Analysis of a Literature Review

The Plan

Small group discussion of the class preparation Full class discussion of the small group work What is a Literature Review? Brief Assignment 2 Preparation for Next Class (participation assignment) Brief Assignment 3 Picking a Topic for Draft 1.1

Group Work

Get into groups of 3 (THREE ONLY), introduce yourselves. Exchange papers Read your classmates paper (5 minutes) As a group discuss the following questions (10 minutes):

What is a literature review? What is the purpose of a literature review? What is the purpose of this literature review? Does your classmate’s paper summarize the literature

review or analyze the structure?

What is a literature review:

“your review should not be simply a description of what others have published in the form of a set of summaries, but should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories and approaches. It should be a synthesis and analysis of the relevant published work”

http://www.uk-student.net/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=122

Organization of a Literature Review

Two major organizational styles1. Chronological

By date Oldest first, newest last

2. By theme Topic can be broken down into research addressing

Who How Why

Example available on course website

Structure…

Thematic is most common structure II. ThemeA

a. Overview of characteristics of the theme (commonalities, differences, nuances)

b. Sub-theme - narrow but grouped findings related to the theme i. Study 1 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 2 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) iii. Study 3 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

c. Sub-theme - narrow but grouped findings related to the theme i. Study 4 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 5 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) iii. Study 6 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

d. Etc., etc., etc. with other findings that fit Theme A; studies can be repeated if there are multiple findings that fit under more than one theme. However, no need to rewrite methods/participants in detail (just enough to remind the reader about the study).

Structure - Intro

I. Introduction a. Describe the overall topic that you have

been investigating, why it is important to the field, why you are interested in the topic and why this is important to look at right now.

b. Identify themes and trends in research questions, methodology, and findings. Give a "big picture" of the literature.

Structure – Conc.

V. Conclusion: An evaluation/critique of the existing literature.

a. What are the contributions of this literature to the field? b. What are the overall strengths? c. What are the overall weaknesses? d. What might be missing? e. What are some next steps for research? The next steps

should explicitly address how to "correct" for strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.

Brief Assignment 2: Analysis of a Literature

Review Purpose: To demonstrate your ability to understand what

a literature review is and to analyze its structure. A mistake many students make on this assignment is

summarizing the content and not analyzing the structure. Your task for this assignment is to analyze a literature

review in preparation for writing your own in draft 1.1. Your analysis should focus on the structure of the review

and how that structure demonstrates the author’s purpose for writing it.

BA 2 Continued

DUE: Monday (6/6) night @ 11:59:59 pm 400 – 600 word ESSAY (intro, thesis, body, conclusion) Your

analysis should consider: the author’s purpose for conducting the review the way the author has grouped the research on similar topics and the kinds of information which the author provides about

the sources and their authors in addition, your analysis should consider the rhetorical effect

of the author’s decisions you must also include the author and title of the literature

review in your introduction

BA 2 Cotinued

You MUST use proper in-text citations. We are REQUIRING a works cited on BA2 Chapter 16 in the St. Martin’s e-handbook has the information for

in-text citation.I.E.: Caroli et al. suggest the obesity epidemic could be addressed if healthy messages were delivered through television, but assert that financial gain of television networks, actors, and food companies will be a difficult hurdle in passing proactive legislation (Caroli et al. S106-S107).

Chapter 16 in the St. Martin’s e-handbook has the information for works cited.Hint: the literature reviews are in proper MLA format for a works cited on the syllabus, you can copy paste those onto the end of your assignment.

What Graders Will Be Looking For

C1—Issue Identification and Focus Has the student correctly identified the purpose of the review, that is,

the question(s) that the author is trying to address in conducting the review? Does the student focus on describing the organization of the literature review? Has the student done a thorough and accurate job of discussing the author’s purpose, the way that the author groups the research, and the kinds of information which the author provides about the sources?

C3—Sources and Evidence How effectively does the student cite appropriate examples from the

literature review to support his or her points about organization? How effectively does the student properly integrate quotations and tie these quotations to the main point? Does the student use MLA format correctly?

What Graders Will Be Looking For

C5—Own Perspective How effectively does the student analyze the rhetorical effect of the organization? Is the student’s primary purpose to describe the organization and its rhetorical effect?

C6—Conclusion How effectively does the student’s conclusion pull the analysis together?

C7—Communication How effective is the organization of the analysis? How effective is the student’s writing at the sentence level?

Fun Things To Do This Weekend

Reading 3 – The reading is heavy. I recommend reading the PDF posted to the blog first (this is not on the syllabus).

Then, read 12e from the e-handbook, and then “Moving from Analysis to Synthesis,” pp.176-179 from the textbook.

Next, do the Participation Assignment. Finally, complete the reading with Chapter 3, pp. 27-57 from the text

book. Class Preparation: Participation Assignment Due in class 6/6 (Monday). BA 3 focuses on synthesis between sources. We are going to practice

using movie reviews. See the handout for BA 3 preparation on under “Participation Assignments”

on the class website.

Brief Assignment 3: Synthesizing Sources

The Class Preparation assignment and reading will help you to understand the why and how of synthesizing sources.

Analyzing the structure of a literature review in BA 2 will give you a look at how someone else is synthesizing their sources.

You Should Be Thinking About A Topic For Draft 1.1:

The Forbidden Topics List Chat with a professor in a field you are

interested in for ideas about areas where there is disagreement and need for exploration. The BEST papers come from this method.

Find an interesting article in a scholarly journal and look up the works it cites in the references.

A Personal Librarian can save you a lot of time.