Lesson 27: Selecting and Synthesizing Information from Relevant Literature

A literature review follows an essay format (Introduction, Body, Conclusion), but if the literature itself is the topic of the essay, your essay will need to consider the literature in terms of the key topics/themes you are examining.

Example plan

Introduction

Topic sentence that states the broad topic of your thesis Following sentence/s that state what is included/excluded (parameters) Final sentence/s that signals list of key topics that will be used to discuss the selected sources.

Body

Divide up your text into sections/topics as indicated in the last sentence of your introduction. Each paragraph will be a synthesis of the many texts that you have chosen for your literature review.

Conclusion

This is summary of all the related literature and studies. It may composed of 5 to 10 sentences.

Guide in writing a literature review;

1. Choose a topic.

     Your literature review should be guided by a central research question. Remember, it is not a collection of loosely related studies in a field but instead represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

2. Decide on the scope of review.

     How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

     Make a list of the databases you will search.

4. Conduct your search and find the literature.

     Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time. Write down the searches you conduct in each database so that you may duplicate them if you need to later (or avoid dead-end searches that you'd forgotten you'd already tried). Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.

5. Review the literature.

     What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover? Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings? What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions. Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise? If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is? How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? if so, how has it been analyzed?

Source: libguides.uwf.edu/c.php?g=215199&p=1420520