TSLN 694 - Research & professional development

When defining a literature review, it's helpful to think of a scholarly topic as a narrative, a story. All scholarly research on the topic will fall somewhere within this narrative, with established research providing the framework and new research filling in the details or adding new chapters. Your job, in developing a literature review, is to tell the story of your topic.

Literature reviews come in different flavors. Most scholarly articles will contain a literature review section, which puts the author's research in the context of the existing literature--it tells what questions about the topic have already been explored, what has been found, identifies gaps and sets the stage for the question that (s)he is about to explore. Sometimes this section is labeled "Literature Review," other times it may appear in an Introduction section, and sometimes it can be completely unlabeled. Some scholarly works are entirely literature reviews--you'll sometimes hear the terms "systematic" review or "critical" review. These works strive to report a complete overview of the research performed on a topic, including ALL relevant findings as well as any theoretical frameworks that have been developed as a result of the research.

Examples include:

• Literature review section of a scholarly article: see Introduction of Tufvesson, C., & Tufvesson, J. (2009). The building process as a tool towards an all-inclusive school. A Swedish example focusing on children with defined concentration difficulties such as ADHD, autism and Down's syndrome. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 24(1), 47-V. (requires login with your EMU NetID and password)
• Critical literature review: Wang, P., Wu, P., Wang, J., Chi, H., & Wang, X. (2018). A critical review of the use of virtual reality in construction engineering education and training. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(6), 1204. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061204

• Find an entry point in the literature and employ citation chasing. Can you locate two or three existing research articles that address your topic? Look to see what literature they are highlighting in their lit review and use that as a foundation on which you build. Did they identify a seminal work? Are there specific researchers whose work is mentioned in multiple articles? Have these articles been cited? Here's a short video explaining strategies for going about building your search based on a single article:
  
• Look for patterns. As you read resources, try to identify patterns that can help you later with the organization of your document.
• Stay organized. Take detailed notes. Avoid plagiarism by attributing quotes in your notes. Keep track of your resources using a system that you'll understand when you go to write.