Instructions
What is the Final Format?
As previously stated, the Literature Review: Final Assignment will be written in current APA format, must be a minimum of 16 pages (not including the title page, abstract, and references), and must utilize at least 15 scholarly references. The final format must include the following:
BUSI 610
LITERATURE REVIEW: FINAL ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
What Is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a survey and a discussion of the literature in a given area of study. It is a
concise overview of what has been studied, argued, and established about a topic; it is generally
organized chronologically or thematically. A literature review is also written in essay format.
A literature review is not an annotated bibliography because it groups related works together and
discusses trends and developments rather than focusing on one item at a time. It is also not a
summary; rather, a literature review evaluates previous and current research in regards to how
relevant and/or useful it is and how it relates to your own research. Therefore, a literature review
is more than an annotated bibliography or a summary because you are organizing and presenting
your sources in terms of their overall relationship to your problem statement.
A literature review is written to highlight specific arguments and ideas in a field of study. By
highlighting these arguments, the writer attempts to show what has been studied in the field and
also where there are weaknesses, gaps, or areas needing further study. The literature review must
also demonstrate to the reader why the writers research is useful, necessary, important, and
valid.
Literature reviews can have different types of audiences, so consider why and for whom you are
writing your review. For example, many literature reviews are written as a chapter for a thesis or
dissertation in order to support a proposal or are written in order to help the writer develop a base
of knowledge in a particular business area.
Asking the following questions will assist you in sifting through your sources and organizing
your literature review. Remember, your Literature Review: Final Assignment organizes the
previous research in light of what you are planning to do in your own project.
What’s been done in this topic area to date? What are the significant discoveries, key
concepts, arguments, and/or theories that scholars have put forward? Which are the
important works?
On which particular areas of the topic has previous research concentrated? Have there
been developments over time? What methodologies have been used?
Are there any gaps in the research? Are there areas that have not been looked at closely
yet but should be? Are there new ways of looking at the topic?
Are there improved methodologies for researching this subject?
What future directions should research in this subject take?
How will your research build on or depart from current and previous research on the
topic? What contribution will your research make to the field?
How Do I Organize and Structure the Literature Review?
There are several ways to organize and structure a literature review. Two common ways are
chronologically and thematically. You will be using the thematic structure in this review. In a
thematic review, you will group and discuss your sources in terms of the themes or topics they
cover. This method is often a stronger one organizationally, and it can also assist you in resisting
the urge to summarize your sources. By grouping themes or topics of research together, you will
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be able to demonstrate the types of topics that are important to your research. For example, if the
topic of the literature review is improving productivity in organizations, then there might be
separate sections of research involving service-oriented businesses, production-oriented
businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental organizations, etc. Within each section of a
thematic literature review, it is important to discuss how the research relates to other studies
(how is it similar or different, what other studies have been done, etc.) as well as to demonstrate
how it relates to your own work. This is what the review is for; do not leave this connection out!
What is the Process?
During the first module, you will choose a topic to research from the list provided by the
instructor. After the topic has been chosen/provided, you will begin your project. Listed below is
a recommended outline of steps that will assist you in writing a thematically organized literature
review.
1. Annotated bibliography: Write a brief critical synopsis of each as you read articles,
books, etc. on your topic. After going through your reading list, you will have an abstract
or annotation of each source you read. Later annotations are likely to include more
references to other works since you will have your previous readings to compare, but, at
this point, the important goal is to get accurate critical summaries of each individual
work.
2. Thematic organization: Write some brief paragraphs outlining your categories that state
how, in general, the works in each category relate to each other, how the categories relate
to each other, and how the categories relate to your overall theme. Find common themes
in the works you read and organize the works into categories. Typically, each work you
include in your review can fit into 1 category or sub-theme of your main theme;
occasionally, a work can fit in more than 1 category (if each work you read can fit into all
the categories you list, you probably need to rethink your organization).
3. More reading: Due to the knowledge that you have gained in your readings, you now
have a better understanding of your topic and of the literature related to it. Perhaps you
have discovered specific researchers who are important to the field or research
methodologies you were not aware of. Look for more literature by those authors, on those
methodologies, etc. You may also be able to set aside some less relevant areas or articles
that you pursued initially. Integrate the new readings into your Literature Review draft.
Reorganize your themes and read more as appropriate.
4. Write individual sections: For each thematic section, use your draft annotations (it is
recommended to reread the articles and revise annotations, especially those you read
first) to write a section that discusses the articles relevant to that theme. Rather than
focusing your writing on each individual article, focus your writing on the theme of that
section and show how the articles relate to each other and to the theme. Use the articles as
evidence to support your critique of the theme rather than using the theme as an angle to
discuss each article individually.
5. Integrate sections: Now that you have the thematic sections, tie them together with an
introduction, conclusion, and some additions/ revisions in the individual sections in order
to demonstrate how they relate to each other and to your overall theme.
What Additional Points Must I Consider?
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The following are some points to address when writing about specific works you are reviewing.
In dealing with a paper/argument/theory, you need to assess it (clearly understand and state the
claim) and analyze it (evaluate its reliability, usefulness, and validity). Look for the following
points as you assess and analyze the readings. You do not need to state them all explicitly, but
keep them in mind as you write your review:
Be specific and be succinct. Briefly state specific findings listed in an article, specific
methodologies used in a study, or other important points. Literature reviews are not the
place for long quotes or an in-depth analysis of each point.
Be selective. You are attempting to reduce a lot of information into a small space.
Mention just the most important points (those most relevant to the review’s focus) in each
work you review.
Is it a current article? How old is it? Have its claims, evidence, or arguments been
superseded by more recent work? If it is not current, is it important for historical
background?
What specific claims are made? Are they stated clearly?
What support is given for those claims?
o What evidence and what type (experimental, statistical, anecdotal, etc.) are
offered? Is the evidence relevant? Sufficient?
o What arguments are given? What assumptions are made and are they warranted?
A word of caution: It is absolutely essential that you understand your article. If you do
not understand the article, do not use it. Also, do not depend on the abstract or the
conclusion for a full understanding of what the article says; you can often be misled.
How Do I Find the Literature?
Just as there are many avenues for the literature to be published and disseminated, there are
many avenues for searching for and finding the literature. There are, for example, a variety of
general and subject-specific indexes that list citations to publications (books, articles, conference
proceedings, dissertations, etc.). The Liberty University Online Student Library Services website
has links to the library catalog as well as many indexes and databases in which to search for
resources; it also provides you with subject guides that list resources appropriate for specific
academic disciplines. When you find appropriate books, articles, etc., look in its bibliographies
for other publications and also for other authors writing about the same topics. For research
assistance tailored to your topic, please email the Liberty University Online Librarian.
Tips on Identifying and Organizing Your Findings
There is no way to predict what themes you will find. The themes could include definitions,
topics, theories, agreements, and even disagreements in the literature. Design a descriptive code
word or a few phrases to define each theme (some people even use different colored highlighters
to assist them in organization). With 15 articles and 16 pages of content, you will likely have
anywhere between 46 major themes for your Literature Review: Final. However, it is highly
unlikely that each of the 15 articles that you read will contain all the themes that you have
identified. Below is an example of 10 hypothetical articles with 4 hypothetical themes.
Article
Theme
1
A
2
A, B
3
D
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
B
A, D
A, C
B, C
A, B, C
A, B, C, D
B, C
The chart is not very helpful except as a prelude to further organization. Your Literature Review
must be written thematically, not chronologically. You will not be reviewing one article after
another in your Literature Review; rather, you will be investigating the themes contained in those
articles. Therefore, the organization of your articles will look similar to the following example:
Theme
Articles Cited
A
1, 2, 5, 8, 9
B
2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10
C
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
D
3, 5, 9
You may be pondering as to which theme will go first. Ultimately, the order of the themes is
your decision, but keep the thematic organization logical. The themes provide the subheadings
for the content of your Literature Review: Final Assignment; therefore, this is an efficient way
to organize and write your paper.
INSTRUCTIONS
What is the Final Format?
As previously stated, the Literature Review: Final Assignment will be written in current APA
format, must be a minimum of 16 pages (not including the title page, abstract, and references),
and must utilize at least 15 scholarly references. The final format must include the following:
Title page;
Abstract;
Outline;
Introduction (no longer than 1 page);
Findings (a minimum of 13 pages);
Conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions for further study (a minimum of 2
pages); and
References that are current (less than 3 years) or important for historical background.
Please review the Literature Review: Final Grading Rubric before submission.
View the Literature Review: Final Resources section under the Literature Review: Final
page.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
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