Objectives: Students will be able to...
- Predict and investigate the different organizations of literature reviews
- Outline the structure of a literature review
- Synthesize several sources into a mini-literature review
If you only take away one thing from this lesson, it should be that Lit reviews are organized TOPICALLY and should not be source-by-source SUMMARIES of your source material.
1. Lecture notes: This is a thorough workshop for writing Lit reviews. We will first discuss pages 1-3 as an overview to the topic. I'll use pieces of this throughout the next 2 days of class, and it's a great tool for you to save and keep on hand since it's helpful in isolation.
2. Next, have a look at this breakdown for the parts of a lit review and this handout which has samples of the intro and conclusion. Skim through the two articles (which are very similar) and be ready to give an impromptu summary for each of the parts of the literature review structure: introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
These sample outlines will give you a more expanded framework for where the lit review belongs in a full outline. Don't FORCE your paper to fit it perfectly--it's just a place to start. The literature review goes in "establishing the issue". These are just 2 of many possibilities for a "purpose-based" outline.
3. Literature Review Organization Exercise (same as in the lecture notes) Try to identify the
organizations in these samples. If you have some difficulty with "Topical" vs. "Debate", remember that "Debate" is a
comparative organization, showing differences between a series of
related methods, theories, or approaches. In contrast, "Topical" is a
themed organization, where each of the topics/issues are separate from
one another.
Types of Lit reviews go by many different names. "Debate" might be called "Comparative" or "Methods", and "Distant to Close" could also be referred to as "Less Relevant to Most Relevant". In this activity, they refer to only two types: Descriptive and Critical.
See if you can tell the difference. What's important is to think critically about the purpose of your paper and the function of your Lit review within it. Then make a decision about the type of lit review you need--and be consistent.
Types of Lit reviews go by many different names. "Debate" might be called "Comparative" or "Methods", and "Distant to Close" could also be referred to as "Less Relevant to Most Relevant". In this activity, they refer to only two types: Descriptive and Critical.
See if you can tell the difference. What's important is to think critically about the purpose of your paper and the function of your Lit review within it. Then make a decision about the type of lit review you need--and be consistent.
4. Synthesizing sources in a literature review. power point slides
- Synthesis: to combine separate elements to form a whole
- A literature review should show that you have understanding about other works that are related to your research question.
- In a lit review, such understanding should be demonstrated by1) Making connections and clarify relationships among the ideas of the source materials and 2) Organizing the text topic-by-topic instead of source by source
- What are the organizing principles of text A and text B?
- Which text synthesized the sources better?
- What are some characteristics that make a good source synthesis?
- organize all the information by topic instead of sources
- present the recurring ideas among sources.
- clarify the relationship between ideas in those sources
PRACTICE: Open the Source Synthesis Exercise (The Medicare Debate). Skim through the first page of the reading and identify what overall "big" mistake the author has made in his/her approach to the literature review.
Go to the 2nd page of the exercise which has a "matrix" which helps synthesize ideas across articles.
Read the thesis statement and identify the two main ideas that will be discussed in the literature review.Then work on the Matrix.
Background: The articles are based on events from Fall 2012 during the 2012 election season.
Medicare-- a health insurance financial assistance program provided to the elderly by the government
Democrats-- one of two primary political parties in the U.S.
Barack Obama-- the current Democratic president at the time and a presidential candidate
The Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, the (current) Democratic health insurance program
Republicans-- one of two primary political parties in the U.S.
Mitt Romney-- presidential candidate
Paul Ryan-- vice-presidential candidate
Republican health insurance program
REQUIRED HOMEWORK: If you’ve already had your Conference #1, “Make a
dent" in your contract assignment this weekend! February 4th is
when Contract #1 is over, which is "right around the corner"...
Review the sample answers for the Medicare activity.
Review the sample answers for the Medicare activity.
RECOMMENDED HOMEWORK: Select
2-3 sources (probably journal articles would be best) in your field that are on
the same topic. Write a mini-literature review, demonstrating how the sources
are related to one another by synthesizing them and showing whether they are
similar, contrasting, or accumulating ideas. Name the file: NetID_litreview and
submit it before class on Tuesday, if you would like feedback.
