Writing a Literature Review
What is a literature review?
- A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
- A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
How do I perform a literature search?
- What’s the scope of your assignment?
- Roughly how many sources should you include?
- What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?
- Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
- Should you evaluate your sources?
- Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?
Models
- Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review.
- The bibliography or reference section of sources you’ve already read are also excellent entry points into your own research.
- You can simply put the word “review” in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic database.
Narrow Your Topic
- There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to read everything that’s out there on the topic, but you’ll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.
- And don’t forget to tap into your professor’s (or other professors’) knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: “If you had to read only one book from the 70’s on topic X, what would it be?” Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most seminal pieces in the field.
The Literature Search
- Search Terms
- Brainstorm all of the words you can think of associated with your topic.
- Search those words and skim titles for additional terms.
- Pull up a few articles on your topic and look at their search terms.
- Mix and match terms for search.
- Databases
- Databases @ QC: http://library.qc.cuny.edu/research/databases.php
- Web of Science/Knowledge: https://login.queens.ezproxy.cuny.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fwebofknowledge.com%2fWOS
- CUNY-wide databases: http://www.cuny.edu/libraries/j-and-r.html
- OneSearch: http://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=qc
**Keep a running list of all of the relevant material you find**
- Organize your findings
- Organize the books and articles you find by topic/category
- Keep in mind that at this stage you don’t necessarily need to read each item in depth. You can glean what the source discusses from its title or abstact.