Conducting a literature review:
Starting to write the literature review
One of the most difficult things about a literature review is to know when to stop reading and start writing. It is certainly a lot easier to read than to write, and you may have trouble deciding when you 'know enough' to put some ideas down on paper. You need to think of writing as part of the process of researching your review. That is, writing a draft can test your knowledge of your area of study and help you to decide if you need to do some more reading.
If you are reviewing and typing up comments as you go, you should have quite a lot of material already on the page when you start to create your draft. This is where all those notes written in your own words will really pay off. When you think about it, you have probably already written a good portion of your review. Make some decisions about structure, and start stringing those notes and comments together.
If you are having trouble starting to write, you might like to start on a small section of the review. Look for something you feel comfortable with and write about it. You don't have to write the whole review from beginning to end in one go!
Constructing your argument
In order to write a cohesive literature review, you need to present a clear line of argument. That means taking all those critical comments you made in your reading notes and using them to express an academic opinion. A well argued literature review will demonstrate the following qualities:
- A clear relationship between the author's (ie. you) arguments and the evidence. Linking sentences within the passages are used to indicate these links and connections. Summary statements are used at the end of sections to draw conclusions.
- Opinions are backed up with facts and theory in the literature. Examples, citation and quotations are used where appropriate.
- Differing opinions are accounted for, rather than ignored. The author presents his/her evidence, and also makes some attempt to acknowledge opposing viewpoints. The author makes clear his/her preferences rather than 'sitting on the fence' or leaving it to the reader to draw conclusions.
- The sections of the review are clearly connected. There is an outline statement in the introduction which makes the order of the arguments clear, and gives some reason for the author's choice in ordering the material.
Academic language
For many students, the literature review is the section of the thesis which is written in the most formal, academic language. There is not much scope for rhetoric in a results section, but a literature review may allow you to express yourself in a more elegant, academic or literary manner. It is important not to get too carried away. Shorter, less complicated sentences and paragraphs are still better than complicated prose. If you are unsure about what constitutes an appropriate academic voice in a literature review, you should read the literature reviews of some theses in your area. These are available in the library (and there may be copies available in your department).
One of the fundamental qualities of academic language is that it attempts to be objective - criticisms of other author's works need to be fair. It is important to avoid a personalised tone.
You must maintain a respectful, scholarly tone when you are discussing the work of other authors. You need to avoid strong or emotive language. This is especially true of the author's work you criticise. Even if you think a researcher's method was sloppy, his research appalling and his arguments ridiculous, it is not appropriate to say: "this was terrible, sloppy research". Try to use more neutral language. If you say "inconsistant sampling weakens the validity of the results", your readers will understand what you mean.
Likewise, you should avoid personalised comments or language. When you are talking about the arguments presented by other authors, use phrases like "Richardson argues....", "According to Nguyen..." or "the authors state...". Avoid such words as "think" or "feel" when you are talking about scholarly discussion. These are both emotive and inaccurate - you don't know what the researchers feel, only what they reported or said.
Although you need to be polite and fair, you also need to be convincing and decisive in what you say. Sometimes this may mean treading a pretty fine line. Your work needs to sound confident - avoid too many vague or qualifying statements. One "maybe" or "perhaps" per sentence is plenty.