Literature reviews build a story. You are telling the story about what you are researching. Therefore, a literature review is a handy way to show that you know what you are talking about. To do this, here are a few important skills you will need.
Skill #1: Analysis
Analysis means that you have carefully read a wide range of the literature on your topic and have understood the main themes, and identified how the literature relates to your own topic. Carefully read and analyze the articles you find in your search, and take notes. Notice the main point of the article, the methodologies used, what conclusions are reached, and what the main themes are. Most bibliographic management tools have capability to keep notes on each article you find, tag them with keywords, and organize into groups.
Skill #2: Synthesis
After you’ve read the literature, you will start to see some themes and categories emerge, some research trends to emerge, to see where scholars agree or disagree, and how works in your chosen field or discipline are related. One way to keep track of this is by using a Synthesis Matrix.
Skill #3: Critique
As you are writing your literature review, you will want to apply a critical eye to the literature you have evaluated and synthesized. Consider the strong arguments you will make contrasted with the potential gaps in previous research. The words that you choose to report your critiques of the literature will be non-neutral. For instance, using a word like “attempted” suggests that a researcher tried something but was not successful. For example:
There were some attempts by Smith (2012) and Jones (2013) to integrate a new methodology in this process.
On the other hand, using a word like “proved” or a phrase like “produced results” evokes a more positive argument. For example:
The new methodologies employed by Blake (2014) produced results that provided further evidence of X.
In your critique, you can point out where you believe there is room for more coverage in a topic, or further exploration in in a sub-topic.
For further assistance
If you are looking for more detailed guidance about writing your dissertation, please contact the folks in the Georgia Tech Communication Center.
