Week 19

What is a literature review?A literature review can form the first part of a research paper or it can be an entire, stand-alone paper, which often forms the first stage of a larger research project. The literature review you will be writing will function as an independent paper, however, it is also intended to inform the inquiry project that you will be developing. You should use the literature to explain why your chosen topic is important to focus on and to identify issues that your inquiry project can help to address.

The literature review is a critical evaluation of the research that has been done in a particular area. According to Hewitt (2009), a literature review should:

• Provide an overview of the research that has been conducted in a particular topic
• Describe and summarise the findings of previous research
• Make connections and compare and contrast research findings
• Evaluate and analyse the research findings and organise information into coherent themes.

How to do a Literature Review: The Steps and Stages

1. Identify research problem and develop your research questionsBefore you can undertake a review of the literature it is important that you define the area you will be focusing on. Writing a research question or questions will help you to structure your literature search and literature review.

2. Find relevant literatureYou need to gather the literature relevant to the research question(s) that you are going to review in your paper. Use the notes and resources from last week to help you with this stage.

3. Critically evaluate literature 
This follows on from last week’s focus on how to interpret academic literature. It is really important in your literature review that you are not just presenting and describing the research findings but that you are also evaluating and interpreting them.

4. Synthesise the literature 
Following on from step 3, when you are planning and writing your literature review it is really important that you synthesise the literature. Synthesis involves combining ideas from a range of sources, grouping together common ideas and key arguments. As you read through the literature try to identify the key themes that are emerging. What are the commonalities between the different sources you are reading? Are there any disagreements or tensions?

5. Writing your literature reviewOnce you have read and interpreted the literature, identified the key themes and organised your literature under these themes, it is time to start writing your literature review.

Structuring a Literature ReviewYour review should start with an introduction. The introduction should inform your reader about the topic, scope, context, and purpose of your literature review. For your assessment you need to establish your purpose in the form of a research question(s). Your research question(s) are what have guided your literature search.

You should organise the main body of your literature review into sub-sections. Each sub-section should focus on a different theme within the literature (they may also relate to your sub-research questions). For each theme you need to discuss the key ideas, definitions and findings. You should highlight where there is agreement and commonality between different studies. You should also try to analyse any areas of disagreement and to identify any gaps within the literature. It is also important to write your literature review in such a way that you make it clear how the research you are reviewing relates to your research question(s) and purpose. Think about the story your literature review is trying to tell.

Your literature review should end with a conclusion, which summarises the key ideas you have discussed. In your conclusion you could also briefly reference how the literature relates to and will help to inform your Teacher Inquiry project plan.

The following quote from Taylor (n.d.) provides a useful reminder of what a literature review should be aiming to do:

“A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. It’s usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question.”

Writing StyleA literature review is a piece of formal, academic writing. This means that you should write in full sentences and organise your writing into paragraphs. Avoid using bullet points.

Try to avoid using the first person (‘I’ statements). For example, instead of writing ‘I think that’ turn it around and write in the third person, ‘the literature shows’ or ‘this suggests that’. This way you are still putting across your own interpretation of the literature without using the first person. Take a look at the video in this week’s media if you would like some tips on writing style.

You need to make sure that you use correct referencing. This includes both in-text citations (i.e. when you refer to a piece of literature you need to provide the reference) and a reference list at the end of your review of all the literature you have cited. The Unitec library website has very good resources to help you with your referencing.

Literature Review ChecklistBelow is a list of things you need to make sure that you have done/included in your literature review:

• Developed research questions to structure your literature review
• Check whether the selected literature is relevant to the research questions
• Critically evaluated the literature, rather than just describing or listing it.
• Identified major themes within the literature and synthesised the literature. This includes comparing and contrasting findings and identifying any disagreements and gaps in the literature.
• Used the literature to tell a particular story (as opposed to just listing and describing the research findings).
• Used formal, academic writing conventions, including accurate referencing (please refer to APA referencing and Online Tutorials from the Unitec Library).
• Included a section examining how the principles of Kaupapa Maori research could relate to your chosen topic (the notes and resources from week 17 will be helpful for this). Make sure that you include citations in this part of your literature review.
• Remembered to proofread your work. It is often really helpful to read your writing aloud. That way you can hear whether it flows and makes sense. Having a friend read your work and offer constructive feedback can also be very useful.

Here are some simple examples (tinyurl.com/LRExamples), which demonstrate the following important aspects of literature review writing (examples with comments).

• How to synthesise information (example 1)
• How to compare/contrast information (example 2)
• How to critically evaluate information (examples 3, 4, & 5)

Unitec resourcesThis Unitec web page may be useful for you when writing your literature review.

ReferencesHewitt, M. (2009). How to Search and Critically Evaluate Research Literature. National Institute for Health Research. Retrieved from http://www.worcester.ac.uk/documents/6_Critically_evaluate_research_literature_2009v2.pdf

Taylor, D. (n.d.) The Literature Review: A few tips on conducting it. University of Toronto. Retrieved from http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review