EDU 516 / LIT 530

There are three common types of literature reviews: 

• Published articles. Here's an example:

  Anderson, M. (2017). Transformational leadership in education: A review of existing literature. International Social Science Review, 93(1), 1-13. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol93/iss1/4

• As an introduction to other types of published articles. This type of literature review is common when someone is trying to build on previous research, or address gaps in the research. Look at the 2nd & 3rd paragraphs of this article:

  Ip, H. H., Wong, S. W., Chan, D. F., Byrne, J., Li, C. r., Yuan, V. S., & ... Wong, J. Y. (2018). Enhance emotional and social adaptation skills for children with autism spectrum disorder: A virtual reality enabled approach. Computers & Education, 117, 1-15. Retrieved from https://login.ezproxy.oswego.edu/login?url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131517302142?via%3Dihub

• An unpublished paper. The assignment you're doing for this class falls into this category. Here are a few other examples of student literature reviews, from students at the University of West Florida:

  • The Effects of Communication Styles on Marital Satisfaction, Hannah Yager
  • Cyberbullying: How Physical Intimidation Influences the Way People are Bullied, Tyler Maxwell
  • Living with chronic illnesses: How are those with a chronic illness treated by their families since their diagnosis?, Maura K. Little

A literature review is a summary of important research on a particular topic. 

A literature review focuses on drawing connections between research studies, which means: 

• Identifying studies that have built on previous research; 
• Identifying studies that contradict previous research; and 
• Identifying gaps and inconsistencies in the research. 

The act of drawing connections is what makes a literature review different from an annotated bibliography.

This video provides a great overview of literature reviews - it's about 10 minutes long: