“‘Creating a Quality Literature Review’. Our time will be focused on the big picture of the dissertation, and how the literature review fits within that context as well as a helpful process for thinking about the liter

Literature review is the foundation of your dissertation.

Myth #1: A literature review is so difficult that it takes lots and lots of time.

Not true – you have to be systematic, and you have to know what you’re about.

Some of the concerns: afraid of leaving out an important source (not likely), afraid of having read “the perfect article” but being unable to locate it again (be systematic and intentional about what you do – be orderly, photocopy every single article that will go into your dissertation), what’s the best way to organize a binder (start broad, and funnel, then put into topics in accordance with variable being used; every single variable must be discussed in the literature review)

Keep Extra Copies Of Your Dissertation!

Book: Writing Literature Reviews (Third Edition)

1. Search an Appropriate Database (in your field, whatever that is)

• journal articles are current, and give you primary sources of empirical studies
• limit the search to journal articles and by publication date

2. Shorten your reference list if it’s too long

3. Broaden your list if necessary.

4. Consider looking at unpublished articles.

5. Write the first draft of your topic sentence.

6. Familiarize yourself with online databases.

7. Identify the relevant databases in your field of study.

8. Understand the structure of the databases.

9. Begin with a general descriptor and then limit the output.

10. Redefine your topic more narrowly.

11. Start with the most current research and work backwards. (it gets you the most current thinking as well as references back to the relevant history – check the bibliography)

12. Search for theoretical articles on your topic. (Look for landmark studies)

13. Look for “review articles.”

14. Identify the landmark or classic studies and theorists.

Guidelines for Analyzing Literatures

1. Scan the articles to get an overview of each one.

2. Group the articles by category. (This will emerge before you as you get into the content.)

3. Organize yourself before reading the articles. (End-notes are your friend)

4. Use a consistent format in your notes.

5. Look for the explicit definition for key terms in the literature.

6. Look for key statistics to use near the beginning of the literature review. (Introduce the broad strokes of your field)

7. Pay special attention to review articles on your topic.

8. Prepare note cards with short notable quotations that might be used very sparingly in your review.

9. Look for methodological strengths. What methods are these article authors using?

10. Look for methodological weaknesses.

11. Distinguish between assertions and evidence.

12. Identify the major trends or patterns in the results of previous studies.

13. Identify gaps in the literature.

14. Identify relationships among studies.

15. Note how closely how article relates to your topic.

16. Evaluate your reference list for currency and for coverage.

Sylvia:

1. Get cards.

2. Get topic.

3. Narrow topic.

4. Look at different journal articles

5. Photocopy/download a bunch of articles – you’ll discard a bunch later

6. When you have 30-50 articles, you begin to subdivide

Each variable you consider whould be defined early in the review

- look for articles that give you definitions early in your research

(someone’s studying trust with Sylvia)

Consider building tables:

• table of definitions (Publication, author, what the person says about the construct)- you will become the expect in your area
• table of research studies, with the method used and the results (publication date, where published, authors, research methods, sample size, what did the study consist of, results)

Check dissertations 10 years back.

“Always follow what your advisor tells you.”

When there’s much literature on a topic, establish a criteria for determining which you will include in your table – it must be justified.

Use only tables that deal with complex material.

Synthesize literature before you write your review.

The book, Writing Literature Reviews, is available.

When do you stop? You stop when you find that you are seeing the same names over and over in the bibliographies as you already have.