Key Concepts: Literature Review Readings

The University of Toronto.  The Literature Review: A few tips on conducting it.
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

Literature Review
an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis.

Annotated Bibliography
summarize each item briefly, while following through the themes and concepts and do some critical assessment of material. Use an overall introduction and conclusion to state the scope of your coverage and to formulate the question, problem, or concept your chosen material illuminates. Usually you will have the option of grouping items into sections and write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each section

A Literature Review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in:

• information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
• critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.

A Literature Review must:

• be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• formulate questions that need further research

University of Santa Cruz University. Write a Literature review.
http://library.ucsc.edu/help/howto/write-a-literature-review

A literature review may constitute an essential chapter of a thesis or dissertation, or may be a self-contained review of writings on a subject. In either case, its purpose is to:
•    Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review
•    Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration
•    Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in, previous research
•    Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies
•    Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort
•    Point the way forward for further research
•    Place one's original work (in the case of theses or dissertations) in the context of existing literature

Literature reviews should comprise the following elements:

• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review
• Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in support of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative theses entirely)
• Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research

In assessing each piece, consideration should be given to: 

• Provenance—What are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence (e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings)?
•  Objectivity—Is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point? 
• Persuasiveness—Which of the author's theses are most/least convincing?
• Value—Are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

Development of the Literature Review requires four stages:

1. Problem formulation: which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues?
2. Literature search: finding materials relevant to the subject being explored
3. Data evaluation: determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic
4. Analysis and interpretation: discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature

Widener University. A beginning study - literature reviews.
http://muse.widener.edu/~aad0002/510review.htm


Typical ways of organizing a review of relevant literature

• Thematic organization - themes that emerge from literature are listed and information is included from previous studies that define, explore, illustrate and explain the themes and their importance to the research problem.
• Arguments in the field - major positions or stands on the issues surrounding the research problem are presented in a point/counterpoint fashion and the studies that illuminate these positions are introduced accordingly.
• Conceptual analysis - the concepts that define a research problem are organized in terms of part-whole relationships and studies that expand on the meaning of each concept are integrated in each section.
• Critical review of methodology - major flaws in the ways in which previous studies have investigated a research problem are explored and the studies that demonstrate these flaws are reviewed critically.

Avoiding common mistakes

• research topics that are dead end lines of investigation.
• research topics that are difficult to explore for political, economic, social reasons.
• resources on topics that have been
• Thoroughly researched and little that is new can be added.
• mistakes and mis-steps in the use of methods that have already proved to be flawed.