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Introduction
This guide is created primarily for the students in Dr. Meyer's EDCI 800 RESEARCH SEMINAR I: WRITING THE LITERATURE REVIEW course.
What is a Literature Review?
Literature – on-going scholarly communication/conversation/body of work
Review – ‘re-views’ looks again at what others have said, done, in a particular area, re-examine
- it is organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
- it synthesizes results into a summary of what is and is not known; needs to be an integrated analyses and not just a summary of other works
- it identifies areas of controversy in the literature
- it formulates questions that need further research
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it is recursive – repeating steps out-of-order
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it is part of a larger research paper but can also stand on its own depending on the assignment from your faculty
Definition:
“A literature review is a written document that presents a logically argued case founded on a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge about a topic of study. This case establishes a convincing thesis to answer the study’s question.”
Source: Machi & McEvoy (2009). The Literature Review: Six steps to success
What it is not?
Literature Review is NOT an annotated bibliography!
It is NOT a research paper where you select resources to argue the issue from one perspective.
