L8:Big Idea 2-Understand and Analyze-Contextualizing Your QUEST with the Literature Review

Lesson 8: Focus What do you think is meant by the term literature review, and what purpose does it serve in academic research?

Confusing Phrases The term “review of literature of the field” is how a literature review is described in the AP Research course. You need to know that a literature review and the review of the literature of the field are congruous phrases. The literature review for AP Research is present in the element of the Academic Paper called the Introduction.

What is in a Literature Review? In the task descriptions for the Academic Paper, the Introduction element must: Provide background and contextualize the research question/ project goal and initial student assumptions and/or hypotheses. Introduce and review previous works in the field, synthesizing information and a range of perspectives related to the research question/project goal. Identify the gap in the current field of knowledge to be addressed. In essence, the introduction element is the literature review of the academic paper. This element of the Academic Paper is about evaluating perspectives and adopting such for the purpose of defining and situating their topic of inquiry.

What is in a Literature Review? A literature review must do these things: Be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known about the topic of inquiry Identify areas of controversy in the literature Formulate questions that need further research Suggest fresh insights into the topic A literature review is also about finding rationale to support their decisions for their choice of method, data organization, data analysis, and communication style. In essence, the introduction element is the literature review of the academic paper. This element of their Academic Paper is about evaluating perspectives and adopting such for the purpose of defining and situating their topic of inquiry. It is also about finding rationale to support their decisions for their choice of method, data organization, data analysis, and communication style.

Scholarly Works and Previous Studies A common student misstep along the inquiry journey is not doing “due diligence” in looking for true studies or scholarly works pertaining to their topic of inquiry. Yes, some esoteric or truly unique topics may not have many studies pertaining to them; however, MOST TOPICS DO. A scholarly work could be a foundational text (by a well-known author in the field of inquiry) and previous “studies” are normally found in scholarly, peer- reviewed journals.

How Does a Literature Review Appear Differently for Each Discipline? Each discipline values/emphasizes information pertaining to the literature review differently. Therefore, literature reviews appear different in academic papers from discipline to discipline. You must be able to identify different organizing principles for the literature review in order to determine your own organizing principles. You must “organize” your literature review to effectively get your point across about the importance of your inquiry, where it is situated in the field of knowledge, and the rationale behind your inquiry choices.

Humanities Even though these sections are labeled, combined, they make up the literature review for this paper. This is just ONE example. Students should read several research papers pertaining to their topic/discipline to get a comprehensive view of the organizing principles the want to choose from for their own literature review. The author describes what is known about the topic of inquiry and then describes the paradigm or framework by which they will interpret the associated text in order to engage in the research (took up about four pages).

Science/Engineering This literature review took up about a page at most and contextualized the processes that were used in the past to alleviate a problem and then provided rationale for the processes the researcher engineered to address a problem. This is just ONE example. Students should read several research papers pertaining to their topic/discipline to get a comprehensive view of the organizing principles the want to choose from for their own literature review.

Organizing Principles of Humanities vs. Science Literature Reviews Academic Paper Title Discipline Associated with Academic Paper Brief Description of Organizing Principles of the Literature Review or Introduction To House a Moor and End a Marsh: Jane and Imperialism through Liminal and Structural Processes in Jane Eyre Humanities Longer Section to introduce the text Section to introduce the interpretive framework A Plan for Conversion of Stormwater to Groundwater Recharge on the Utah Science/Engineering  Shorter Section to contextualize the problem Describes what processes have been used in the past

Finding Organizing Principles of Literature Reviews 1. Spend 10–15 minutes reading the literature review/introduction of the academic paper assigned to your group. 2. On chart paper, record a brief explanation of the organization or structure of this component of your assigned academic paper. 3. Be prepared to share how the structure of this component of the paper meets the need for the literature review to define, contextualize, analyze, and synthesize what is known in the field so that the student’s topic of inquiry and associated choices about their inquiry process are clearly conveyed. 4. Record the differences in structure and organizing principles for these three papers in the table from the previous section.

Organizing Principles for Literature Reviews Academic Paper Title Discipline Associated with Academic Paper Brief Description of Organizing Principles of the Literature Review or Introduction Implementation of a Ten-Tone Equal Temperament System Art   Following Sweden’s Success: Promoting Intercultural Citizenship in the United States History Victim Worthiness: The Effect of Media Coverage on the Portrayal of Homicide Victims Social Science

Reflection-Include your response in your Trello. What strategy will you use to understand the varying organizing principles of the literature review/introduction of an academic paper? How will you organize your literature review/introduction to include all the sources and evidence that you need to contextualize your inquiry in a broader context/academic conversation AND to provide effective rationale for all the choices you will have made during the inquiry process?