Writing a Literary Review for a Research Paper
Writing a Literature Review
When writing a enquiry newspaper on a specific topic, you volition often need to include an overview of any prior research that has been conducted on that topic. For case, if your research paper is describing an experiment on fear conditioning, then you will probably demand to provide an overview of prior research on fear conditioning. That overview is typically known as a literature review.
Delight note that a full-length literature review commodity may be suitable for fulfilling the requirements for the Psychology B.S. Caste Inquiry Newspaper . For farther details, please check with your faculty counselor.
Unlike Types of Literature Reviews
Literature reviews come in many forms. They can exist part of a research paper, for case equally role of the Introduction section. They tin can be one chapter of a doctoral dissertation. Literature reviews tin can besides "stand lonely" as split articles past themselves. For case, some journals such as Annual Review of Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and others typically publish full-length review manufactures. Similarly, in courses at UCSD, you may be asked to write a research paper that is itself a literature review (such as, with an instructor's permission, in fulfillment of the B.S. Degree Research Paper requirement). Alternatively, you may be expected to include a literature review as part of a larger research paper (such as part of an Honors Thesis).
Literature reviews tin be written using a diversity of different styles. These may differ in the manner prior research is reviewed as well every bit the fashion in which the literature review is organized. Examples of stylistic variations in literature reviews include:
- Summarization of prior work vs. critical evaluation. In some cases, prior research is but described and summarized; in other cases, the writer compares, contrasts, and may even critique prior research (for example, discusses their strengths and weaknesses).
- Chronological vs. categorical and other types of organization. In some cases, the literature review begins with the oldest inquiry and advances until it concludes with the latest research. In other cases, research is discussed past category (such as in groupings of closely related studies) without regard for chronological order. In still other cases, research is discussed in terms of opposing views (such as when unlike research studies or researchers disagree with 1 another).
Overall, all literature reviews, whether they are written every bit a part of a larger work or as separate articles unto themselves, have a common feature: they do not present new enquiry; rather, they provide an overview of prior research on a specific topic.
How to Write a Literature Review
When writing a literature review, information technology can be helpful to rely on the post-obit steps. Please notation that these procedures are not necessarily just for writing a literature review that becomes part of a larger article; they can also be used for writing a full-length article that is itself a literature review (although such reviews are typically more than detailed and exhaustive; for more data delight refer to the Further Resources section of this page).
Steps for Writing a Literature Review
1. Identify and define the topic that you will be reviewing.
The topic, which is commonly a research question (or problem) of some kind, needs to be identified and defined as clearly equally possible. You need to have an idea of what yous will be reviewing in guild to effectively search for references and to write a coherent summary of the research on information technology. At this
two. Conduct a literature search.
Use a range of keywords to search databases such every bit PsycINFO and any others that may comprise relevant articles. You should focus on peer-reviewed, scholarly articles. Published books may too be helpful, but go on in mind that peer-reviewed manufactures are widely considered to exist the "golden standard" of scientific enquiry. Read through titles and abstracts, select and obtain articles (that is, download, copy, or print them out), and salve your searches as needed. For more information about this stride, please see the Using Databases and Finding Scholarly References section of this website.
three. Read through the research that y'all take found and take notes.
Blot as much data as you tin. Read through the articles and books that you take plant, and equally you practise, take notes. The notes should include anything that volition be helpful in advancing your own thinking about the topic and in helping y'all write the literature review (such as cardinal points, ideas, or even page numbers that index key information). Some references may plough out to be more than helpful than others; you may notice patterns or striking contrasts between different sources
4. Organize your notes and thoughts; create an outline.
At this phase, y'all are close to writing the review itself. Even so, it is often helpful to beginning reflect on all the reading that you have washed. What patterns stand up out? Do the different sources converge on a consensus? Or non? What unresolved questions withal remain? You lot should look over your notes (it may besides exist helpful to reorganize them), and as yous practice, to think nigh how you will present this research in your literature review. Are yous going to summarize or critically evaluate? Are you going to use a chronological or
5. Write the literature review itself and edit and revise as needed.
The final stage involves writing. When writing, proceed in heed that literature reviews are by and large characterized by a summary style in which prior research is described sufficiently to explicate critical findings merely does not include a high level of particular (if readers desire to acquire nearly all the specific details of a written report, then they tin expect upwards the references that y'all cite and read the original articles themselves). Yet, the degree of emphasis that is given to individual studies may vary (more or less detail may be warranted depending on how disquisitional or unique a given report was). Afterwards y'all take written
6. Contain the literature review into your research paper draft.
After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your inquiry paper (if you are writing the review equally one component of a larger paper). Depending on the phase at which your paper is at, this may involve merging your literature review into a partially consummate Introduction section, writing the rest of the paper around the literature review, or other processes.
Further Tips for Writing a Literature Review
Total-length literature reviews
- Many full-length literature review articles use a three-role construction: Introduction (where the topic is identified and whatever trends or major problems in the literature are introduced), Body (where the studies that contain the literature on that topic are discussed), and Discussion or Determination (where major patterns and points are discussed and the general country of what is known about the topic is summarized)
Literature reviews as part of a larger paper
- An "express method" of writing a literature review for a inquiry newspaper is as follows: showtime, write a
one paragraph description of each commodity that y'all read. 2nd, choose how you lot will gild all the paragraphs and combine them in one document. Tertiary, add transitions between the paragraphs, as well as an introductory and concluding paragraph.1
- A literature review that is part of a larger research paper typically does not accept to be exhaustive. Rather, information technology should contain most or all of the meaning studies near a research topic but not tangential or loosely related ones.two More often than not, literature reviews should be sufficient for the reader to understand the major bug and fundamental findings about a research topic. Y'all may however demand to confer with your teacher or editor to decide how comprehensive you need to be.
Benefits of Literature Reviews
By summarizing prior research on a topic, literature reviews have multiple benefits. These include:
- Literature reviews help readers understand what is known about a topic without having to observe and read through multiple sources.
- Literature reviews aid "set the phase" for later on reading virtually new research on a given topic (such every bit if they are placed in the Introduction of a larger inquiry paper). In other words, they provide helpful background and context.
- Literature reviews can besides help the author acquire almost a given topic while in the process of preparing the review itself. In the act of enquiry and writing the literature review, the writer gains expertise on the topic
.
Downloadable Resource
- How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [PDF]
- Tips for Writing APA Style Enquiry Papers (a brief summary) [PDF]
- Case APA Way Research Paper (for B.Due south. Degree – literature review) [PDF]
Further Resources
How-To Videos
- Writing Inquiry Paper Videos
UCSD
- UCSD Library Psychology Inquiry Guide: Literature Reviews
External Resource
- Developing and Writing a Literature Review from Northward Carolina A&T State University
- Example of a Brusk Literature Review from York College CUNY
- How to Write a Review of Literature from UW-Madison
- Writing a Literature Review from UC Santa Cruz
See Also
- Pautasso, 1000. (2013). 10 Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. PLoS Computational Biological science, ix(7), e1003149.
doi : 1371/journal.pcbi.1003149
References
oneAshton, W. Writing a curt literature review . [PDF]
2Carver, L. (2014). Writing the research newspaper [Workshop].
Prepared by Due south. C. Pan for UCSD Psychology
Back to height
Source: https://psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-resources/academic-writing-resources/writing-research-papers/writing-lit-review.html
0 Response to "Writing a Literary Review for a Research Paper"
Post a Comment