In this discussion topic, we will explore some resources that are designed to help students understand the concept of a literature review. Please browse these resources and then complete the discussion post below.

• the article by Debora F.B. Leite, Maria Auxiliadora Soares Padilha, Jose G. Cecatti, “Approaching Literature Review for Academic Purposes: The Literature Review Checklist” or you can use this .pdf version.
• the tutorial from The University of North Carolina on writing literature reviews.  You can find this link in Content/Learning Resources for this week.
• the tutorial from UMGC’s Effective Writing Center on writing the literature review.  You can find this link in Content/Learning Resources for this week.

Task:

After reviewing the material on writing the Literature Review posted above, please return to your annotated bibliography, or your last assignment, and begin developing “categories” to help you to organize your sources. For the literature review, you will want to collect your sources into themes, or categories. There are many ways to develop categories–thematic, schools of thought, major authors, or chronological. 

Example: Say that my topic was on women and humor and I wanted to develop thematic categories for my literature review. I would gather current sources from authors researching on many aspects of the topic. However, as I read them over, I might discover that several of them discuss what women’s humor consists of, while others might talk about the difference between men’s humor and women’s humor, and still others might discuss the history of women’s humor. So, I would divide them up into categories: defining women’s humor, men’s humor versus women’s humor, and the history of women’s humor.