Tips for Literature Reviews

Today's Topic: Literature Reviews

Boy, do these give people fits!  Problems with literature reviews top my list of the most common writing headaches with which I'm asked to assist.  This is a mammoth topic--far too big to cover fully in one email--but I can at least give you some tips to help you get started, and share some resources for more in-depth study.

Here goes:

*A literature review can be one section of a paper, or a full-length, self-contained paper.  The tips below will apply regardless of which kind of lit review you are writing.

*The basic procedure for a lit review (sometimes called a critical review of the literature or ROL):

• Identify a topic. 
• Search the databases for research and other types of articles.  
• Choose articles based on carefully chosen inclusion and exclusion criteria.
•  Critique/evaluate and synthesize the literature.

*VERY IMPORTANT: A lit review should not read like a “book report” or annotated bibliography.  It should not stop at summarizing the chosen articles. 

A literature review should have a clear, specific purpose—a thesis/assertion or guiding question.  Clarify this point of view in a clear, succinct purpose statement at the beginning of the literature review, and let it guide every part of the review. 

Choose your articles based on this specific purpose.  How does each study contribute?

*Critique/evaluate chosen studies in terms of (for example):

• Sample size
• Method for selecting participants
• Rigor--Data collection methods, etc.
• Findings--Interpretation of results
• Limitations in general

Also address YOUR methods.  Provide a rationale for your inclusion and exclusion criteria; how and why did you select these?  Which databases and key words did you use?  How did you narrow your search?

*Some authors present specifics of included articles in a table.  Headings can include:

• Study (author/s)
• Design and Sample
• Results/Conclusions
• Limitations/Strengths
• Ratings (grading system to rate rigor of studies)

*Analyze the included studies in terms of:

• Their implications for the discipline of nursing
  • For future research and/or practice
• Their connection with your overall thesis or guiding question

As I said above, this is a crucial step.  A literature review without this in-depth analysis will read like a book report; it will have no real purpose and will not answer the reader's "so what?" question.

*Identify gaps in the literature. 

What further research is needed on this topic?

*Dos and Don'ts.

• DO use more than one reference to support a point...
  • But DON'T cite a loooong strand of references.  There's no need to cite everything you have on a point.
   
• DO synthesize studies.
  • Synthesis: Combining elements and drawing conclusions based on the way ideas combine and relate to each other.
    • Synthesis is crucial.  Think about how ideas and conclusions from different studies relate to each other. 
  • When multiple studies address the same thing, don't write a separate paragraph on each of them; organize these ideas together!  Example:
    • Don't write one paragraph on Sims (2002), another on Clarke (2003), and a third on O'Hara and Finn (2001).  Look for commonalities.  If all three of these studies agree on a point, write a sentence or sentences that combine them:
      • In general, children from families that have separated or divorced act out more frequently than children from intact families (Clarke, 2003; O'Hara & Finn, 2001; Sims, 2002).

As I mentioned, this is a LARGE topic, and I can't cover it completely in one email.  These tips are just a jumping-off point.  However, our own Dr. Susan Frazier has authored a fantastic two-part PowerPoint series on literature reviews.  These terrific guides are available on the Blackboard "Writing Resources" website.  I strongly encourage you to check them out. 

I hope you found this week's tips helpful.  Happy scribbling!

Whitney Kurtz-Ogilvie, MFAW