Identifying Literature Reviews in Disciplinary Research Articles

In Unit 1, you will be analyzing literature reviews in research articles from your discipline, so that you
can gain insight into disciplinary preferences for features used in these texts. Toward that goal, you will
need to find samples of literature reviews from your discipline. This activity will give you practice in
identifying literature reviews within a research article. We will practice with samples from the discipline
of applied linguistics, a field that explores language-related problems.

Look at the following articles, shared by your instructor:

● Csizér, K., & Tankó, G. (2017). English majors’ self-regulatory control and strategy use in
academic writing and its relation to L2 motivation. Applied Linguistics, 38, 386-404.
● Deignan, A., Semino, E., & Paul, S.-A. (2019). Metaphors of climate science in three genres:
Research articles, educational texts, and secondary school student talk. Applied Linguistics, 40,
379-403.
● Ganuza, N., & Hedman, C. (2019). The impact of mother tongue instruction on the development
of biliteracy: Evidence from Somali-Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics, 40, 108-131.
● Hiver, P., & Dörnyei, Z. (2017). Language teacher immunity: A double-edged sword. Applied
Linguistics, 38, 405-423.
● Hyland, K., & Jiang, F. (2019). Points of reference: Changing patterns of academic citation.
Applied Linguistics, 40, 64-85.
● Wei, L. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39, 9-30.

Step 1: Is it a research article?

As you search for sample literature reviews, it is useful to note that literature reviews--as distinct
sections--appear most commonly in articles reporting on empirical research conducted by the paper’s
author(s). In an empirical research article, authors typically begin with a brief introduction to the
research, followed by a review of related literature, and then share their study (the methodology, the
findings, and the results).

Therefore, as you search through the articles above, the first thing to look for is whether the paper is an
empirical research article. You will need to skim through the whole paper to determine this. (Tip: Look
for separate sections on methodology and results. Empirical research articles also often include
numbered research questions.)

Step 2: Does it include a (distinct) literature review?

Some non-empirical articles do include literature reviews, but often it is hard to distinguish the literature
review from other parts of the paper. For example, in a more theoretical article, literature may be
reviewed throughout the paper as a way to develop a particular theory or theoretical position.

Instead, you will want to look for papers that include distinct sections (1 or more) in which the purpose
is to review the relevant literature on the paper’s topic.

Step 3: What headings are used for the literature review section(s)?
Once you have identified a section (or more than one) that reviews the literature, you will want to note
how they are labeled, using headings. You may be lucky and find some articles that use the heading
“Literature Review,” but many articles do not use such a heading; instead, the heading may describe the
topic or issue that is being reviewed.

© University of Arizona Writing Program

 Article Step 1: Is this Step 2: Can you Step 3: If you can identify a LR, list the page
article reporting identify a numbers where it begins and ends. Also list
on a study literature review any headings used for the section(s) that
conducted by the in this article? include literature review.
author(s)?

Csizér &
Tankó (2017)

Deignan,
Semino, &
Paul (2019)

Ganuza &
Hedman
(2019)

Hiver &
Dörnyei
(2017)

Hyland &
Jiang (2019)

Wei (2018)

© University of Arizona Writing Program