Crafting a Literature Review for a Thesis Paper

Thesis Seminar: Literature Review GuideThesis Seminar: Literature Review Guide - Notes

💡 This literature review guide includes general recommendations when developing an academic text for research purposes. You may access timestamps for each of the sections below by visiting the YouTube page of this video. See also Rubric: Literature Review.

1. What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a comprehensive overview and analysis of the existing research, theories, and findings related to a specific topic or research question. It is not merely a summary of past research; rather, it critically evaluates and synthesizes the information to establish a foundation for understanding the broader context of a subject.

Characteristics of a Literature Review:

• Scope: A literature review can range from a few pages to extensive works, depending on the complexity of the research topic.

• Critical Evaluation: It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of existing studies, identifying gaps in knowledge that your research could address.

• Thematic Organization: It organizes the literature by themes, methodologies, or chronological developments to illuminate trends and patterns in research.

2. Why is a Literature Review Important?

Literature reviews serve several pivotal functions in academic research:

• Contextualization: They provide context for your research, showing how it fits into the existing body of knowledge.

• Identifying Gaps: Literature reviews help in identifying gaps in the current research, thereby justifying the need for your study.

• Methodological Insights: Reviewing existing studies can offer insights into research methodologies that could be applicable to your work.

• Theoretical Framework: They can assist in framing theoretical frameworks, guiding the formulation of theoretical constructs for your own research.

3. How to Create a Literature Review

Creating a literature review involves a systematic approach that includes several key steps:

Step 1: Define Your Research Question or Topic

• Be clear and specific about the research question you want to explore. This will guide your literature search.

Step 2: Conduct a Comprehensive Literature Search

• Use academic databases (e.g., Google Scholar, JSTOR, PubMed) to gather relevant articles, books, and papers.

• Employ keywords and boolean operators to refine your search.

• Review Assets/Pages/EdTech Search Strategies.

Step 3: Organize and Review the Literature

• Read and annotate the retrieved articles. Note key themes, methodologies, findings, and gaps.

• Organize the literature based on themes, trends, or methodologies for easier synthesis.

Step 4: Synthesize the Information

• Identify connections between the studies reviewed. Discuss how they relate to one another and to your research question.

• Highlight areas of agreement, disagreement, and emerging trends.

• See also Analyzing and Synthesizing Information in a Literature Review.

Step 5: Write the Review

• Introduction: Present the research question and the importance of the review.

• Body: Present and synthesize the findings organized by themes or chronologically.

• Conclusion: Summarize the major findings, implications for future research, and relevance to your study.

Step 6: Edit and Revise

• Review your literature review for clarity, coherence, and conciseness.

• Ensure proper referencing and adherence to citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

4. How to Present a Literature Review

Presenting a literature review, whether in written form or orally, requires clarity and engagement.

Written Presentation:

• Use clear headings and subheadings to structure the review.

• Include visual aids (tables, figures) to summarize key points if applicable.

• Make your review accessible to a broader audience by avoiding excessively technical language.

Oral Presentation:

• Prepare a concise summary of the review, focusing on the key findings and implications.

• Engage your audience with questions to provoke thought and discussion.

• Use visual aids (PowerPoint slides) effectively to highlight critical aspects without overwhelming viewers.

Tips for an Effective Presentation:

• Practice your delivery to ensure you stay within time limits while covering essential points.

• Anticipate questions that may arise and prepare answers to enhance your credibility.

• Maintain eye contact with your audience and use body language to convey enthusiasm and engagement with your topic.

Conclusion

A well-conducted literature review is foundational in the research process. It not only prepares the groundwork for your own study but also contributes to the academic discourse by integrating existing knowledge and identifying new avenues for investigation. By following structured steps to create and present a literature review, researchers can communicate their findings effectively and enhance their academic contributions.

What to do for those taking Thesis Seminar

• APA formatting

  • Use mainly level I and level II headings throughout your thesis paper. When there are only two main sections in the literature review and/or in the Results and Discussion section, then a level III heading will be necessary (What’s the difference between heading types?).

  • Double space throughout your text except in the references section and text within tables, making sure there is no additional space between paragraphs, and between headings and paragraphs. In your references section, double space between each reference and single space within each reference. Text within a table should be single spaced.

  • Indentations: 1) no indentation in the abstract paragraph, 2) 0.5 inch indentation in every paragraph of the thesis paper, and 3) reverse indentation in the references section: first line has no indentation while all subsequent lines require a 0.5 inch indentation.

  • Approved fonts

    • a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode or

    • a serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the latter is the default font for LaTEX).

    • Within figure images, use a sans serif font with a type size between 8 and 14 points.

    • Within tables, use the same font as the rest of the text (8-point).

• Citations (APA, 7th edition)

  • Parenthetic citations are preferred over narrative citations ( See Parenthetical Vs. Narrative Citations).

  • Paraphrase instead of direct quoting your sources. If a direct quote is absolutely necessary (such as when someone has expressed an idea in a particularly unique way or states a key word that is considered part of a standard lexicon) do not exceed 15% of the total word count of your literature review. Avoid long direct quotes (more than 40 words) altogether.

  • et al.: “The term ‘et al.’ is the abbreviated form of the Latin term ‘et alia’, which means ‘and others’” (Best Edit & Proof). Use et al. in a citation anytime you have three or more authors: (Parker et al., 2018); Allison et al., 2019).

• Third person

  • The literature review and results and discussion should be written in the third person. There may be exceptions in the method section.

• Things to do when submitting your final draft.

  1. Remove any extraneous information from your text that you created: notes to yourself, highlighted text, etc.

  2. Remove any extraneous information from your text left over from the template (if applicable).

  3. Remove any comments listed on the right-hand side of your Word document.

What not to do

• Words to avoid

  • Avoid “it”, “can”, “will”, and the demonstratives “this” and “these”.

    Replace the pronoun “it” with direct repetition, a synonym, or a hyper/hyponym (see Synomyms, hypernyms, and hyponyms). Remove the modal “can” and use only the main verb. Finally, change the future tense with “will” to the present or past tense. Similar to replacing the pronoun “it”, the same options apply to replace the demonstratives “this” and “these”.

  • absolutes: always, never, no one, everyone, etc.

  • important, importantly, importance, etc.

  • phrases: it is important, it is necessary, it is vital, it is essential it is good/bad/great/horrible, it is common, etc.

  • “people”: Try to be more specific. Think about your target audience and substitute with words like students…

  • very, really, extremely, actually, etc.

  • Talking about…

  • Take advantage of…

  • In other words…, It is to say…, That is to say, As mentioned before…, As previously stated…, This means… etc.

  • without a doubt, obviously, clearly, as simple as it may seem, certainly, in fact, as a matter of fact, this proves, undoubtedly, it is well known, evidently, etc.

  • Gender-specific language: him/her, he/she, etc.

  • Rhetorical questions (except a hook to begin an introduction paragraph)

  • For the most part, avoid the future tense. In most cases, change to the simple present.

  • Try to avoid secondary sources (indirect citations). Instead, look for the original source or an alternative source that supports the same idea.Overuse of sentence connectors

  • Overuse of sentence connectors

    Mix the different ways to transitioning between ideas (i.e., between supporting sentences within a body paragraph). Include also introductory phrases and subordinating clauses.

• Passive voice

  The active voice is preferred. Change the following phrases (passive voice with non-referential “it”) to the active voice: it has been found…, it was determined…, etc.

• In the most cases, avoid the future tense.

• Personal (subject) pronoun overuse

  Avoid overusing personal pronouns. Instead, use synonyms, hyper/hyponyms, and direct repetition (repeating the same word or phrase). This is especially important when developing a topic sentence.

• Hedging too much and not enough - See (BH) Boosting and the nuances of hedging.

  In… applied linguistics and pragmatics, a hedge is a word or phrase used in a sentence to express ambiguity, probability, or indecisiveness about the remainder of the sentence, rather than full accuracy, certainty, or decisiveness (Wikipedia). Generally speaking, it’s best not to hedge when writing a thesis statement or topic sentences.

  Examples of hedging

  Hedging Language - Academic WritingHedging Language - Academic Writing - Notes

  When to hedge

• There is/there are…

• How long should paragraphs be?

  Introduction and conclusion paragraphs should be around 250 words. All paragraphs should have between five to eight sentences (body and transitional paragraphs should have probably no more than approximately 220 words).

• Anthropomorphisms/personification

  https://youtu.be/WD1J1m0OwwE