How to write a Literature Review:

Step 1: Read a lot.

Sounds simplistic, but the fact is that you do have to read a lot, and
read with care and purpose. There are things that you can do within
the process to make your life easier, and the purpose of this short
document is to point some of them out. Hopefully, this will help.
However, there is no substitute for good, thorough, and hard work.

When you start your reading, start broadly. If you have an area you
are interested in, such as computers in education, multi-media,
distance education, web-based instruction, or some other specific
concentration, start your reading in those areas. Course assigned
reading will help, but you will have to branch outwards and inwards.
Don’t be afraid to follow an area that seems not to be related to your
area. You are trying to define your interests. Allow yourself the
freedom to do that. Here are some tips on how you might branch out,
and/or focus in:

A. Look carefully at the references. Should the author raise a salient

point that interests you and they happen to cite somebody, look up
the citation and read the original source. The original source will
have its own references, follow these. Repeat as necessary.

B. Read from tangentially related fields. Don’t be afraid to look

outside of the literature in IT to other areas. Educational
Psychology, Human Resources, Computer Science, and
Communications Studies are but a few of the related fields with
important information related to our field.

Step 2: Define the area.

The purpose of a literature is to review all of the relevant literature on

a particular topic. ALL OF THE INFORMATION. A daunting task, no
doubt. The reason we do this is to see what has been said about the
subject in order to couch our own research within the context of the
existing body of literature. We are trying to ADD to that body. It is
important to know what that body of knowledge says so that we know
where our own work should go, and, ultimately, does go. Keep in
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mind that when you are reviewing the literature, typically you are
looking at the literature that deals with your particular area. So if you
are looking at motivation in CBT, you would focus on that literature,
and not every thing ever written about CBT.

With that said, you will be reading a lot. No doubt about it. However,
there are a few things you could do to make your life easier, and your
work more focused.

A. Define the sources you will look to for information. With the
explosion in our access to information, this becomes more and
more important. At the beginning of your review of the literature,
state what indices, libraries, and other sources you may have
looked at. Indices might be, ERIC, Psyc Lit, DAI, or other bound or
electronic repositories of printed information. Libraries other than
our own can be searched. Internet access through Gopher or the
WWW will allow you to search libraries from here to Brisbane
Australia. Tell your reader where you looked.

B. Exclude things that are not relevant. When I was doing a study on
screen design, I intentionally did not look at literature before 1984.
1984 marked the beginning of the graphical user interface. I did
not need information that was not related to the graphical user
interface. The point is, I saved myself time and effort in not
reading irrelevant, or dated information. There were references
pre-1984, but they were not technical references.

C. Make no apologies. Don’t tell me your literature review is flawed

from the beginning. Tell the reader where you looked, what you
excluded, but don’t tell them that there are hundreds of libraries
where you didn’t look. As a reader, I depend on you, the
researcher to make good decisions.

Step 3: Keeping track of all of this stuff.

The hard part is trying to make sense of a body of literature that you
will read over a period of, literally, years. In that time, trends will
change, and new things will happen. It is your job to keep track of all
of this so when it comes time to write the literature review, you (1)
know what you are talking about, and (2) don’t have to re-read
everything. Here are some tips on how to manage all of this
information.
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A. Copy articles. Whenever you read something that seems

important, copy it and put it in a file. Even if you think it may not
be important, copy it any way. Importance may grow on you.

B. Write down all bibliographic information on the copy of the article.

Or, copy the table of contents of the journal or book. Double check
when you copy the information that you have all the bibliographic
information. I can’t tell you how frustrated I was when trying to
write a reference list when I had forgotten to get all of the
information.

C. Note cards versus data bases. I know some people who take notes
on 3”x5” index cards. Other people create databases of
information of all they have read. You decide what works for you.
The point is that you will need to keep track of all of this in a form
you can use. EndNote Plus is a piece of commercially available
software that is made specifically for handling and formatting
bibliographic information for writers.

Step 4: Writing it up.

When writing a literature review, keep in mind that you are reviewing
the literature, not summarizing it. For example, if Smith (1978)
conducted a study which found that squirrels preferred pecans to
acorns, you want to say something like the following:

Smith (1978) found that squirrels preferred pecans to acorns.

You do not want to do this:

Smith (1978) conducted a 3x3x3 factorial design

to study squirrels. He concentrated on brown
squirrels, stating “flying squirrels are just too
damn unpredictable to study” (page 54). 1000
squirrels were broken into six groups and given
the choice of nuts to eat. 1 group was given
nothing but pecans, the other nothing but
acorns, and then allowed to switch, BLAH, BLAH,
BLAH, BLAH......

The point is that in reviewing literature, you do not have to summarize

it. If I want to read it, I will. There are exceptions. If you are proving
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a particular study, or disproving a particular study, then you would

want to give more information on the study than the outcomes and
the author with citation. But what you are trying to do is prove a
point, and you are trying to write well and cogently within the confines
of APA format. Use the literature as examples to make your point.

Additionally, if you are citing a bunch of people who say the same
thing, summarize the basics of their point and cite them in string. For
example:

While Smith (1978) says that squirrels prefer

pecans to acorns, his theory was questioned
and disproved by a number of people who
found that there was no significant difference
for nut preference among squirrels (Amos,
1979; Barry, 1980; Catzenjammer, 1980,
Douglas, 1980; Zimmerman, 1983).

For some areas of study, there are a large number of people doing
studies on the topic. For example, the literature is full of studies of
learner control. Some studies say that more learner control is better,
some say that less learner control is better. You can report that
through a narrative, but a chart indicating the authors of the studies,
the findings of the studies, and where the authors fall in all of this
could be helpful as well:

Authors Type of study Findings Problems with

the study
Jones, 1999 2-tailed t-Test NSD Killed the control
group.
Ullmer, 2001 Case Study Users are more Author convicted
likely to like of subject
more learner bribing.
control if they
are bribed.
Williams, 3x3x3 Factorial Preference for Small sample
1998 design less learner size (n=2)
control.

Literature reviews don’t have to necessarily be long, they just have to

be complete. Anything that you can do to help your reader process
this information, and possibly cut down on your own narratives will be
appreciated by your reader.
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Closing Thoughts

Unfortunately, I don’t have any real references for you to read in how
to write a literature review. The most common mistakes people make
are that they don’t do enough literature, or they do too much
literature, or they summarize the literature rather than review it.
Remember that you are trying to set the stage for your own work, and
that outside of the dissertation, you will never have more than about 2
pages in which to do it. I would recommend that you read some
literature reviews to find out how others have done this. See what
you like, and what you do not like. The Review of Educational
Research (RER) publishes nothing but literature reviews. Additionally,
check our library for dissertations done at NIU that have literature
reviews. Also, I would give this handout the very important caveat
that my opinions on what is a good literature review may be different
than somebody else’s. These types of activities are nearly always
situational: What works well as a lit review for one study may not
work for another. Listen to what I have said, and always be open to
other ideas. And as always, if you can help me make this better, give
me your comments.