Literature Review Components
Cover Page
Formatted according to a formal style book. You can choose APA, Chicago, MLA, etc. AND, you must be consistent in how you apply it.
You may want to consider choosing the formal style common in your area of research. For example, APA is commonly used for psychology, education, etc. while Chicago for philosophy, MLA for humanities.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Focus on literature and the ideas that it contains—make sure that your work is organized around ideas, while pointing to the literature that support those ideas.
Describe the history and background of the field of inquiry, the theoretical frameworks, foundational and current research, and significant thinkers/theorists. Think of it as creating a kind of genealogy for the field: who are its forebears and descendants.
Situate the significance and importance of this inquiry project for you.
If relevant include your working thesis/research question. Unlike more familiar types of research papers, you do not need to create an argument or a position. Rather you want to provide your readers with a lens through which to understand your field and how to assess literature that is related to your topic.
Include a sources cited list at the end.
Conclusion (can go before or after Body)
Summarize and synthesize the major parts of the significant works that relate to your study/project.
Evaluate the current thinking on your topic. This may be a place for you to suggest that there are missing pieces in the research, theories, findings or areas of study.
Providing insight into the relationship between the topic and the focus of your area of interest, study, or proposed position.
Body
You need to select a minimum of 7 texts to include with your Review.
Provide a brief annotation or framing note for each text (no more than ½ page
The word “texts” is to be considered broadly and can include a range of media (peer reviewed research, blogs, video, images). It may be helpful to think of it as an anthology or even a class reader that you are creating. Therefore, you need to limit the size of the texts to papers, chapters, excerpts from longer works, etc. For example, you cannot include whole books or an entire run of a journal.
It’s important to consider how you will present the sources you have found. You may want to consider the following methods:
Chronological-
Organize the research by date or period of time.
By fields or sub-fields-
You may group sources by the type of research they present or the area/field of research.
Narrative-
Tell the story of your field and arrange the texts accordingly
Thematic-
Organizing your ideas around topics or issues. This organizational structure presents an emphasis on ideas or themes.
Methodological-
this approach groups research studies by the way the research was conducted.
References
Formatted according to the formal style you have chosen.
