9: Organizing a Literature Review in 10 Steps
Locating relevant articles is only part of the battle (see blog #5 for tips on locating complete articles for your research). Many students get frustrated with the writing process because of the overwhelming feeling that stems from getting countless related articles into the document that will eventually be your entire Literature Review chapter.
I’m assuming here that you’ve located countless articles and they are in a folder (computer or paper) ready to move forward.
Re-name each article to represent its main variables and/or themes. Change “Playing the Game and Paying the Price: Academic Resilience among Three High-Achieving African American Males to academic resilience and black men.
Read the abstract (summary at the beginning of the article) to determine if the article actually covers the variables/themes you plan to write about (ex. Does the article cover college-aged black males when you are interested in high school-aged black males?). Repeat for all articles you’ve saved.
Create folders for each theme you’ve uncovered. I named the folder “resilience” for all related articles. Then drag and drop articles into each folder.
Now that you are all organized, you can begin! I have found that the this part also calls for a bit of process and organization.
As you begin to read, highlight definitions, studies, findings, and new references that apply to your research variables/themes. (I tend to not read every word from beginning to end, choosing to focus on Background, Literature Review, and Findings)
When done reading the article, create a label that identifies each variable/theme. I do this by printing out only the relevant passages (rather than the entire article which can be lengthy) and write the variables/themes on a post-it note.
At the end of this process, review all highlighted passages within your group of articles. This grouping allows you to focus on the development of one section at a time.
While looking at developing this section, determine if you have fully exhausted all parts of the variable/topic (Take notes so you can return to these at the end of section review). For example, have you examined the following parts:
History of the variable/theme (include years)
The major names that developed the theory or concept being discussed
Contrasting opinions and study findings
Aspects that have not been studied
Take time to conduct research to determine if any topics in your notes have been addressed previously, using the Reference section from the articles you’ve located rather than starting fresh with a new search online (This is one of the best tips I’ve ever gotten from a classmate!)
Write this section of your Literature Review.
Repeat for each variable/theme.
I hope this 10-step process has helped alleviate the overwhelming feelings that can come with developing an extensive and thorough Literature Review. Remember, it is easiest to tackle a big project by taking small steps toward your goal.