Literature Review Workshop

Tips on how to Research and Write a Literature Review

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This workshop was created based on student demand for help in understanding how to write a literature review. First, let's look at the lit review in the context of the annotated bibliography outlined in the APA Workshop. The annotated bibliography provides a short-from version of the full research article (DIY Cliff Notes Links to an external site.). The idea is that a good AB means you will likely not have to revisit the full article when you write your lit review. The AB format  I outline in the APA Workshop is a good way to tell if you (a) understand the gist of an article and (2) that it has utility for your topic.

Basically, a lit review is where you go over your literature and give the reader the basic knowledge they need to understand the study and to demonstrate your own knowledge. Use the articles you have reviewed for your project to see how a literature review is formatted. For example, rather than 6 separate paragraphs for each source, try reducing it and combining related sources in one paragraph. Here is short video that outline what a Lit review is and is not:

Link Links to an external site.

First Steps

Search can be a "chicken and egg" process, as you may not know enough to identify key words and terms about your topic topic to actually search for it, especially in a library database. So, first, go to Google and look a round, check out Wikipedia or other metadata (information about information) sources or trade press. For example, in high tech, Wired magazine Links to an external site. is a great source for information. I can also recommend the Economist Links to an external site.. Note that if a publication cuts off or restricts access, most of them can be found via the library databases. While you need 6 scholarly sources from peer reviewed academic journals for your project, it is perfectly okay to bring in some non-scholarly sources  IN ADDITION for you literature review (cite all sources). While Wikipedia or similar sources are a great place to start, metadata sources should not be cited or used in your paper.

Remember, in many cases, articles will not be 100% about your topic. If you go out looking for how students use smartphone apps to find romantic partners (an actual student research project) there may not be many research articles specifically on that topic. As I discuss below, you find a good article that does deal with your specific topic (score!) and that can lead to other sources. However, you may have to look at articles that are related or have sections that deal with your topic, for example use of the internet to find romantic partners or social networks and romantic relationships. So, all you need from a source is that is has "utility."

Utility is that the information helps you understand or explain you topic/research.

The Literature Review Process for your Projects

Having good literature is the most critical foundational element of research project and the most neglected by students. While you may have "lay knowledge" of a topic area, in most cases, you do not know enough to embark on a serious research project. To prepare, you need to find previous research on your specific topic. As discussed in the APA and Scholarly Sources workshop, you need to get into the library databases and perhaps even ask an librarian for help in locating the best sources. Poor sources or sources that lack specific utility for your project can seriously undermine all your efforts. Remember, you know NOTHING substantial about your topic, certainly not enough to guide and design a research project. You have to go find that information.

There are several serious mistakes you want to avoid:

• Jumping at the first research article that remotely relates to your topic. The point is not to accumulate the required 6 sources, but to find useful and informative sources.
• Only looking at the abstracts of articles. This really won't cut it. Read the introduction and Findings or Discussion sections to see if an article is useful.
• Using Google. Love it, but the wrong tool for this job. Stick to the databases.

Tips and Tricks

All research articles have literature review in them and, therefore, can be great sources for finding other related literature. A good article, recently published, squarely on your topic, can yield most or all the sources that you need. However, it is important that you actually go out and find that article - NEVER rely on the two or three sentences in an article to represent the article cited.

When hunting for an article, simply keep a file where you can download and keep potential articles. The last thing you want to do is to have to go back into a database and hunt them down. Storage is cheap and drives are big. 

Another advantage of a good lit review is that you can find specific information on how scholars conducted their studies. This can be in the form or specific methods or tests, coding categories or specific behaviors they examined or even an entire study design. It is perfectly okay to "replicate" someone's study as long as you cite them. It is a common practice in research.

To get credit for this workshop you must:

1. Find a GOOD example of a Literature Review (only) from a research article. (do not just upload the whole article)
2. Submit a copy of it (or highlight it).
3. Make sure to include an APA compliant cite for that source (can upload as second doc).