Writing a Good Lit Review for a Research Proposal

Often, I am asked how to construct or write a good literature review for some research initiative. Many people get flustered, confused and go awry because the ultimate objective remains unclear. Remember, the ultimate objective of a good lit review is to help the reader understand what substantive and scholarly literature supports and reinforces the premise that is being examined. Some may call it “standing on the shoulders of those who have come before”. 

There are typically two approaches to a good lit review: first is a brief description (maybe several paragraphs) that describes the article and how it applies to the research question; a second approach is the development of a story that supports the research question using the literature to bolster the argument for the research itself. Each approach will work, but remember, the underlying premise is to support the research question that is being posed (not a book report like we used to do when in grade school). The research article/source should be evaluated in the context of the research question/problem (that is critical thinking at the master’s level).

 

The other main dilemma is what constitutes scholarly research articles/sources. The types of sources that are NOT scholarly for supporting the research question in a literature review are: newspaper/magazine articles; company web sites; non-supportable web sites (like wiki, et al); books that do not have an underlying research premise (i.e. Good to Great by Jim Collins has a substantive research base and methodology defined in the book which makes it scholarly; others that just posit some premise without underlying research is NOT considered scholarly). 

Scholarly sources can be found in online databases, libraries, etc., and are typically characterized by being peer reviewed, overtly state a research methodology, and/or are published in credible peer reviewed journals, etc. (although Harvard Business Review is not necessarily peer reviewed, it is considered scholarly because it usually contains the methodology, results and findings and are articles published by recognizable scholars). Ask yourself these questions: Is this a credible source? Is the methodology evident and understandable? Is the author recognized as a credible scholarly source? Where did I get this source - web site, book, article in a magazine, or an article in a peer reviewed scholarly journal? If in doubt, one should question whether it is a good scholarly source.

 

One other note is that we often look for research which just supports our underlying research premise (although we want to park our bias, we are human beings and that bias remains). Good lit reviews look at some sources which potentially refute or are contrary to our underlying premise. This way we look at the research from multiple perspectives providing some additional credibility and validity to our work. 

A final note is on academic integrity: you MUST ALWAYS cite your source if you borrow the idea presented OR directly quote-in both cases, one must cite the source in text using APA standards (i.e. author, year in parens at the end of the summation or direct quote; and, place it properly in the reference list at the end of the paper). 

Hope this helps.