Literature review I

A student may ask us:

For my thesis or academic research project, I must do a literature review. How do I get started?

We might reply:

The first thing to think about is why anyone needs to write a literature review.

The student may answer:

All right, why does anyone need to write a literature review?

We might say:

We write literature reviews to show readers that we are informed about the research subject. If we do not mention the previously published research on a subject, readers may think we do not know about them.

The student may interrupt and inquire:

What exactly is a literature review, anyway?

We might respond:

A literature review is a type of review article. A literature review is a scholarly paper that presents the current knowledge including findings as well as theoretical and methodological approaches to a specific topic.

Literature reviews are secondary sources and do not report new or original experimental work. Literature reviews are a basis for research in nearly every academic field. Literature reviews are common in a research proposal approved before a student formally begins a dissertation or thesis.

The student may object:

But my research is new. Why do I have to discuss all the old stuff?

We might say:

A literature review will show to readers that you understand the context for your own research and whether it agrees with past publications or not.   

The student may wonder:

So how do I get started?

We may say:

The first step is to get to know the field of research as fully as possible. Try to find all the most important articles and books dealing with your subject.

The student may next ask:

What do I do when I have found important articles and books?

Our answer:

The next challenge is to take notes, so that we can try to see the way past writers have dealt with the subject, or if there are any disagreements among previous writers. If previous researchers disagree, how does out own research relate to these controversies?

The student may want to know:

Can I say if I disagree with previous writers?

Our reply:

A significant part of any literature review is to point out where previous publications have been proven correct or incorrect.

If the student asks:

What if some research is lacking on a specific topic?

We may reply,

It may be useful to point out where some areas or subjects are not fully discussed in the literature, or need further investigation.

The student may exclaim:

I’ve already done an annotated bibliography. How is a literature review different?

The Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science defines the differences in this way:

A literature review is a text written by someone to consider the critical points of current knowledge. A comprehensive survey of the works published in a particular field of study or line of research, usually over a specific period of time, in the form of an in-depth, critical bibliographic essay or annotated list in which attention is drawn to the most significant works.

An annotated bibliography is a brief explanatory or evaluative note is added to each reference or citation. An annotation can be helpful to the researcher in evaluating whether the source is relevant to a given topic or line of inquiry.

While a literature review and annotated bibliography share some similarities, they serve different purposes. A literature review answers a particular question about a particular subject (primarily:  what does the existing scholarly research have to say about my topic?). An annotated bibliography, by contrast, is more focused on the content and contribution of each individual source (and showcases your understanding of each).

In other words, for a literature review, think first about your subject and how it has been dealt with, developed, and transformed by previous writers. Keep the subject itself in mind as the principal point. This is different from an annotated bibliography, where the main task is going through a long list of publications one by one and offering a little comment on each one.

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