What is a literature review?
· It is a review of the "body of knowledge" making up a specific subject area. Your literature review synthesizes the important aspects of your topic from published sources, groups them into themes, and relates them to your subject.
Why is a literature review important?
· It places your subject in a broader context and provides a greater understanding of it.
· It identifies important scholars, themes, problems, and trends.
· It identifies strengths and weaknesses of published studies.
What do I look for when I evaluate the research studies of my subject area?
· Look for the past and present research trends.
· Assess whether the authors are reputable. Check out their institutional affiliations. (Be careful here. Some may appear to be legitimate but are actually agenda-driven, such as the Discovery Institute.)
· Look at the strengths and weaknesses of the source.
· Identify some themes common to the subject area.
· Articulate where your narrowly-focused topic fits into the "big picture" of your subject area.
How do I pull this together?
· Group related elements of the studies (hypothesis, study location or species, methodology, results, conclusions) into themes.
· After identifying and grouping your sources into relevant themes, organize them into a logical sequence.
· The organization depends on your topic and the themes of your literature review that makes sense to you.