LITERATURE REVIEW RESOURCES PACKAGE

Rationale for using these handouts.

The Literature Review workshop offered by Curtin Library considers the literature review as a framing of voices, perspectives and debates on a topic through the lens of a central research question. It outlines the functions, content and structure of the typical narrative literature review, and highlights the importance of expressing one’s ‘scholarly voice’ through review, critical analysis and synthesis of sources in the existing literature.

This Literature review package contains the following items, along with instructions for intended use.

  1. “Time to Write” worksheet.

As a first step, this worksheet requires you to think carefully about the multiple dimensions of your research project, and complete, as fully as possible the following sections:

  • Topic

The broad area of your research

  • Title

The envisaged title of your project

  • Research Question

This is the driving force of your project. What do you want to find out, clarify, create or model? This question can and often does evolve as your research progresses

  • Response to the research question (‘Thesis’ Statement / Central Claim)

This is your central claim

  • Aims & Objectives

These are central to the rationale for your research project. What are you trying to achieve? What is the significance of your project? You should have specified these in your research or candidacy proposal, but it is useful to revisit them as you think about how to structure you literature review.

  1. Reviewing the literature for critical points of view

(Excerpt from SchostakSchostak(2013), Writing Research Critically, London: Routledge, pp.33-34.)

This one page excerpt describes a process which historically situates the diversity of views on a topic, opening a space for the writer’s voice. It also offers a rationale for the critical framing of perspectives as the basis for writing a narrative literature review.

  1. Structuring the review – theme/concept template

(MIS Quarterly, Vol. 26 No.2/June 2002 – accessed 03/08/2016)

(i)This template offers a way of organising a literature review conceptually or thematically, as opposed to an author-centric approach, which is not recommended for writing an effective and cogent review.

(ii)Use this worksheet as a starting point for thinking about the major themes and sub-themes you will be exploring.

  1. “They Say, I Say”

(They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing) Graff & Birkenstein, 2010. New York: W.W Norton, p.

This template allows you to practice your synthesising skills, by positioning your claims and

evaluations alongside along other academic voices, using typical scholarly language.

Simply choose an issue or topic from your own research and fill in the spaces.

  1. “Literature Review: Getting Started” and “Critical Review”(The Learning Centre)

These two handouts describe the purpose and structure of the literature review, and offer a practical guide to the questions posed and language used in the critical review of an article.

  1. Link to Short video: “Literature Review: An Overview for Graduate Students” (North Carolina State University Libraries)

This short video offers an excellent overview of the typical thematically organised narrative literature review: