Literature Reviews

Synthesize your findings. Your findings are your evaluation of the literature reviewed: what you consider the strengths and weakness of the studies reviewed; the comparison you did between studies; research trends and gaps in the research that you found while researching your topic, etc...

Across the articles that you read, pay attention to what are the:

• Common/contested findings
• Important trends
• Influential theories

• Do not over quote. If you only quote from every single author you found, then you are not showing any original thinking or analysis. Use quotes judiciously. Use quotes to highlight a particular passage or thought that exemplifies the research, theory or topic you are researching.
• Instead, use paraphrasing. Restate the main ideas of a paragraph or section to highlight, in your own words, the important points made by the author.
• Summarize findings, important sections, a whole article or book: This is different from paraphrasing since you are not re-stating the author words but summarizing the main point of what you are reading in a concise matter for your readers.

After you have located your literature, read it, analyzed and evaluated it, it’s time to actually write it up.

Tips:

• Keep your audience in mind as you write your literature review. Your writing should be pitched at the level of expected readers. Use the terminology appropriate to them.

• If you are writing for the ordinary reader, avoid all jargon. Generally, "plain English" is the best strategy.

• It’s usually a good idea to keep your paragraphs short.

• Subheadings should be used to clarify the structure. They break up the material into more readable units as well as give the reader a place to "dive in" if they do not want to read all of the material.

• It’s often a good idea to write the first draft straight through and quickly – this can help preserve continuity and give coherence. Once you have text down on paper (or on a computer) it’s often far easier to make needed revisions.

• Some common errors include:
  • a failure to focus by going off on tangents;
  • failure to cite essential pertinent studies;
  • failure to maintain a coherent, logical flow;
  • weak organization;
  • poor language, grammar etc.

• Use direct quotation sparingly and judiciously. Paraphrasing writers' works is often preferable to quoting direct passages.

• Be prudent in the number of studies you discuss and cite. Referring to almost everything on the subject is useless.

• Don't cite references that you haven't read.

• A review is NOT a group of linked abstracts, one per paragraph.