Creating a Lit Review
The first article that I found on creating a lit review was titles “Reviewing the Literature in preparation for Action Research”. It starts by defining a Lit review as “a creative way of organizing what has been written about a topic by scholars and researchers.” (“Review…”) From there it goes on to say taht a strong lit review has the following properties:
- It is organized around issues, themes, factors, or variables that are related directly to your thesis or research question;
- It provides a good synthesis of what is, and is not, known;
- It indicates the theoretical framework with which you are working;
- It identifies areas of controversy and debate, or limitations in the literature sharing different perspectives;
- It places the formation of research questions in their historical context;
- It identifies the list of the authors that are engaged similar work. (“Review… “)
It also goes ahead and asks the writer to ask themselves what type of notes am I taking, what technology am I using to help me find my notes, and what research tips do I have? (“Review… “)
http://ccar.wikispaces.com/Review+Literature
“Reviewing the Literature in Preparation for Action Research”. CCAR. 3-1-10 <http://ccar.wikispaces.com/Review+Literature>.
The second article I found on how to create a lit review was called “Literature Reviews”. The article starts off by defining the literature in a lit review as any collection of materials on a topic. (“Literature Reviews”) It then asks the simple question What is a lit review? It answers with statements:
- discusses publishes information in a particular subject area,
- can be a simple summary of the sources, but usually has an organizational pattern including summary and synthesis
It then asks how a literature review is different from an academic research paper, and answers with these statements:
- The focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument
- The focus of a lit review is to summarize the arguments of others
Why do we write lit reviews?
- provide a guide on a topic
- can give an overview to research articles
- provide a solid background for a research papers investigation
What should one do before writing a literature review?
- Clarify
- Find Models
- Narrow the Topic
- Look for current resources
Strategies for writing the lit review:
- Find a Focus
- Construct a working thesis
- Consider organization
- Lastly, Begin composing
When composing:
- Use evidence
- Be Selective
- Use quotes sparingly
- Summarize and synthesis
- Keep your own voice
- Use caution when paraphrasing
- Revise
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html
“Literature Reviews”. university of North Carolina. 3-1-10 <http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html>.
