University of HoustonClear Lake

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• University of Houston-Clear Lake
• Writing Center

Established in 1993
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Writing A Successful Literature Review

• To write the successful Literature Review
• Understand the purpose of the literature review.
• Use a logical structure.
• Keep track of sources.
• Avoid common problems.
• Learn how to critique research.
• To summarize effectively
• Be an active reader
• Put it in your own words
• Provide a road map
• Use colorful verbs
• To cite using APA-Style documentation
• Always use the official manual.
• When in doubt, look it up.
• Use original sources whenever possible.

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The Purpose of the Literature Review

• To explain the historical background of a topic
• To describe and compare the schools of thought on
  an issue
• To synthesize the available research
• To highlight and critique research methods
• To note areas of disagreement
• To highlight gaps in the existing research
• To justify the topic you plan to investigate

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Think structure

• An effective Literature Review will be organized
  according to your topic and the themes and
  problems identified by the research in the field.
  In general, try to do the following
• Provide context by defining or introducing the
  problem/issue to be discussed.
• Identify trends in publications, problems in
  research, conflicting theories.
• Establish your purpose in reviewing the
  literature.
• Group studies according to commonalities
  approach, attitude, findings.
• Summarize individual studies.
• Summarize major schools of thought or
  perspectives.
• Evaluate the current body of knowledge.
• Conclude by explaining how your study will add to
  the body of knowledge.

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Keep track of sources from the beginning

• Number each source and keep full bibliographic
  information.
• Take notes as you read. You can do this on the
  computer or in a large notebook, but be sure to
  give yourself plenty of space.
• Type up and save quotes you like with full
  documentation. These can be cut and pasted into
  your main document.
• Try a preformatted source sheet.
• Use a program like Endnote to take notes and keep
  bibliographic information.
• Synthesize notes by keeping a separate sheet that
  organizes sources by issue/argument.

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Avoid common problems

• Try to avoid the following mistakes writers
  sometimes make when writing the lit review
• Including every source, regardless of its value
  or pertinence to your topic.
• Summarizing without relating the source to your
  topic or the view you are creating of the body of
  research. Remember that the literature review is
  an argumentative piece.
• Organizing the discussion in an ineffective
  manner for example, chronologically instead of
  by specific issue or school of thought.
• Losing track of sources and spending valuable
  time searching for them.
• .

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Critique the literature

• As you read the relevant research in the field,
  evaluate it by asking the following questions
• Has the author clearly defined the problem/issue?
• Could the problem have been approached more
  effectively from a different perspective?
• Does the author show bias?
• What is the authors theoretical approach?
• How good is the study design?
• How valid are the results?
• Are there flaws in the logic of the discussion?
• How does the work contribute to the disciplines
  understanding of the problem?
• What problems has the author avoided or ignored?
• .

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Summarizing Effectively Be an active reader

• Read the original text quickly to assess its
  value and get an impression of its main point.
• Read the text more slowly a second time,
  highlighting important points.
• Write an informal account of what you have read.
• Rewrite your account using more formal language.
• Compare your draft to the original to be sure
  you have not used the authors language and that
  you have represented the authors ideas
  accurately and fairly.

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Put it in your own words

• ? Use your own words to express the main idea and
  relevant details of the piece you have read.
• Give a condensed version of the original reading.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the original
  text.
• Organize your review in the manner the best suits
  your purpose.
• Remember that some concepts and terms cannot be
  summarized Piagets Concrete Operations cannot
  be summarized as Asphalt Functions.

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Give your reader a clear road map to follow

• The summary presents information to the reader in
  an order determined by the purpose of your
  research project. Use transitions to show the
  reader how you are arranging the parts of the
  review.
• One of the first researchers to investigate this
  problem is Chen . . .
• Smith and Jones counter Chens argument . . .
• The issue becomes more complex when a third
  school of thought is considered . . .
• One researcher who agrees with Chen is . . .
• A different approach to this question looks at
  problems in y
• One of the most troublesome problems is addressed
  by Green . . .
• A problem with this approach is that . . .
• A recent study adds this to the mix . . .
• A crucial issue that has not been addressed is z
  . . .

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Use colorful verbs
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Using APA-Style Documentation In-text citations

• Name the author (last name only) and provide the
  date as you summarize
• Smith (2005) argued that x was always true, while
  Jones (2007) has demonstrated through his
  research that it is not.
• If your citation does not appear in your text,
  place it in parentheses at the end of the
  relevant sentence
• Neither of these views is true, however, as has
  been amply demonstrated by more recent research
  (e.g., Black, 2007 White, 2008).
• To add a reference to an additional text, cite
  the primary and then give your reader a cue
• (Clark, 2007 see also Diepenbrock, 2008).

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In-text citations

• If the article has three to five authors, use all
  names in the first reference and then et al. for
  subsequent references.
• If the article has six or more authors, use the
  primary authors name and et al.
• If an article does not have an author, cite the
  title of the text using quotation marks or
  italics as appropriate.
• If the article has no page or date, use n.p. or
  n.d.
• For each new paragraph begin citations again.

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Citing internet sources

• Quoting material from an internet source without
  pagination
• If paragraph numbers are provided, use them in
  place of page numbers
• Basu and Jones (2007) suggest the need for an
  intellectual . . . cyberspace (para. 4).
• If neither page nor paragraph number is provided,
  but headings are used, cite the heading and the
  number of the paragraph following
• Verbunt (2008) found that the level of
  conditioning . . .(Discussion section, para. 1)
• If the heading is too long, use a shortened
  version with quotation marks
• According to Golan (2007), Empirical . . .
  Behavior (Mandatory Labeling, para. 4).

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Changes for the 6th edition

• Some important changes for the 6th edition
• Previous editions required a retrieval date for
  online sources and this is no longer required.
• The DOIdigital object identifieris now used to
  replace the URL in the References section. This
  is a unique series of numbers assigned to online
  books and journal articles.
• For additional information on the DOI, see pages
  188 and 198 of the APA manual.

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References

• American Psychological Association. (2010).
  Publication manual of the American Psychological
  Association (6th ed.) Washington, DC American
  Psychological Association.
• Clark, I. L. (2007). Writing the successful
  thesis and dissertation Entering the
  conversation. N. J. Prentice Hall.
• Columbia University Writing Center. (2008).
  Writing summaries. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from
  http//www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/write/hanouts/summa
  ry.html
• Taylor, D. and Procter, M. (2008). The literature
  review A few tips on conducting it. Retrieved
  June 24, 2008 from
• http//www.utoronto.ca/litrev.html
• The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing
  Center. Review of literature. Retrieved June 24,
  2008 from http//www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Rev
  iewofLiterature.html
• University Library, University of California,
  Santa Cruz. How to write a literature review.
  Retrieved June 24, 2008 from http//library.ucsc.e
  du/ref/howto/literaturereveiw.html

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Additional Sources

• Biklen, S. K. and Casella, R. (2007). A practical
  guide to the qualitative dissertation. N.Y.
  Teachers College Press.
• Bolker, J. (1998). Writing your dissertation in
  fifteen minutes a day A guide to starting,
  revising, and finishing your doctoral thesis. N.
  Y. Holt.
• Cooper, H. (1998). Synthesizing research A guide
  for literature reviews. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage
  Publications.
• Galvan, J. L. (2003). Writing literature reviews
  A guide for students of the social and behavioral
  sciences. Los Angeles Pyrczak Publishing.
• Thomas, R. M. and Brubaker, D.L. (2007). Theses
  and dissertations A guide to planning, research,
  and writing. Thousand Oaks, CA Corwin Press.

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Writing Center Staff

• Director
• -Dr. Chloé Diepenbrock
• Associate Professor of Writing
• Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics,
• Literature
• University of Southern California

• Program Coordinator
• -Ms. Amy Smith
• B.S. Psychology
• University of Houston
• Business Assistant
• -Ms. Katie Hart
• B.A. in Graphic Design
• University of Houston-Clear Lake

And. . . The Tutors and Receptionists Ann,
Camille, Celia, Charley, Chris, Daniel, Gloria,
James, Keaton, Lori, Naomi, Stuart, Veronica
Alicia Zahabia
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• For further assistance, visit us online!
• www.uhcl.edu/writingcenter