Literature Review Information Literacy Session

Before reviewing the answers, please complete the activity on your own first. To complete the activity, click on the main tab for Literature Reviews, instead of the drop down.

STEP 2: Literature Reviews

ACTIVITY 1: Open Article 1 (found on tab 1 of this Library Guide)

1. Where is their literature review? How can you tell?
2. How can you complete this sentence: "Research on this topic can be characterized by -----------------"
   1. Note: I suggest you read the 1st & 2nd page of this article to determine this. You should not have to read further.
   2. After thinking through the above, then read the discussion box below.

The literature review for "Reading in Graduate School" is entirely within just the last paragraph right before the methods section on the second page of the article. 

Often students think a literature review is just where sources are cited, but in this case, there is a relatively long introduction. The sources are being cited for context, rather than discussing what has been studied in the field. 

We know we have found the literature review in that last, brief paragraph, because it specifically discusses prior literature. 

So, now we can finish the statement "Research on this topic can be characters by: a dearth of studies concerning graduate student reading.  Research on this topic has primarily been focused on undergraduates". 

Have you ever tried to write a literature review & very little was written on it? How could the authors of this article have expanded the literature review?

They could explain what characterizes studies of undergraduate reading. They could have discussed what research has been done on Clinical PsyD doctoral students' experiences, even if not about their reading behavior. Etc. Often journal editors will request that a literature review be shortened, but your faculty likely want yours to be longer than a paragraph. So, consider looking at a related element, or find articles covering only two facets of your topic. Then, make some connections between articles yourself. 

Great! Now use the drop down menu to do the 2nd activity in this step.