SWC 10: Writing a Literature Review

Dynamic PDF: Writing a Literature Review

A literature review is a synthesis of your research. It demonstrates your understanding of the existing scholarship relevant to your own inquiry, why your research is necessary, and how your sources are in conversation with each other.
 
Goals for a Literature Review:
  • Describe the nature of the field or fields relevant to the inquiry
  • Identify major debates
  • Define contentious terms
  • Locate gaps in the field and identify the contribution your study will make
Steps to Create a Literature Review
  1. Consider the purpose of your literature review.
    • Telling a story about relevant previous work
    • Showing how your own work builds upon or departs from earlier work
    • Demonstrating how you are avoiding replicating existing research
    • Discussing problems and/or controversies in your field
    • Revealing gaps in existing literature
    • Critically evaluating existing literature
    • Discovering conceptual frameworks or traditions used to examine problems in your field
    • Showing how your work might contribute to a scholarly conversation
    • Showing the relationship between your field and another field
    • Highlighting relevant methodologies in your field
  1. Choose which sources to include and discuss. Once you have a clear sense of purpose, you will need to choose your sources. Some will be essential to your review. Consider:
    • Why did I select these sources?
    • What contribution do they make to my topic or the field?
    • How might these sources fulfill the purpose of my review as I have defined it?
    • Which ones should I leave out, and why?
  1. Choose the organization of your literature review. Consider how putting sources together in a particular way will affect your reader’s perception of the conversation at hand.
    • Chronological (trace how the scholarly conversation has changed over time)
    • Thematic
    • Perspective
    • Provenance (country or origin)
    • Genre (type of publication: government reports, scholarly studies, review articles, etc.)
    • Theoretical approach (cluster sources based on theoretical framework)
    • Practical applications
  1. Consider