C Hart 2009 (www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html) Literature Reviews C Hart 2009 (www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html)

Definitions “its an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers” Must be defined by a guiding concept e.g. your research objective, problem) It’s not just a set of summaries – must have logical & coherent flow Lets you gain skills in two areas: Information seeking Critical appraisal of studies

NB’s for Literature Reviews Literature review must: Be organized around and related directly to the research question Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known Identify areas of controversy in the literature Formulate questions that need further research

Questions for each Resource Has author formulated problem/issue? Is it clearly defined & significance clearly established? Could problem been approached more effectively from another perspective? What’s author’s research orientation? What’s author’s theoretical framework? Has author evaluated literature relevant to the issue In a study – Validity issues? How does author structure the argument – can you deconstruct the flow of argument to check for logic? How does ref contribute to our understanding of the issue? How does the ref relate to your question you are developing?