Bill Klein's Homepage
UMSL English Dept.
UM-St. Louis
Literature Reviews report the main thesis of articles or books. | |
Literature Reviews summarize and evaluate research sources from a body of literature according to the purpose, or agenda, recognized in the thesis. They provide background for the discussion that follows, and a springboard for new ideas. The goal of writing them is to inform others about what certain articles or books say, and and to tell how valuable they are to the writer's purpose, or agenda. For instance, a chemist researching causes of human fetal death during pregnancy might choose to investigate various pathological phenomena associated with riboflavin deficiency in the mother. The researcher would search the literature, select articles relevant to his or her topic, group them together, and then compare, contrast, and finally synthesize them into a useful understanding. This understanding would provide a baseline knowledge on which an experiment could be formulated and carried out. In written form, the literature review provides a background to the report of the experiment. In another instance, a nurse needing to give an inservice about universal precautions to a group of brand new nursing students on their first clinical rounds would search the literature for articles and books on the topic. Then the nurse would select those that are most relevant to the point he or she wants to make in the inservice, group them together, compare, and contrast what they say, and finally synthesize them into a useful discussion. If the literature covers reasons why universal precautions are needed, the nurse can use the review as a springboard for a talk about how to implement them. In another instance, a teacher who needs to inservice other teachers about multiple intelligences and how to recognize them might go to the literature, look for definitions of the concept of "multiple intelligences" and for articles that describe the ways different children display different "intelligences." The teacher can recount these articles, using the definitions and narratives to identify techniques that his or her fellow teachers can use with their own students. Perhaps the two most important elements of any literature review are accuracy and documentation. Good literature reviews interpret a source on the basis of the source's thesis, argument, and evidence. Sometimes it is also important to consider the time and place of the source's publication, as well as the character of its author. A good literature review must interpret the source truthfully and accurately. Also, the literature review must cite sources clearly in the text, and on the References page. These references should help reader find those resources, and pursue their own research. |
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Bill Klein's Homepage
UMSL English Dept.
UM-St. Louis