The Best Way to Organize a Review of the Literature Is Quizlet

How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Start to Finish

Writing a literature review is oftentimes the most daunting part of writing an commodity, book, thesis, or dissertation. "The literature" seems (and often is) massive. I have found it helpful to be as systematic every bit possible when completing this gargantuan task.

Sonja Foss and William Walters* describe an efficient and effective fashion of writing a literature review. Their system provides an fantabulous guide for getting through the massive amounts of literature for any purpose: in a dissertation, an M.A. thesis, or preparing a research article for publication in any field of written report. Below is a  summary of the steps they outline likewise as a step-by-stride method for writing a literature review.

How to Write a Literature Review

Stride 1: Make up one's mind on your areas of inquiry:

Before y'all brainstorm to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to research. Make sure that you but go articles and books in those areas, fifty-fifty if you come across fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores barriers to higher education for undocumented students.

Step Two: Search for the literature:

Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts online and download and/or print those manufactures that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the library that are relevant and check them out. Set up a specific fourth dimension frame for how long you will search. Information technology should non accept more than ii or three dedicated sessions.

Step Three: Find relevant excerpts in your books and manufactures:

Skim the contents of each volume and article and look specifically for these five things:

i. Claims, conclusions, and findings most the constructs you are investigating

2. Definitions of terms

3. Calls for follow-up studies relevant to your projection

4. Gaps you notice in the literature

5. Disagreement almost the constructs yous are investigating

When you lot detect whatsoever of these 5 things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Discussion document. Don't summarize, as summarizing takes longer than simply typing the excerpt. Make sure to note the proper name of the writer and the folio number post-obit each excerpt. Do this for each commodity and book that you have in your stack of literature. When you are washed, print out your excerpts.

Step 4: Lawmaking the literature:

Go out a pair of pair of scissors and cut each extract out. Now, sort the pieces of paper into similar topics. Figure out what the main themes are. Place each excerpt into a themed pile. Make sure each note goes into a pile. If there are excerpts that you can't effigy out where they belong, separate those and go over them once again at the end to come across if you need new categories. When you finish, place each stack of notes into an envelope labeled with the name of the theme.

Step 5: Create Your Conceptual Schema:

Type, in large font, the proper noun of each of your coded themes. Print this out, and cutting the titles into individual slips of paper. Take the slips of paper to a table or large workspace and effigy out the best style to organize them. Are there ideas that become together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are there ideas that contradict each other? Movement around the slips of paper until you come up upward with a way of organizing the codes that makes sense. Write the conceptual schema downwards before you forget or someone cleans up your slips of paper.

Pace Half-dozen: Begin to Write Your Literature Review:

Cull any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. You can begin anywhere, considering you already know the society. Notice the envelope with the excerpts in them and lay them on the table in front of y'all. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by group together those excerpts that say the same thing. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write upward your literature review based on the excerpts that y'all accept in front of you. Don't forget to include the citations as you write, and so as not to lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review.

One time y'all consummate these six steps, you will accept a complete draft of your literature review. The great thing about this process is that it breaks down into manageable steps something that seems enormous: writing a literature review.

I remember that Foss and Walter's system for writing the literature review is ideal for a dissertation, considering a Ph.D. candidate has already read widely in his or her field through graduate seminars and comprehensive exams.

Information technology may be more challenging for M.A. students, unless yous are already familiar with the literature. It is always hard to effigy out how much you need to read for deep significant, and how much you just need to know what others take said. That balance volition depend on how much you already know.

For people writing literature reviews for manufactures or books, this arrangement also could work, specially when yous are writing in a field with which you lot are already familiar. The mere fact of having a organisation can brand the literature review seem much less daunting, then I recommend this system for anyone who feels overwhelmed past the prospect of writing a literature review.

*Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation

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Source: https://www.wiley.com/network/researchers/preparing-your-article/writing-a-literature-review-six-steps-to-get-you-from-start-to-finish

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