University of Houston-Clear Lake Writing Center

1. University of Houston-Clear Lake Writing Center Established in 1993

2. Writing A Successful Literature Review • To write the successful Literature Review • Understand the purpose • Use a logical structure • Keep track of sources • To summarize effectively • Read actively • Put it in your own words • Provide a road map • Use colorful verbs • To cite using APA-Style documentation • Use the manual • When in doubt, look it up • Use original sources whenever possible

3. The Purpose of the Literature Review • To describe and compare schools of thought on an issue • To synthesize available research • To highlight and critique methods • To note areas of disagreement • To highlight gaps in existing research • To justify your topic and/or research

4. Critique the Literature • As you read the relevant research in the field, ask yourself the following questions: • Has the author clearly defined the problem/issue? • What is the author’s theoretical approach? • Could the problem have been approached more effectively? • How good is the study design? • How valid are the results? • Does the author show bias? • Are there flaws in the logic ?

5. Consider Structure • An effective literature review will be organized according to your topic and the themes identified by the research in the field. Try to do the following: • Provide context by introducing the problem/issue. • Identify trends, problems in research, conflicting theories. • Group studies according to commonalities. • Summarize both individual studies and major schools of thought. • Evaluate the current body of knowledge. • Conclude by explaining how your study will contribute to the discipline.

6. Keep track of sources from the beginning • Number each source and keep full bibliographic information. • Take notes as you read. • Type up and save quotes with full documentation. These can be inserted into your text as you write. • Try a preformatted source sheet. • Use a program like Endnote to take notes and keep bibliographic information. • Keep a separate sheet or table that organizes sources by issue/argument.

7. Common Problems • Avoid the following mistakes: • Including every source, regardless of its value. • Summarizing without relating the source to your topic . • Remember that the literature review is an argumentative piece. • Organizing the discussion ineffectively. • i.e.: chronologically instead of by specific issue or school of thought. • Losing track of sources.

8. Summarizing Effectively • Read the original text quickly to assess its value. • Read the text more slowly a second time, highlighting important points. • Write an informal account of what you have read. • Rewrite your account using academic language. • Compare your draft to the original to be sure you have paraphrased correctly and represented the author fairly.

9. Paraphrasing • Use your own words. • Give a condensed version of the original. • Demonstrate your understanding. • Remember that some concepts cannot be summarized: Piaget’s “Concrete Operations” cannot be summarized as “Asphalt Functions.”

10. Construct a Road Map Use transitions to show the reader how you are arranging the parts of the review. • One of the first researchers to investigate this problem is Chen . . . • Smith and Jones counter Chen’s argument . . . • The issue becomes more complex when a third school of thought is considered . . . • A different approach to this question looks at problems in . . . • A crucial issue that has not been addressed is . . .

11. Use Colorful Verbs

12. Using APA-Style Documentation: In-text citations • Name the author (last name only) and provide the date as you summarize: • Smith (2005) argues that x is always true, while Jones (2007) has demonstrated through his research that it is not. • If your citation does not appear in your text, place it in parentheses at the end of the relevant sentence: • Neither of these views is true, however, as has been amply demonstrated by more recent research (e.g., Black, 2007; White, 2008). • To add a reference to an additional text, cite the primary and then the secondary: • (Clark, 2007; see also Diepenbrock, 2008).

13. In-Text Citations • If the article has three to five authors, use all names in the first reference and then et al. for subsequent references. • If the article has six or more authors, use the primary author’s name and et al. • If an article does not have an author, cite the title of the text using quotation marks or italics as appropriate. • If the article has no page or date, use n.p. or n.d. • For each new paragraph begin citations again.

14. Citing Internet Sources • Quoting material from an internet source without pagination: • If paragraph numbers are provided, use them in place of page numbers: • Basu and Jones (2007) suggest the need for an “intellectual cyberspace” (para. 4). • If neither page nor paragraph number is provided, but headings are used, cite the heading and the number of the paragraph following: • Verbunt (2008) found that the “level of conditioning . . .(Discussion section, para. 1) • If the heading is too long, use a shortened version with quotation marks: • According to Golan (2007), “Empirical . . . Behavior” (“Mandatory Labeling,” para. 4).

15. References American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Clark, I. L. (2007). Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation. Upper Saddle Rive, N. J.: Prentice Hall. Columbia University Writing Center. (2008). Writing summaries. Columbia University. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/write/hanouts/summary.html Taylor, D. and Procter, M. (2008). The literature review: A few tips on conducting it. University of Toronto. Retrieved from http://www.utoronto.ca/litrev.html The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center. Review of literature. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved from http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz. How to write a literature review. University of California, Santa Cruz. Retrieved from http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereveiw.html

16. Director -Dr. Chloé Diepenbrock Associate Professor of Writing Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics, & Literature University of Southern California Program Coordinators Ms. Katie Hart NNS & Bilingual Speakers B.A. in Graphic Design University of Houston-Clear Lake Mr. Joseph Boone Distance Services B. J. Journalism UT Austin Writing Center Staff

17. And. . . The Tutors and Receptionists Ann, Irma, Jeff, Jerry, Lori, Mary, Matt, Megan, Michelle, Ryan, Ruthi, & Susie Jillian, Quynh, Tunisha & Vickie, www.uhcl.edu/writingcenter