Dissertation Literature Review

Strategies for Writing Literature Reviews Graduate Writing Center Center for Excellence in Writing Instructor: Matt Weiss Graduate Writing Center Coordinator 111H Kern Building mjw321 psu.edu Overview: This workshop is designed to introduce the process of planning, researching, and drafting a literature review.. Planning: What type of literature review am I going to write As you plan to write your literature review, you ll need to begin by asking, what type of literature review am I writing What are the focus, type, scope, and discipline of my review Focus: What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define Type: What type of literature review am I conducting Will my review emphasize theory, methodology, policy, or qualitative or quantitative studies Scope: What is the scope of material that I will include What types of sources will I be using Discipline: What academic discipline(s) will be included (e.g.. Consider asking the following questions about the field as a whole: What do we know about the immediate areas of this research field What are the key arguments, key characters, key concepts, key figures What are the existing debates/theories What kinds of methodologies are generally employed by researchers in this area Sample language for summary and synthesis: Normadin has demonstrated Early work by Hausman, Schwarz, and Graves was concerned with Elsayed and Stern compared algorithms for handling Additional work by Karasawa et.. Exercise 2: Organizational Patterns Can you correctly identify the organizational pattern for each of these four examples seminal, topical, debate, or chronological Do you recognize any of these from your field Which one are you most likely to use 1) Three important aspects of this field have received extended critical attention: (1) length of time students spend on writing literature reviews, (2) the amount of revision typically required by thesis advisers, and (3) the extent to