Linguistics: Language and Power: Synthesizing your Literary Review

What is a Literary Review: It is a self-standing piece or the section of a larger work that assembles scholarly work related to a specific topic previously written by other researchers. Your literature review will summarize the main points of the scholarly work you found and will include your interpretation, evaluation, and critique of this previous work, integrating the contributions of different authors and referring to the relevancy of these sources to the optic of your topic. Your literature review will highlight points of agreement and disagreement, including yours, in this scholarly conversation.

Find more information about writing a literature review:

• Literary Review Strategies from CU-Boulder University Libraries
• Writing a Literature Review from Purdue Online Writing Lab

The parts of a literature review are usually organized through an introduction, a body where you present the sources you found and offer your interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of these sources, and a conclusion. However, depending on the literature review you are doing, the length of these parts varies. 

• Literature Review as a part of a paper: The literature review that is a part of a paper is presented right after the introduction. This literature review tends to be smaller than a standalone one since it is a fraction of more extensive work.
• Literature Review as a standalone piece: A standalone literature review allows you to expand on each of the parts of this review.

Introduction: This section will introduce your topic and the methodology you followed in selecting your sources. You will also explain how you framed your analysis and what the reader should expect from your review.

Body:  The body contains the bulk of your work, where you will summarize essential points found in your sources, synthesize the information you found, providing your interpretation, analysis, and critique while highlighting issues of contention and agreement. Your voice should flourish in this scholarly conversation as you make connections, compare, and drive readers to see how your selected literature contributes to or affects your topic.

Conclusion: In this section, you will recapitulate relevant points found in the literature, connect them to your research topic, and note why they are relevant in building new knowledge or continuing the scholarly conversation.

You may organize your literature review in one of the different approaches that better suit your topic and the presentation of your sources.

• Chronological: The body of your review may be organized chronologically when you want to provide a sequential structure and note how the selected sources developed progressively throughout time. In this approach, you will organize your review based on the date of publication of the pieces.
• Thematic: The body of your review may be organized following a concept, movement, or subject.
  • For example, if your literature review covers the concept of linguistic nationalism, you could organize your review by grouping authors who refer to linguistic imperialism, nationalistic ideologies through language expression, and communal identity.
• Methodological: The body of your review may be organized by the type of research methodology used by different authors.
  • This approach is useful when your topic draws from different fields that use other research methods than your own or when you are comparing qualitative and quantitative data or considering empirical and theoretical-based research.
• Ideologically: The body of your review is organized by beliefs, principles, doctrines, school of thought, etc. 
  • For example, if the topic of your review relates to bilingual education, you could organize this section by educational philosophies that considers bilingualism as important for integration or detrimental for learning.

Writing Methods

There are three main effective ways to use the work of others in your writing:  

Tip: Summarizing is also a good note taking strategy and allows you to test your understanding.

The more deeply you understand a topic, the better you will be at paraphrasing and quoting.

Read actively! Take notes and make annotations. 

Learn more about when to paraphrase and when to quote.

An essential part of the writing process is revising sentences. Look at the tips below and apply them to your writing when appropriate.

• State the subject of your sentence quickly
• Your subject should be concise and clear
• Use key actions in verbs, not in nouns.
• Build sentences with familiar information at the beginning and new information at the end
• Choose active or passive voice according to the guidelines provided

What is effective writing? Please take a look at it for yourself.

Example 1: Clear sentences

Needs work: A better understanding of student learning could achieve improvement in teaching effectiveness.

Better: A better understanding of student learning could improve teaching effectiveness.

Improved: If we better understood how students learn, we could teach them more effectively. 

Example 2: Focus on the first words

Needs work: The United Nations' insistence on acceptance by all nations of the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples is a product of its recognition that maintenance of stability in the world order requires that values beyond narrow self-interest guide nations.

Better: The United Nations insists that all nations accept the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples because it recognizes that maintaining a stable world order requires that nations be guided by values beyond narrow self-interest.

Improved: The United Nations insists that all nations accept the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples because it recognizes that maintaining a stable world order requires that values beyond narrow self-interest guide nations.

Example 3: Choose verbs carrying actions, not nouns

Needs work: During the early years of the First World War, the Great Powers' attempt at enlisting the United States on their side was met with failure.

Better: During the early years of the First World War, the Great Powers' attempt at enlisting the United States on their side failed.

Improved: During the early years of the First World War, the Great Powers attempted to enlist the United States on their side but failed.

Example 4: Provide familiar information first

Needs work: New insights into global weather patterns are emerging from recent research on the large low-pressure zones rotating above the Earth's poles, known as the polar vortices. Environmental changes that are leading temperatures at the poles to rise, this research suggests, are affecting the vortices. These temperature increases cause the vortices to deviate toward the equator, bringing with them the frigid air responsible for our recent colder winters.

Better: New insights into global weather patterns emerge from recent research on the large low-pressure zones rotating above the Earth's poles, known as the polar vortices. The vortices, this research suggests, are being affected by environmental changes that are leading temperatures at the poles to rise. These temperature increases cause the vortices to deviate toward the Equator, bringing with them the fridge air responsible for our recent colder winters.