Literature Review，简称LR，是留学生论文中常见的一个重要部分，以下是本站长期总结整理出的一些要点，供大家参考：
derwentWhat this handout is about
This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Introduction
OK. You've got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, ttle down in your chair, and get ready to issue a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" as you leaf through the pages. "Literature review" done. Right?
Wrong! The "literature" of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. "Literature" could be anything from a t of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly artici shall return
les on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked the sources.
What is a literature review, then?
A literature review discuss published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.陪伴英语
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advi the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
But how is a literature review different from an academic rearch paper?
leicesterThe main focus of an academic rearch paper is to develop a new argument, and a rearch paper will contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a rearch paper, you u the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.
Why do we write literature reviews?
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct rearch, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are uful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a rearch paper's investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is esntial to most rearch papers.
Who writes the things, anyway?cassowary
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Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a ction of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itlf.
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Let's get to it! What should I do before writing the literature review?
Clarify
If your assignment is not very specific, ek clarification from your instructor:
Roughly how many sources should you include?
What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?
mobileShould you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
Should you evaluate your sources?
Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?
多国语言翻译willsonFind models
Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a n of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own rearch or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word "review" in your arch engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic databa. The bibliography or reference ction of sources you've already read are also excellent entry points into your own rearch.
Narrow your topic
There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to r
ead everything that's out there on the topic, but you'll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.
And don't forget to tap into your professor's (or other professors') knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: "If you had to read only one book from the 70's on topic X, what would it be?" Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most minal pieces in the field.
Consider whether your sources are current
Some disciplines require that you u information that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Information even two years old could be obsolete. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, becau what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period. Try s
orting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a n of what your discipline expects. You can also u this method to consider what is currently of interest to scholars in this field and what is not.
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