Writing Assignments Guide

During this step, you will do a majority of your research and locate sources (a.k.a. your literature) that you may use on the primary research project.

Start off by conducting a broad search for material. Use library databases, Google, library books, and other scholarly sources that relate to or dicsuss your topic. Gather some background information on your topic, this being the basic information about your topic; this will help you build a "knowledge foundation" to build your research on. At this time, you can also create a list of search terms that accurately describe your topic and help to find resources. You can use citation managers to help you keep track of any sources that you find. Check the citation sections of those sources as well, you might be able to find even more sources that you can use.

Once you have your resources, it is now time to read through them and begin your analysis of each one. While reading through the information in your sources, take notes on common details, shared themes, and critical gaps of information within each source. Also take note of any details about the sources, such as dates, authority, coverage, methodology, and any relationships with other sources. As part of writing a literature review, you will be building upon your information literacy skills by identifying information needs and determining its accurate use for your needs. You will also be using your critical thinking skills by applying various principles of analyses to identify certain aspects of your chosen resources. To assist with your analysis and review of sources, The University of Toronto's Writing Center provides a comprehensive list of questions you can use to analyze your sources, including a downloadable pdf version.

Once you have reviewed and taken notes on your resources, you now should group each resource together within a few categories. This can help to organize your Literature review when you are ready to writing it. These categories should reflect specific roles that address your overall research question. You can use the following cataegories for this organization:

• chronology- grouped in order of when the resource was published
• theme- grouped together by a particular topic or issue
• methodology- grouped together by the methods used by the authors
• other categories include: theoretical/philosophical approaches, by trend, by publication, etc...

It is up to you and your resources on which method of organization works best. But, by grouping your sources together in these categories, you can then plan out how you want to organize your review.

When writing a Literature Review, remember your are NOT just summarizing the resources or simply critiquing theier effectiveness with the research at hand. Instead, you are going to be organizing the resources, recaping the most important bits of information and re-organizing it in a way that provides interpretations, both old and new, trace the progression of the knowledge on the topic, and possibly evaluating the sources providing the reader with advise on which piece was most signifcant in conducting the research.

Be sure to keep your focus on writing the review. The review is not your primary research paper, but rather a piece of it, and it is an organized review around the ideas within the sources based on certain categories. when discussing the resources, consider how you can use evidence to support your interpretations of the resources. Be selective in what you discuss from each resource, making sure to mention anything that highlights the main focus of your review; whether that is thematic, methodological, or chronological. In this type of writing, you want to use quotes sparingly, if not at all. Literature Reviews should maintain the nature of a survey of resources, so quotes are not as necessary. However, you can use a few short ones here and there, especially if you cannot express the author's words any better.

The main thing to remember is to summarize and synthesize. You should make sure to keep your own voice when writing, and simply "weave" in the resource information points and keep everything organized. Be cautious with quotes and paraphasing, you want to make sure your own voice is front and center, since you are discussing the resources. You can use more paraphrasing and quotes when writing a research paper, but for a literature review, try to avoid it as much as possible. And then, when you have a draft written up, be sure to revise and even revise again. Make sure that everything is organized correctly and if you had an outline prepapred, make sure your writing follows it. Check for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Like any writing assignmnet, you can always connect with a Tusculum Tutor for help reviewing and making sure everything is in order before you submit the review to your instructor.