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Not all literature reviews follow the same style and there are differences across subjects so please speak to your supervisor for advice that is specific to your subject.
Some of your subjects will not require them, English, for example, may focus more on Analysis of Text. Some EE's may be enhanced by having literature review elements in the introduction or discussion. This is going to depend on your research question - speak with your supervisor.
A literature review should tell a story; it is not simply a list. You should synthesise and analyse. You should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The synthesis should find links between the ideas and highlight any differences.
To synthesise, you will relate one idea to another and use this to form something new. The scientist in me likens this to the creation of a new molecule from two different atoms; you all learned what happens when sodium is paired with chlorine. A good literature review will do the same thing: you'll provide an intelligent appraisal of the different sources you have used, extracting the key ideas and messages and accounting for them in the context of an overarching idea.
Outline the idea at the beginning.
Analyse and synthesise in the middle.
Summarise the issues, differences, paradoxes and questions to resolve at the end.
Based on the EE Course Companion Guide:
Here is a template you can print to hand write on.
Reviewing Literature Template.pdfHow do I (Ms. Davies) plan my writing for a literature review?
First, I find papers I want to read and do a quick scan through them. As I go, I start identifying themes that I’m looking for (or ones that just naturally come up whilst I’m reading) and I jot those down.
I keep reading, usually with printed copies or on my iPad. I use different coloured highlighters for each theme so I can track them easily across papers.
Then I use something called the Matrix Method. I’ve made a version for you below; normally I just do it by hand (because I’m old!).
After that, I look at how the ideas connect and figure out a good flow. I map that out to guide my writing.
I create different pages in my essay document (I do any essay section by section and compile at the end) for each of the themes. I then add all of the information relevant for each them. At the top of the page I begin my own writing based on what I've added. I cross out what I've used using strike through.
Sometimes I cut the papers up and place them in piles of each theme and then work through these and write directly into my document (scribble out what I've used on the papers).
It effectively works in two stages:
Planning
Writing
Make sure that you summarise and critique theme by theme and not author by author.
Matrix Method Lit Review Writing.pdfBlank Template
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