Review of Literature

The overall goal of the Review of Literature is to present to your audience the existing knowledge or evidence that is in existence about your identified topic. Be sure to summarize your literature and sort the articles into themes. Synthesize your findings here and identify relationships between any evidence that you have reviewed.  Your evidence tables should be helpful as your begin to write this section.

As you begin to write this section, keep in mind you want your reader to have a full understanding of the topic when they finish reading this section. Read this section aloud, record yourself and listen to yourself. Make necessary adjustments to ensure you transition smoothly and seamlessly from one piece of evidence to the next.  When you listen to yourself read this section, does it make sense? If it doesn’t, it will not make sense to your readers.

Direct quotes should be rarely used, however if absolutely necessary then use them sparingly. Do not include your personal interpretation or opinions. The literature review should contain all objective information. 

You should include a minimum of 10-15 articles here (all of these articles should be appraised through the use of your evidence table). These articles must be from peer-reviewed articles and published in the last 3-5 years. If you found an article that is pivotal to the topic of your project that is more than 5 years old, discuss this with your mentor as this may still be okay because of the significance of the findings.

Conclude this section with a summary of your findings. Make a statement regarding the rationale for performing this project (as evidenced by your literature review).