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ORGANIZING AND WRITING
A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A review of literature is a standard procedure that is followed in writing scholarly paper. Literature review is a requirement  for a  project proposal. The review informs the student what scholars and researchers have learned about the problem. It is an opportunity for the student to examine what solutions have been tried and implemented to correct a specific discrepancy or to solve a problem. The review of literature also informs the reader of the project that the topic or the problem is a legitimate one recognized by the education community.

The steps in organizing a review of the literature are simple and obvious. After the search of abstracts is completed, the remaining steps for organizing material are the following.

  1. The abstracts should be reviewed to remove obviously inappropriate material.
    If information is scant, or most of the information appears to be inappropriate to the student's question, the abstracts can be used as a guide for possible appropriate descriptors. Or, the problem needs to be restated in more appropriate terms.
  2. A determination should be made as to whether the available research is basic or applied research. If no applied research is available concerning the selected topic, the student must decide whether being an innovator is feasible or appropriate. This is a good time to obtain assistance from the professor, advisor, or another available expert. Individuals working on a GTEP project are not encouraged to be innovators and test new methodologies never tried by anyone else. Rather, they are to apply existing solutions in new and innovative ways to solve the problem addressed in the project.
  3. A full copy of each appropriate research study article or report that appears to be relevant to the project should be obtained, reviewed, and either discarded, if inappropriate, or set aside for more comprehensive review. It is recommended that the references provided for each article be scanned to determine if any relevant studies may have been missed.
  4. A detailed analysis of each appropriate research study should be written from the study article. This may include setting up a classification system, taking meaningful notes, and coding them for future use. The notes should include bibliographical data on each article and the interpretation of the researcher's variables, methods, the populations and settings, and results and recommendations. Writing a review from the abstract will result in an incomplete analysis and, in some cases, will lead to inaccurate or inappropriate conclusions.
  5. Studies that share common characteristics may be grouped in categories according to the specific research questions and their results.
The next step is the most difficult. What should be put down on paper after the note cards are organized and information is charted? The review of the literature is generally written in the following manner:
  1. A brief description of the issues or problem area found in this literature is placed at the beginning of the review. This should require only a few sentences.
  2. A brief description of the number of studies and nature of the research and information available can be added. Some items in this description could include:
  1. Whether there were many articles and research reports addressing the issue, or only a few.
  2. Whether the articles and research reports were relevant to the student's setting or needs, or whether the match was poor.
  3. Whether the majority of the information was in the form of research reports, articles, or reviews of the literature.
  4. The major or most important studies related to the student's issue or problem should be mentioned. These are easy to identify. The reference lists in all the articles and reports will cite the most important studies.
  1. The findings in each article or report are summarized. If there are many reports to summarize, they can be broken into subcategories and each given a separate subcategory section in the review.
  2. At the end of all reviews, there is a very brief summary of all of the conclusions discovered in the literature.
  3. The review is concluded with one or two paragraphs relating the final summarized information to the issue or problem being addressed. These should be the solutions selected from the literature to solve your stated problem.
  1. What are the implications for student's planned actions?
  2. What problems or limitations may be expected?
  3. How are the planned actions being influenced by the information summarized in your review?
  4. The strategies that you select to use in your methodology (impementation plan) must be based on the research reviewed within the document.