How to Write a Literature Review Like a Story
How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Showtime to Finish
Writing a literature review is often the nearly daunting role of writing an article, volume, thesis, or dissertation. "The literature" seems (and often is) massive. I take found information technology helpful to be as systematic as possible when completing this gargantuan task.
Sonja Foss and William Walters* describe an efficient and effective way of writing a literature review. Their system provides an excellent guide for getting through the massive amounts of literature for any purpose: in a dissertation, an M.A. thesis, or preparing a research commodity for publication in whatever field of study. Below is a summary of the steps they outline also every bit a step-by-step method for writing a literature review.
How to Write a Literature Review
Step 1: Decide on your areas of inquiry:
Earlier y'all brainstorm to search for articles or books, determine beforehand what areas you lot are going to enquiry. Make sure that yous merely get articles and books in those areas, fifty-fifty if yous come beyond fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores barriers to higher education for undocumented students.
Step Ii: Search for the literature:
Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts online and download and/or print those articles that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the library that are relevant and check them out. Prepare a specific time frame for how long you will search. It should non take more two or iii defended sessions.
Step Three: Find relevant excerpts in your books and articles:
Skim the contents of each book and article and expect specifically for these five things:
ane. Claims, conclusions, and findings well-nigh the constructs y'all are investigating
2. Definitions of terms
three. Calls for follow-upwards studies relevant to your project
4. Gaps you detect in the literature
5. Disagreement about the constructs you are investigating
When you lot find any of these v things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Word certificate. Don't summarize, as summarizing takes longer than but typing the excerpt. Make sure to annotation the name of the author and the page number following each excerpt. Practise this for each article and book that yous have in your stack of literature. When you are done, print out your excerpts.
Step Iv: Code the literature:
Go out a pair of scissors and cut each excerpt out. Now, sort the pieces of paper into similar topics. Effigy out what the primary themes are. Place each excerpt into a themed pile. Make sure each annotation goes into a pile. If in that location are excerpts that you lot tin't effigy out where they belong, separate those and go over them again at the end to see if you need new categories. When yous finish, identify each stack of notes into an envelope labeled with the name of the theme.
Pace Five: Create Your Conceptual Schema:
Type, in big font, the proper noun of each of your coded themes. Impress this out, and cut the titles into individual slips of paper. Take the slips of paper to a table or large workspace and effigy out the best manner to organize them. Are in that location ideas that become together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are there ideas that contradict each other? Motility effectually the slips of newspaper until you come up with a style of organizing the codes that makes sense. Write the conceptual schema down earlier you forget or someone cleans upwards your slips of paper.
Step Six: Begin to Write Your Literature Review:
Choose any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. Yous can brainstorm anywhere, because you already know the lodge. Find the envelope with the excerpts in them and lay them on the tabular array in front of you. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by grouping together those excerpts that say the same affair. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write up your literature review based on the excerpts that you take in front of yous. Don't forget to include the citations as you write, so every bit not to lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review.
Once you complete these vi steps, you will have a complete draft of your literature review. The great thing nigh this process is that information technology breaks downward into manageable steps something that seems enormous: writing a literature review.
I think that Foss and Walter's system for writing the literature review is platonic for a dissertation, because a Ph.D. candidate has already read widely in his or her field through graduate seminars and comprehensive exams.
It may exist more challenging for M.A. students, unless yous are already familiar with the literature. It is always hard to figure out how much you lot demand to read for deep meaning, and how much yous just demand to know what others have said. That residuum volition depend on how much you already know.
For people writing literature reviews for articles or books, this arrangement too could work, especially when yous are writing in a field with which you are already familiar. The mere fact of having a organization can brand the literature review seem much less daunting, then I recommend this system for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a literature review.
*Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation
Image Credit/Source: Goldmund Lukic/ Getty Images
Source: https://www.wiley.com/network/researchers/preparing-your-article/writing-a-literature-review-six-steps-to-get-you-from-start-to-finish
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