A literature review is an essential element of any proposal and academic article; it lays the foundation of your study while also giving readers an insight into the topic of your paper.
Why is it important for papers and proposals to have?
Well, a literature review is essential because it summarizes everything the reader needs to know to understand your paper, from the background to the importance of your study.
Here are a few other things literature reviews provide that elevate the validity of your paper:
Literature reviews help researchers and scholars justify, explain, and support their papers argument through:
Given this, the key elements of a literature review are to:
Literature reviews are the transition from the introduction of your paper to the methodology section, it is the only place where a literature review can make sense while maintaining the flow of the paper or proposal.
Literature reviews are a combo of those two aspects, since they discuss relevant articles to help justify your paper's purpose, but usually by using the methodologies of other papers to do so. For your paper to flow well, a literature review needs to happen right after the introduction and before your paper's methodology.
You have to read everything related to the topic.
It is a common misconception among those writing a literature review for the first time that you must have read everything available on the theme. In reality, you have to pick the most relevant sources about your topic and only focus on them.
You must include all the data you have read.
While it is easy to believe that you must summarize all the information available on a particular topic in your paper's literature review section, you only need to focus on the relevant articles again. And how the data from the articles help support and explain the purpose of your project and the methodology design.
All the sources must be read till the end to be understood.
Another widely believed myth is that you have to read a source from top to bottom to understand it. But this is not the truth here. If the only aspect of an article that supports your project idea is the methodology or the results, then only read those sections. You only need to focus on what aspects of the article you are reading will help support and explain your research project to others. Literature reviews are quick summaries of the relevant literature that is already out there. Whether it's to help explain why you went with a specific research design or to help show that your project will bridge a gap in the literature. You don't need to know or include everything in a literature review, just the relevant aspects that will support your project.
Bibliographies and Literature reviews are the same.
A bibliography is not the same as a literature review. While a literature review discusses how you conducted your research and how your work fits into the overall body of established research in your field, an annotated bibliography simply explains how each source you used is relevant to your work.
A literature review, similar to a bibliography, will consist of a summary of key sources and articles. Unlike a bibliography, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem.
Types of Literature Reviews
Argumentative Review
This form examines literature selectively to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research (educational reform; immigration control), argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and essential form of discourse.
Historical Review
Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, or phenomenon emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.
Methodological Review
A review not only focuses on what someone said in their findings, but how they came to their conclusions, which is their analysis method. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e., those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues you should be aware of and consider as you study.
Theoretical Review
The main goal of a theoretical literature review is to provide an overview of the theoretical foundations, theories, and concepts related to your research. It might discuss theories definitions, models, or key concepts; it might argue in favor of a specific theoretical approach, or combine more than one theoretical concept to create the framework for your own research.
There are more types of literature reviews one can apply to their paper, but these are the most common ones used in research papers and proposals.
A bibliography is the list of sources a work’s author used to create the work. It accompanies just about every type of academic writing, like essays, research papers, and reports. You might also find a brief, less formal bibliography at the end of a journalistic piece, presentation, or video when the author feels it’s necessary to cite their sources. In nearly all academic instances, a bibliography is required. Not including a bibliography (or including an incomplete, incorrect, or falsified bibliography) can be considered an act of plagiarism, which can lead to a failing grade, being dropped from your course or program, and even being suspended or expelled from your school.
Types of Bibliographies
Analytical bibliography
An analytical bibliography documents a work’s journey from manuscript to published book or article. This type of bibliography includes the physical characteristics of each cited source, like each work’s number of pages, type of binding used, and illustrations.
Annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography is a bibliography that includes annotations, which are short notes explaining why the author chose each of the sources. Generally a few sentences long, these notes might summarize or reflect on the source.
Enumerative bibliography
An enumerative bibliography is the most basic type of bibliography. It’s a list of sources used to conduct research, often ordered according to specific characteristics, like alphabetically by authors’ last names or grouped according to topic or language.
There are more types of bibliographies one can apply to their paper, but these are the most common ones used in research papers and proposals.
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