LITERATURE

REVIEW
◦ A Literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and
other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research
or theory, and by so doing, provides a description,
summary, and critical evaluation of thread works in
relation to the research problem being investigated.
Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of
sources you have explored while researching a particular
topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research
fits within a larger field of study.
Examples:
◦ APA Style Sample Literature Review Purdue University Online
Writing Lab (OWL)
◦ Master's Theses Database of master's theses written by CSU,
Chico students, from 2009 on. Many of these will contain
published examples of literature reviews.
◦ Proquest
Dissertations and Theses: The Humanities and Social Sciences
Collection
Containes over 2 million dissertations and theses with
abstracts, 24 page free previews, and full-text PDF, if available,
for dissertations and theses dating back to 1637.
◦ Sample APA Paper (lit. review begins page 3)Purdue University
Online Writing Lab (OWL)
 1. Define and limit a problem
if your literature review is part of a larger research
project; the literature review helps to identify the
parameters of a study. Most research areas are broad; a
literature review allows identification of key issues
within a broad research area so that a definition of an
area of interest can be pursued.
Guidelines: 2. Place your study in Perspective
the purpose of academic research is to push out and
add to the current body of knowledge within a
particular field. Unless you are aware of the work of
others, you cannot build upon an established
foundation. A literature review allows the researcher to
say:
“ The work of A, B and C have discovered this much about my question, the
investigations of D have added this much to our knowledge. I propose to go
beyond D’s work in the following manner.”
3. Avoid unintentional replication of previous studies
sometimes it is appropriate to replicate a previous study, but this should be
done intentionally and for a particular purpose. A literature review helps you to
make informed choices about a research topic written a scholarly context.
4. Select methods and measures
the success or failure of previous investigations can provide useful material
for you when you are designing your own research methodology. You can assess
what has worked before (or not worked) in previous contexts and why. You may
be alerted to new methodologies and procedures and different types of texts,
technologies and measures.
5. Relate findings to previous knowledge and suggest areas for further research
the findings on ones own research need to be related back to earlier studies.
This “places” ones work and can point to areas that need further investigation.
The research is much more a coherent whole if your discussion section draws on
and contrasts with the literature review.