Interpreting the Story

Literature  Reviews

Literature Reviews identify what is known from published research about a topic. It is a survey of scholarly articles, books, dissertations, conference proceedings, and other relevant resources. Sometimes referred to as “research of research”, the review synthesizes known research findings and facts to provide background information and context for a research project and product. See Chapter 1 for additional information on the Literature Review.

The writing in the Literature Review:

• • •   Identifies gaps in current knowledge
    •   Avoids duplicating research already conducted on a topic
    •   Sets the background on what has been explored on a topic so far
    •   Increases the breadth of knowledge in the topic area
    •   Presents seminal works in the topic area
    •   Provides the intellectual context for the work
    •   Positions the project with other related research
    •   Provides opposing viewpoints in the topic area

_{Adapted from Greenfield, T. (2002). Research methods for postgraduates. 2nd ed. London: Arnold.}

Conducting passive research using keyword searches on topics, concepts, and theories associated with your research project comes first. This means you will search for research articles, published statistics, etc. through your university or college databases, on Google Scholar, or government sites. Refer to Chapter 2 for details on locating research findings and statistics. Essential information and findings are collected along with the references. The goal is to locate all the relevant and current findings with appropriate background information to write an exhaustive survey of published research. In reality, it will be difficult to truly write an exhaustive review, none the less, this is the goal.

As you read through collected resources, essential information, statistics, and research findings are paraphrased and cited. APA style requires you to avoid direct quotes. It is a good idea to write the cited findings as separate sentences. The cited sentences can then be collected and arranged. You may wish to write each cited sentence on a separate notecard to manipulate manually to organize your findings.

The collected findings, information, and statistics are analyzed and grouped based on a commonality or theme. The common theme is written as a phrase and used as a heading in the Literature Review. The cited sentences are organized logically within the themed headings. Transition sentences and original writing are integrated to expand and connect the ideas into paragraphs.

The themed headings and paragraphs are arranged so that the Literature Review flows logically. Literature Reviews are structured from broad concepts to specific concepts or chronologically from past to present. The heading is written in a way that leads to new understandings of the topic. New insights about the topic are presented through the connections made among the prior research findings.

Novice writers tend to avoid presenting findings from research that seem contrary to what they think or where they want the project to go. However, the function of the Literature Review is to summarize all the findings known, which includes opposing results. Consideration must be given to all findings, which provide the whole research story. Additionally, the Literature Review must show how your research project fills a niche or gap in what is known. The purpose of formal research is to advance knowledge, rather than investigate what is already known.  Writing in the Literature Review explains how the research project advances knowledge.

The function of the Literature Review in the capstone project is to inform the development or building of the product. The findings and themes articulated in the Literature Review forms a foundation for the product.  Additionally, the research cited in the heading should support the findings of the needs assessment and identify essential elements to be included in the product. This ensures the product is based on solid research.