Do literature reviews have a thesis

Do literature reviews have a thesis

¡ “the culmination of the literature review should be a discussion of how your thesis fits into past research” ¡ pages “A Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis in Sociology.” Department of Sociology, Harvard University. p, Aug 04,  · To do a literature review, start by finding a variety of reliable sources that all relate to one topic or theme. Then, read through the sources and come up with a thesis statement for your paper. Once you have your thesis, explain how the sources you used back up your thesis in the body of your literature review Oct 04,  · A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, 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

Literature Reviews – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This handout will explain what literature reviews are and offer insights into the form and construction of literature reviews in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources. A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. 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, do literature reviews have a thesis.

It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop do literature reviews have a thesis new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field.

For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers. Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself. If your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from your instructor:.

Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review.

There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the do literature reviews have a thesis of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Keep in mind that UNC Libraries have research guides and to databases relevant to many fields of study. Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies.

Information even two years old could be obsolete. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period.

Try do literature reviews have a thesis through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is currently of interest to scholars in this field and what is not.

A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. This means that you will not just simply list your sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time. As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider instead what themes or issues connect your sources together, do literature reviews have a thesis. Do they present one or different solutions?

Is there an aspect of the field that is missing? How well do they present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate theory? Do they reveal a trend in the field? A raging debate? Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review, do literature reviews have a thesis. A literature review may not have a traditional thesis statement one that makes an argumentdo literature reviews have a thesis, but you do need to tell readers what to expect.

Try writing a simple statement that lets the do literature reviews have a thesis know what is your main organizing principle. Here are a couple of examples:. The current trend in treatment for congestive heart failure combines surgery and medicine. More and more cultural studies scholars are accepting popular media as a subject worthy of academic consideration.

Now what is the most effective way of presenting the information? What are the most important topics, subtopics, etc. And in what order should you present them? Develop an organization for your review at both a global and local level:. The do literature reviews have a thesis provides a brief description of the content of each:. Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider how you will present the sources themselves within the body of your paper.

Create an organizational method to focus this section even further. To help you come up with an overall organizational framework for your review, consider the following scenario:. But these articles refer to some British biological studies performed on whales in the early 18th century. So you check those out. Then you look up a book written in with information on how sperm whales have been portrayed in other forms of art, such as in Alaskan poetry, in French painting, or on whale bone, as the whale hunters in the late 19th century used to do.

This makes you wonder about American whaling methods during the time portrayed in Moby Dick, so you find some academic articles published in the last five years on how accurately Herman Melville portrayed the whaling scene in his novel. Sometimes, though, you might need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. Put in only what is necessary. Here are a few other sections you might want to consider:.

Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review? There are a few guidelines you should follow during the writing stage as well. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:. However, do literature reviews have a thesis, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones Gastil, Hamilton found that people imagined 3.

Thus, while ambient sexism accounted for some of the masculine bias, sexist language amplified the effect. In the example above, the writers refer to several other sources when making their point.

A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid. Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes.

That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. Some short quotes here and there are okay, though, if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Notice that Falk and Mills do quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study, do literature reviews have a thesis.

But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, do literature reviews have a thesis, check with your instructor. Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review.

Notice that Falk and Mills weave references to other sources into their own text, but they still maintain their own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with their own ideas and their own words. The sources support what Falk and Mills are saying.

For more information, please see our handout on plagiarism. Draft in hand? Spending a lot of time revising is a wise idea, because your main objective is do literature reviews have a thesis present the material, not the argument. Be sure to use terminology familiar to your audience; get rid of unnecessary jargon or slang.

For tips on the revising and editing process, see our handout on revising drafts, do literature reviews have a thesis.

We consulted these works while writing this handout. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback. Anson, Chris M. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers6th ed. New York: Longman. Jones, Robert, Patrick Bizzaro, and Cynthia Selfe.

The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing in the Disciplines. New York: Harcourt Brace. Lamb, Sandra E. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. Rosen, Leonard J. Troyka, Lynn Quittman, and Doug Hesse. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers11th ed. London: Pearson.

The Structure of a Literature Review - Thesis Writing Guide

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Home - Literature Review: Conducting & Writing - LibGuides at University of West Florida Libraries

Aug 05,  · Sample Literature Reviews Search this Guide Search. Literature Review: Conducting & Writing. This guide will provide research and writing tips to help students complete a literature review assignment. Have you written a stellar literature review you care to share for teaching purposes? Literature Reviews Amber Huett, David MacMillan, Katie Crum, and Dr. R. T. Koch July UNA Center for Writing Excellence 3 convey and the sources that explain that general information. You must state your understanding of the topic based on the knowledge you have gained from reading the literature Aug 04,  · To do a literature review, start by finding a variety of reliable sources that all relate to one topic or theme. Then, read through the sources and come up with a thesis statement for your paper. Once you have your thesis, explain how the sources you used back up your thesis in the body of your literature review