer/supervisor but

normally don’t do back further than 5 years

(unless it is a seminal piece of work)

Due to the nature of the humanities (esp.

psychology) students can go back a little further

(+10 years).

Business students should try and find the most up

to date information about their topic (+ 3 years)Seminal WorkCentral importance to a research topic,

often because they report a major

breakthrough, insight, or a new and

generative synthesis of ideas.

Search Terms

These are words/phrases that you will input into

either a free academic database “Google Scholar”, a

subscribed database “Academic Search Complete”

or a federated search tool “Discovery”.

When reading books use search terms to locate

specific information by using the index at the back.

You will primarily be consulting Academic Sources,

you need to use the most academic term to describe

your topic. Effect of Marijuana Smoking on Teenagers

Don’t

Use!

Teenagers Do

Use!

Adolescents

And And

Weed Marijuana

What is an Academic

Source?

A source of information that is:

Reliable

Accurate

Credible

Recognised

Based on research!

Where to Find Academic Sources?

Many journal articles are now free because of open access journals or institutional repositories.

These will be displayed via a Google/Google Scholar search

In order to find good quality resources from Google try doing a filetype:pdf search

“Marketing to Adolescents” filetype:pdf

Databases are preferred

Subscribed databases via your library give you

access to 1000s for journal articles, case

studies, reports and more.

Your lecturer/supervisor will expect you to

exploit the databases that your institution

subscribes to.

You can access the college databases though

the “search all resources” or subject portal.

Read the Abstracts

Abstract:

Summary of journal article

Contains the objective / purpose / context of the article

Lets you know if the article is relevant to your topic.

Mind Map – Develop Your Understanding

What Articles do you use?

Be selective – Only literature that is relevant to your specific topic should be included.

Review the abstracts to decide what should be included.

Ask yourself:

Is this really relevant to my topic?

Is it recent?

Does it inform me about my topic?

Critical & Active reading

Description: Who is the author? – Credibility? What argument(s), findings, conclusions?

Evaluation – TAKE NOTES! What are the findings or main concepts of the article? What evidence is given to support the findings of the

article? Do many articles agree/say the same thing? Do some articles have difference findings /

conclusions?

How much to Read?

You should be guided by how long your literature review

needs to be - it is no good reading hundreds of texts if you

only have 1,000 words to fill

Try to set limits on how long you will spend reading. Then

plan backwards from your deadline and decide when you

need to move on to other parts of your investigation e.g.

gathering the data.

If you keep coming across very similar viewpoints and your

reading is no longer providing new information – Stop

Writing the Literature Review

Include Introduction and Conclusion.

Use relevant themes or sub-topics to create a structure: Causes of Homelessness:

Addiction Mental Health Lack of Affordable Housing.

You can reference many articles at once: E.g. Research has shown that the causes of homelessness are

manifold, including addiction and mental health issues (Murphy and Jones, 2013; Smith, 2010; Grogan, 2011; Taylor and Canning, 2011).

Be concise and to the point!

Developing the Literature

Review

Analysis not description

Critical analysis means asking yourself whether you agree

with a viewpoint and if so, why? What is it that makes you

agree or disagree?

Test out your own views against those you are reading

about: What do you think about the topic?

Does the evidence presented confirm your view, or does it

provide a counter-argument that causes you to question

your view?

think about the methods used to gather the evidence - are

they reliable or do they have gaps or weaknesses?

Developing the Literature

Review

Use each of your headings or themes to compare and contrast the differing views put forward in the relevant studies and explain how they relate to your investigation.

Your literature review needs to tell an interesting "story" which leads up to how and why you are doing your investigation.

If you are writing a story which reads like one thing after another, this is likely to be descriptive.

If your story is comparing, contrasting and evaluating the previous literature, you are on the right track.

Analysis vs. Description

Descriptive

Summarises what other people have found

without saying what these findings mean for

your investigation.

Usually a chronological list of who

discovered what, and when.

Analytical

Synthesises the work and succinctly

passes judgement on the relative merits of

research conducted in your field.

Reveals limitations or recognises the

possibility of taking research further,

allowing you to formulate and justify your

aims for your own investigation.

Descriptive Example

“Green (1975) discovered …..”

“In 1978 Black conducted experiments and

discovered that….”

“Later Brown (1980) illustrated this in……”

Analytical Example

There seems to be general agreement on x

(White 1982, Brown 1980, Black 1978,

Green 1975). However Green (1975) sees x

as a consequence of y, while Black (1978)

puts x and y as….While Green’ s work has

some limitations in that it…., its main value

lies in….”

Literature Review and Your

Discussion

Your literature review has two main purposes:

To place your investigation in the context of previous

research and justify how you have approached your

investigation.

To provide evidence to help explain the findings of

your investigation.

IT HAS A SECOND PURPOSE

When you are writing the discussion of your findings, you

need to relate these back to the background literature. Do

your results confirm what was found before, or challenge it?

Why might this be?

Literature Review and Your

Discussion

Literature Review and Your

Discussion

Your literature review starts broad, then narrows down to

explain how previous research has influenced your specific

investigation. The discussion starts by analysing your results,

explaining what they mean for the outcome of your study, and

ends by widening out to assess how these results might

contribute to your field of research as a whole

Tips for Writing an Abstract

Think about:

the most important info – put that first

the type & style of language – should be same as the original work

the types of keywords that a research may use when looking for an article on this topic.

DO DON’T

Put it in context Define terms

Be concise Include info not in your

actual assignment.

Use the same structure as

the original

Reference other works

References

Ridley, D. (2008) The literature review : a step-by-step guide for

students. London: Sage. (Sage study skills).

University of North Carolina (UNC) – The Writing Center (no date)

‘Abstracts’. Available at:

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/abstracts/