Draftinglitreviewpart12

Starting your Lit Review

A lit review is the beginning of your research paper.

Clustering your sources Subject headings What the sources have said

Literature Review: What is it?

First, on a separate sheet of paper, list the last names of all your sources:

Brandt: Wardle: Johnson: Smit:

Creating your categories

Brandt: Test anxiety, stress, statistics

Wardle: writing process, sponsors

Johnson: technology and testing, writing worries

Smit: benefits of FCAT, Benefits of standardized tests

***Think of these as search terms***

Skim your bib, and write down a few key words for each source

Do you notice any patterns or similar terms?

technology, anxiety, stress, standardized testing

From the key terms that you’ve chosen, create a list of the commonly defined ideas

The anxieties of testing: Smit, Brandt The Benefits of FCAT: Wardle, Johns Technology and Writing Stress: Johnson,

Smit

Now, choose your headings, and list the authors that qualify under each heading

Sample Lit Review

Subject headings Topic

generalizations Mix of direct and

indirect citations Making

connections between sources

Drafting Choose one of your subject

headings. Write a generalization about this

heading. Example from a student writing about the influence of the

SAT on college students’ performance: “The stress associated with taking the SAT can

lead students to perform poorly.” Her subject heading was “Stress and SAT.” This topic

generalization clearly introduces the main ideas that she will cover in this paragraph.

It may help to use indirect citations to connect sources. Share.

Direct Citations Deborah Brandt asserts, “Literacy sponsors

are positive or negative influences on a person’s literacy” (338).

Indirect Citations Some sources suggest that literacy

sponsors can have positive or negative influences on a person’s literacy (Brandt; Wardle; DeVoss).

Drafting Get more specific, using indirect citations to

make connections between sources. ◦ Example: Many scholars discuss the benefits of

word processing programs such as Microsoft Word (MacArthur; Lewis).

Drafting Summarize the main argument of one of

your sources. Feel free to borrow from your annotated bib and precis. ◦ Example: More specifically, Lewis asserts that

special keyboards, such as IntelliKeys, enable the user to program the keyboard to appear in any order that is desired (19).

◦ Expand with a direct quote or two (use your precis Share.

Drafting Now summarize another source,

showing the connection between them. (Create a “conversation.”)◦ Example: Lewis defines speech recognition

software, or voice-input, as software that recognizes the voice of the user and records the words as text (19). According to MacArthur, dictation and speech recognition can be very beneficial to students with difficulty in basic writing skills but the limitations of speech recognition software are much greater than dictating to a human.

Share.

Drafting Repeat the process for each of your sources

you listed under your subject heading. Incorporate quotes where necessary or

relevant. Remember to show the connections.

Drafting Now pull all the threads together: identify

the areas of agreement and disagreement, and use them to support your argument. ◦ Example: Both MacArthur and Lewis indicate that word

prediction software was created for individuals with physical disabilities, but MacArthur claims that the benefits of word prediction technology is promising for students with severe disabilities in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Drafting Repeat for each of your subject headings.

Intro and conclusion Intro

◦ Use what you have from annotated bib◦ Refer to your subject headings◦ Point vaguely to gaps

Conclusion◦ Sum everything up◦ Identify gaps in more detail◦ This will eventually be the transition into your

own research