Literature Review Exercise
Step 1: Scan your articles.
What major themes or common threads do you see among the articles? Remember, not every article will address every theme, but look for recurring ideas.
Theme 1: ___________________
Theme 2: ___________________
Theme 3: ___________________
(These are the different “tables” your scholars visit, as in the cat video. You can add more, if needed.)
How do these themes relate to your own research interest? If a theme isn’t relevant to your topic, you don’t need to discuss it in the literature review.
Step 2: Read your articles carefully.
Where does the article discuss the theme(s)? Consider using different color highlighters to indicate the different themes.
What does the article say about this theme? Write a brief summary. You can incorporate this into your literature review.
Step 3: Look at the citations used.
Does the article cite any sources that might be useful to your topic? Use the library’s journal list or contact your librarian to find these sources and add them to your literature review.
Does the article cite any source that you already have? Use these connections to link the sources in your literature review.
Step 4: Begin writing your literature review, using the themes to organize your paragraphs.
How can you use your own ideas to connect the source material. Explain how the sources relate to each other, but you must also explain how it relates to your own research topic.
Have you included citations for every outside source?