Making Sense of the Scholarly

Answers to Your Research

Question:
Writing the Literature Review

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What is A Literature Review
The LR or Literature Review explains to the reader how scholars
have answered your Research Question (RQ), in both its generic and
specific forms.
In laying out the scholarly responses, the LR groups the answers into
schools of thought (replies that share common elements) and labels
each group.
In other words, the work you have done on your AB or Annotated
Bibliography serves as your notes and even a rough draft for the
Literature Review.
 Preparing for and
Understanding the Literature
Review
Academics use the term literature
to refer to a scholarly body of
work. In the search so far, you
have been identifying the
literature- essential books and
articles that are called "sources"
for answering research questions.
What is essential for writing the LR is
finding good works that answer your
question. These authors, who are
concerned with the same issues that you
are, will lay out the debate for you,
particularly in their own literature
reviews and their characterizations of
their own contentions and those of the
scholars against whom they are arguing.

 The Fundamentals of the

Literature Review
IN THIS FIRST SUBSTANTIVE SECTION OF THE RESEARCH PAPER, YOUR
GOAL IS TO WRITE A COHERENT ESSAY THAT TYPICALLY ANSWERS
THESE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL SETS OF QUESTIONS:

1. What is the literature on your main concept or what are the different
schools of thought that have developed in response to your RQ, in both its
general and its specific (if possible) forms? Who are the most important
authors identified with each school, and how have they influenced
subsequent scholarship?
2. How would each school answer your question? (The label for the school
should be associated with the essence of its response.)
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the answers of each school?
4. Which school's argument is the best for your purposes and why, or which
school would you like to continue to pursue and why?
The
Fundamentals of
the Literature
Review You need to find the debate; therefore, you are best
served if you can proceed with an open mind.
Moreover, even if you believe you possess the one
"right" answer, you should understand your opponents'
views so you can better refute them. At other times, the
issue is that students have too few sources or are not
seeing the fine points of the arguments (because they
are focusing on what the sources are "about").
 The Fundamentals of
the Literature Review
Try to get inside the heads of those scholars and see
why this group of very smart people finds this
perspective compelling.
One of the goals of the LR for some of you is to have
criteria for proceeding with your study. Depending on
your faculty member's instructions, you may choose
your favorite approach at the end of the LR.
The In the end, remember that this type of
essay-one that evaluates conceptual or
Fundamentals theoretical approaches--is probably
familiar to you.
OF
The You have likely taken essay exams in which you
were asked to explain the different answers to

Literature a question or different interpretations of a key

concept, assess them, and decide, on the basis

Review of logic and evidence, which one you prefer.

Thus, you have already had practice in this type
of writing and thinking.

Writing the Literature Review

If you are someone who feels stuck getting
started on the LR because you haven't had a
chance to write what you consider to be a
"normal" paper introduction, then by all means
start drafting that section.
Returning to the Literature Review, it is the first
substantive section of the paper after your
opening. In longer research papers, you use
headings to set off sections (making the work
easier to write, read, and understand),
communicate the structure of the essay, and keep
your focus.
 Writing the Literature Review
Because you now understand that papers are not simply
descriptions or data dumps, you should also realize that a
good title does more than simply tell the reader what the
essay is about. It communicates the argument and
purpose.

For example, "Polarization in America and Its Effects." Can be

a good example of a literature review heading for it is
descriptive. This part of the paper is looking at explanations
for polarization and assessing its implications; it is not simply
describing each.

Writing the Literature Review

After the title, you need to provide an introduction, which

serves as an overview to this section. For the LR, then, the
introduction explains that (1) there is a scholarly debate on
your RQ, and there are roughly X number of schools; (2)
each school offers a specific answer to your question (and
be sure to convey precisely what that response is); (3) the
approaches have various strengths and weaknesses (with
some brief specifics); but (4) one school seems to be best
or is the most compelling to investigate for these reasons.

Writing There are several ways of

organizing the LR:
The * Timeline
One is to present the approaches in
Literature chronological order, as a means of
showing the historical development of
Review * an area of inquiry.

Another is to mention and discuss the schools

from the least to the most preferred. If your
instructor has not identified a way to proceed,
choose the order that best works to highlight
the debate and makes your tasks (of
introducing the schools, the various
arguments, their strengths and weaknesses,
and your preferred position) easiest for you.
Writing the literature review
Thereafter, when you have
examined the strengths of each
approach, you can assess them In addition to knowing what it
critically, particularly with should contain, the best way
respect to their logic and to understand how to write the
explanatory power (for cases LR is to look at good
other than the ones you want to examples and model your
study). If you wait, you will
work on them.
reduce the risk of mixing the
analysis with the exposition, in
other words, the explanation of
the school's argument.
Writing the
literature review
In preparing your AB, you have
surely found sources that have
Literature Review sections (for
articles) or chapters (in
monographs) that are organized.
Practical Summary
Central to writing the LR is finding sufficient excellent (i.e.,
appropriate and important) works, identifying the most
prominent scholars involved in the debate, understanding the
different answers to your RQ these authors posit, and placing
these experts into schools of thought by determining the key
factors or underlying points that unite and divide them.
 NOTE:
Speak to your professor and/or a reference
librarian early in the process, and keep in mind
that refining the question, finding literature, and
understanding it is an ongoing process. Ignoring
any deficiencies will only hold you back and
create snowballing difficulties for you.