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Chapter Four: Theory, Methodologies, Methods, and Evidence

Research Methods

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This page discusses the following topics:

Research Goals

Research method types.

Before discussing research   methods , we need to distinguish them from  methodologies  and  research skills . Methodologies, linked to literary theories, are tools and lines of investigation: sets of practices and propositions about texts and the world. Researchers using Marxist literary criticism will adopt methodologies that look to material forces like labor, ownership, and technology to understand literature and its relationship to the world. They will also seek to understand authors not as inspired geniuses but as people whose lives and work are shaped by social forces.

Example: Critical Race Theory Methodologies

Critical Race Theory may use a variety of methodologies, including

  • Interest convergence: investigating whether marginalized groups only achieve progress when dominant groups benefit as well
  • Intersectional theory: investigating how multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage around race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. operate together in complex ways
  • Radical critique of the law: investigating how the law has historically been used to marginalize particular groups, such as black people, while recognizing that legal efforts are important to achieve emancipation and civil rights
  • Social constructivism: investigating how race is socially constructed (rather than biologically grounded)
  • Standpoint epistemology: investigating how knowledge relates to social position
  • Structural determinism: investigating how structures of thought and of organizations determine social outcomes

To identify appropriate methodologies, you will need to research your chosen theory and gather what methodologies are associated with it. For the most part, we can’t assume that there are “one size fits all” methodologies.

Research skills are about how you handle materials such as library search engines, citation management programs, special collections materials, and so on.

Research methods  are about where and how you get answers to your research questions. Are you conducting interviews? Visiting archives? Doing close readings? Reviewing scholarship? You will need to choose which methods are most appropriate to use in your research and you need to gain some knowledge about how to use these methods. In other words, you need to do some research into research methods!

Your choice of research method depends on the kind of questions you are asking. For example, if you want to understand how an author progressed through several drafts to arrive at a final manuscript, you may need to do archival research. If you want to understand why a particular literary work became a bestseller, you may need to do audience research. If you want to know why a contemporary author wrote a particular work, you may need to do interviews. Usually literary research involves a combination of methods such as  archival research ,  discourse analysis , and  qualitative research  methods.

Literary research methods tend to differ from research methods in the hard sciences (such as physics and chemistry). Science research must present results that are reproducible, while literary research rarely does (though it must still present evidence for its claims). Literary research often deals with questions of meaning, social conventions, representations of lived experience, and aesthetic effects; these are questions that reward dialogue and different perspectives rather than one great experiment that settles the issue. In literary research, we might get many valuable answers even though they are quite different from one another. Also in literary research, we usually have some room to speculate about answers, but our claims have to be plausible (believable) and our argument comprehensive (meaning we don’t overlook evidence that would alter our argument significantly if it were known).

A literary researcher might select the following:

Theory: Critical Race Theory

Methodology: Social Constructivism

Method: Scholarly

Skills: Search engines, citation management

Wendy Belcher, in  Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks , identifies two main approaches to understanding literary works: looking at a text by itself (associated with New Criticism ) and looking at texts as they connect to society (associated with Cultural Studies ). The goal of New Criticism is to bring the reader further into the text. The goal of Cultural Studies is to bring the reader into the network of discourses that surround and pass through the text. Other approaches, such as Ecocriticism, relate literary texts to the Sciences (as well as to the Humanities).

The New Critics, starting in the 1940s,  focused on meaning within the text itself, using a method they called “ close reading .” The text itself becomes e vidence for a particular reading. Using this approach, you should summarize the literary work briefly and q uote particularly meaningful passages, being sure to introduce quotes and then interpret them (never let them stand alone). Make connections within the work; a sk  “why” and “how” the various parts of the text relate to each other.

Cultural Studies critics see all texts  as connected to society; the critic  therefore has to connect a text to at least one political or social issue. How and why does  the text reproduce particular knowledge systems (known as discourses) and how do these knowledge systems relate to issues of power within the society? Who speaks and when? Answering these questions helps your reader understand the text in context. Cultural contexts can include the treatment of gender (Feminist, Queer), class (Marxist), nationality, race, religion, or any other area of human society.

Other approaches, such as psychoanalytic literary criticism , look at literary texts to better understand human psychology. A psychoanalytic reading can focus on a character, the author, the reader, or on society in general. Ecocriticism  look at human understandings of nature in literary texts.

We select our research methods based on the kinds of things we want to know. For example, we may be studying the relationship between literature and society, between author and text, or the status of a work in the literary canon. We may want to know about a work’s form, genre, or thematics. We may want to know about the audience’s reading and reception, or about methods for teaching literature in schools.

Below are a few research methods and their descriptions. You may need to consult with your instructor about which ones are most appropriate for your project. The first list covers methods most students use in their work. The second list covers methods more commonly used by advanced researchers. Even if you will not be using methods from this second list in your research project, you may read about these research methods in the scholarship you find.

Most commonly used undergraduate research methods:

  • Scholarship Methods:  Studies the body of scholarship written about a particular author, literary work, historical period, literary movement, genre, theme, theory, or method.
  • Textual Analysis Methods:  Used for close readings of literary texts, these methods also rely on literary theory and background information to support the reading.
  • Biographical Methods:  Used to study the life of the author to better understand their work and times, these methods involve reading biographies and autobiographies about the author, and may also include research into private papers, correspondence, and interviews.
  • Discourse Analysis Methods:  Studies language patterns to reveal ideology and social relations of power. This research involves the study of institutions, social groups, and social movements to understand how people in various settings use language to represent the world to themselves and others. Literary works may present complex mixtures of discourses which the characters (and readers) have to navigate.
  • Creative Writing Methods:  A literary re-working of another literary text, creative writing research is used to better understand a literary work by investigating its language, formal structures, composition methods, themes, and so on. For instance, a creative research project may retell a story from a minor character’s perspective to reveal an alternative reading of events. To qualify as research, a creative research project is usually combined with a piece of theoretical writing that explains and justifies the work.

Methods used more often by advanced researchers:

  • Archival Methods: Usually involves trips to special collections where original papers are kept. In these archives are many unpublished materials such as diaries, letters, photographs, ledgers, and so on. These materials can offer us invaluable insight into the life of an author, the development of a literary work, or the society in which the author lived. There are at least three major archives of James Baldwin’s papers: The Smithsonian , Yale , and The New York Public Library . Descriptions of such materials are often available online, but the materials themselves are typically stored in boxes at the archive.
  • Computational Methods:  Used for statistical analysis of texts such as studies of the popularity and meaning of particular words in literature over time.
  • Ethnographic Methods:  Studies groups of people and their interactions with literary works, for instance in educational institutions, in reading groups (such as book clubs), and in fan networks. This approach may involve interviews and visits to places (including online communities) where people interact with literary works. Note: before you begin such work, you must have  Institutional Review Board (IRB)  approval “to protect the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research.”
  • Visual Methods:  Studies the visual qualities of literary works. Some literary works, such as illuminated manuscripts, children’s literature, and graphic novels, present a complex interplay of text and image. Even works without illustrations can be studied for their use of typography, layout, and other visual features.

Regardless of the method(s) you choose, you will need to learn how to apply them to your work and how to carry them out successfully. For example, you should know that many archives do not allow you to bring pens (you can use pencils) and you may not be allowed to bring bags into the archives. You will need to keep a record of which documents you consult and their location (box number, etc.) in the archives. If you are unsure how to use a particular method, please consult a book about it. [1] Also, ask for the advice of trained researchers such as your instructor or a research librarian.

  • What research method(s) will you be using for your paper? Why did you make this method selection over other methods? If you haven’t made a selection yet, which methods are you considering?
  • What specific methodological approaches are you most interested in exploring in relation to the chosen literary work?
  • What is your plan for researching your method(s) and its major approaches?
  • What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?

Write your answers in a webcourse discussion page.

example of foreign literature in research

  • Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research Project  by Catherine, Dr. Dawson
  • Practical Research Methods: A User-Friendly Guide to Mastering Research Techniques and Projects  by Catherine Dawson
  • Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches  by John W. Creswell  Cheryl N. Poth
  • Qualitative Research Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice  by Michael Quinn Patton
  • Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches  by John W. Creswell  J. David Creswell
  • Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners  by Ranjit Kumar
  • Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques  by C.R. Kothari

Strategies for Conducting Literary Research Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer & John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Foreign Literatures in America

Foreign Literatures in America (FLA) is a project devoted to the recovery and understanding of the significance of foreign authored literary works, as well as immigrant authored literary works, in the U.S. throughout U.S. history. Our principal mission is to challenge conceptions of “American literature” that turn upon the American citizenship of an author—when historically it is clear that foreign authored works, as well as works by immigrant authors who wrote in many languages and were not citizens of the United States, have long profoundly constituted an important part of the literatures and cultures of the U.S. This project thus seeks to offer many fresh opportunities to globalize the terms through which we understand American literature and American culture, both of these domains rediscovered as richly constituted and interpenetrated by global texts, concerns, contexts, voices. FLA pursues these goals by offering various means of studying the reception of foreign and immigrant authored literary works in the U.S., in interdisciplinary terms that encompass literature, culture, politics, history, and international relations. **Archival resources: **The project offers extensive archival resources of primary reception materials (i.e., accounts of “foreign” authors and works in newspapers, magazines, images, rarer archives, etc.) accessible in themselves, browsable in useful arrays, and searchable and subject to certain forms of quantitative analysis by nuanced means. Laboratories: The project develops laboratories based on cutting edge tools of machine learning drawn from recent digital humanities innovations in the areas of topics modeling and sentiment analysis; these laboratories allow users to mine large databases of “big data” already assembled for meaningful patterns and insights of literary reception. Book review pages: The project assembles its own smaller databases of book review pages from various U.S. newspapers and periodicals over time (beginning with the New York Times, The New Republic, and The Crisis), subject not only to the kind of searching and quantitative techniques of analysis found in the archival and laboratory sections, but also to comparative quantification of the most frequently mentioned authors in user-determined time frames and periodical ranges—(these book review pages thus become a powerful means of recovering forgotten literary and cultural history). Collective Forum: FLA is a committedly and internationally a collective forum for research, innovation, discussion, and collaboration, one in which blogging and various forms of collective interchange, suggestion, and crowd-sourced cooperation are facilitated—both as concerns all the research functions described above, and also toward innovation of further functions FLA could undertake. Beyond the general aims and specific outcomes noted above, there are two specific aims of this project that should be emphasized. First, in the shorter term, rather than do full comprehensive justice to any one of the functions described above, we are really trying to “open the door” with respect to them all, encouraging different teams of faculty and student researches both at the University of Maryland and around the country and world to develop dynamic possibilities for this project. Anyone interested in the kind of scholarly and analytic priorities foregrounded by the project is most warmly encouraged to contact us with your ideas and to join our project. The second point is more long term: though this project does aim to offer the means for a wholesale remapping of American literary studies (what this domain consists of, which voices and texts, why they are important), it is also a project of significance not only among university and academic research communities but also in larger social domains of education as well—including not only secondary schools and undergraduate pedagogy and also those interested in non-traditional education forms in our culture and society generally. This general goal of making a productive globalizing contribution to American education in the broadest possible terms is an ultimate aspiration for this project. The technological infrastructure for this project has been supported in part by a generous grant from  Amazon Web Services .

Participants

  • FLA Project Website
  • Faculty Fellowships Open Up New Avenues for Research Collaboration August 29, 2011 MITH
  • Beginnings… December 7, 2011 Peter Mallios
  • Searching for the Quantum Dimension of Foreign Literature December 21, 2011 Rebecca Borden
  • Reinventing the Boundaries of American Literature January 9, 2012 Nicholas Slaughter
  • Telling the Story of Foreign Literatures in America January 23, 2012 Jennifer Wellman
  • Extremely Visible and Incredibly Close Reading of Logos February 7, 2012 Amanda Visconti
  • Open Water February 20, 2012 Peter Mallios
  • My Dissertation in the Year 2112 March 6, 2012 Rebecca Borden
  • Archive of Emotion April 2, 2012 Katherine Stanutz
  • Names of the Game April 16, 2012 Nicholas Slaughter
  • Progress Update on the Modern British Archive May 9, 2012 Jennifer Wellman
  • On Fish, FLA, and the Digital Humanities May 23, 2012 Peter Mallios
  • An Undergraduate View of Data Mining with WEKA November 5, 2012 Peter Mallios
  • Asking Questions of Lots of Text with Weka December 18, 2012 Peter Mallios
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Foreign Language Literatures

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This guide is meant to assist you in searching for foreign language literatures. It has information on how to search our library for foreign language titles, as well as selected resources for various language literatures.

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For Languages Taught at UND, each specific language tab on the left contains:

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Information on  foreign language learning  is contained on its own guide. 

Information on  Linguistics  is contained on its own guide.

More foreign language film titles are on the  DVDs and Streaming Video  guide.

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Literature: A Research Guide for Graduate Students

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Welcome! This guide is maintained by Odile Harter , the library liaison to the departments of Comparative Literature and English. Here you'll find:

Get Started - a to-do list for new graduate students

Find a Database - how to locate the best search engines for your field or project

Research Dos & Don'ts - tips to help you be productive and efficient

All of which supplement Literary Research in Harvard Libraries , where you will find my favorite tools and strategies to:

  • Get Organized - access, organize, and cite
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CHAPTER 2 Review of Related Literature and Studies Foreign Literature Student Performance Galiher

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Foreign Literature

example of foreign literature in research

Foreign Literature , founded in 1980, has the longest history and the biggest influence among professional academic publications in the foreign literature research in China. Editors of the journal are researchers from the Institute of Foreign Literature, Beijing Foreign Studies University, and the editorial board is comprised of renowned scholars from home and abroad.  

The journal conducts anonymous peer review. Famous scholars including Wang Zuoliang and Hu Wenzhong have served as its editor-in-chief, and the current editor-in-chief is Professor Jin Li. 

With foreign literature researchers and enthusiasts as its main readers, the journal pays extensive attention to the languages and literature of various nationalities around the world, introduces the trends of foreign writers and their works and researches and develops critical theory. It publishes the latest results of foreign literature research, and promotes academic dialogue among different countries, regions and cultures.

The journal advocates in-depth research and new explorations, adheres to its literary nature, pursues an open, accurate, and concise style of writing, and is committed to creating a flourishing, lively academic atmosphere.

It is now a bimonthly magazine with columns such as Review, Theory, Cultural Research, and Book Reviews. In addition, it is a Chinese core journal, a source journal of the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI), and a level-A core journal of AMI Comprehensive Evaluation of Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences Journals. It hosts a national academic seminar every year.

International subscription is made through China International Book Trading Corporation, 35 West ChegongzhuangRoad, Haidian District, Beijing 100048, China.

Manuscripts must adhere to MLA Style. Submission: http://wgwxqk.cbpt.cnki.net

Editorial correspondence should be addressed to Foreign Literature, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing100089, China. Tel.: 86-10-88816730; Email: [email protected]

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How to Make a Literature Review in Research (RRL Example)

example of foreign literature in research

What is an RRL in a research paper?

A relevant review of the literature (RRL) is an objective, concise, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article. In an RRL, you discuss knowledge and findings from existing literature relevant to your study topic. If there are conflicts or gaps in existing literature, you can also discuss these in your review, as well as how you will confront these missing elements or resolve these issues in your study.

To complete an RRL, you first need to collect relevant literature; this can include online and offline sources. Save all of your applicable resources as you will need to include them in your paper. When looking through these sources, take notes and identify concepts of each source to describe in the review of the literature.

A good RRL does NOT:

A literature review does not simply reference and list all of the material you have cited in your paper.

  • Presenting material that is not directly relevant to your study will distract and frustrate the reader and make them lose sight of the purpose of your study.
  • Starting a literature review with “A number of scholars have studied the relationship between X and Y” and simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar concluded is not going to strengthen your paper.

A good RRL DOES:

  • Present a brief typology that orders articles and books into groups to help readers focus on unresolved debates, inconsistencies, tensions, and new questions about a research topic.
  • Summarize the most relevant and important aspects of the scientific literature related to your area of research
  • Synthesize what has been done in this area of research and by whom, highlight what previous research indicates about a topic, and identify potential gaps and areas of disagreement in the field
  • Give the reader an understanding of the background of the field and show which studies are important—and highlight errors in previous studies

How long is a review of the literature for a research paper?

The length of a review of the literature depends on its purpose and target readership and can vary significantly in scope and depth. In a dissertation, thesis, or standalone review of literature, it is usually a full chapter of the text (at least 20 pages). Whereas, a standard research article or school assignment literature review section could only be a few paragraphs in the Introduction section .

Building Your Literature Review Bookshelf

One way to conceive of a literature review is to think about writing it as you would build a bookshelf. You don’t need to cut each piece by yourself from scratch. Rather, you can take the pieces that other researchers have cut out and put them together to build a framework on which to hang your own “books”—that is, your own study methods, results, and conclusions.

literature review bookshelf

What Makes a Good Literature Review?

The contents of a literature review (RRL) are determined by many factors, including its precise purpose in the article, the degree of consensus with a given theory or tension between competing theories, the length of the article, the number of previous studies existing in the given field, etc. The following are some of the most important elements that a literature review provides.

Historical background for your research

Analyze what has been written about your field of research to highlight what is new and significant in your study—or how the analysis itself contributes to the understanding of this field, even in a small way. Providing a historical background also demonstrates to other researchers and journal editors your competency in discussing theoretical concepts. You should also make sure to understand how to paraphrase scientific literature to avoid plagiarism in your work.

The current context of your research

Discuss central (or peripheral) questions, issues, and debates in the field. Because a field is constantly being updated by new work, you can show where your research fits into this context and explain developments and trends in research.

A discussion of relevant theories and concepts

Theories and concepts should provide the foundation for your research. For example, if you are researching the relationship between ecological environments and human populations, provide models and theories that focus on specific aspects of this connection to contextualize your study. If your study asks a question concerning sustainability, mention a theory or model that underpins this concept. If it concerns invasive species, choose material that is focused in this direction.

Definitions of relevant terminology

In the natural sciences, the meaning of terms is relatively straightforward and consistent. But if you present a term that is obscure or context-specific, you should define the meaning of the term in the Introduction section (if you are introducing a study) or in the summary of the literature being reviewed.

Description of related relevant research

Include a description of related research that shows how your work expands or challenges earlier studies or fills in gaps in previous work. You can use your literature review as evidence of what works, what doesn’t, and what is missing in the field.

Supporting evidence for a practical problem or issue your research is addressing that demonstrates its importance: Referencing related research establishes your area of research as reputable and shows you are building upon previous work that other researchers have deemed significant.

Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews can differ in structure, length, amount, and breadth of content included. They can range from selective (a very narrow area of research or only a single work) to comprehensive (a larger amount or range of works). They can also be part of a larger work or stand on their own.

types of literature reviews

  • A course assignment is an example of a selective, stand-alone work. It focuses on a small segment of the literature on a topic and makes up an entire work on its own.
  • The literature review in a dissertation or thesis is both comprehensive and helps make up a larger work.
  • A majority of journal articles start with a selective literature review to provide context for the research reported in the study; such a literature review is usually included in the Introduction section (but it can also follow the presentation of the results in the Discussion section ).
  • Some literature reviews are both comprehensive and stand as a separate work—in this case, the entire article analyzes the literature on a given topic.

Literature Reviews Found in Academic Journals

The two types of literature reviews commonly found in journals are those introducing research articles (studies and surveys) and stand-alone literature analyses. They can differ in their scope, length, and specific purpose.

Literature reviews introducing research articles

The literature review found at the beginning of a journal article is used to introduce research related to the specific study and is found in the Introduction section, usually near the end. It is shorter than a stand-alone review because it must be limited to very specific studies and theories that are directly relevant to the current study. Its purpose is to set research precedence and provide support for the study’s theory, methods, results, and/or conclusions. Not all research articles contain an explicit review of the literature, but most do, whether it is a discrete section or indistinguishable from the rest of the Introduction.

How to structure a literature review for an article

When writing a literature review as part of an introduction to a study, simply follow the structure of the Introduction and move from the general to the specific—presenting the broadest background information about a topic first and then moving to specific studies that support your rationale , finally leading to your hypothesis statement. Such a literature review is often indistinguishable from the Introduction itself—the literature is INTRODUCING the background and defining the gaps your study aims to fill.

The stand-alone literature review

The literature review published as a stand-alone article presents and analyzes as many of the important publications in an area of study as possible to provide background information and context for a current area of research or a study. Stand-alone reviews are an excellent resource for researchers when they are first searching for the most relevant information on an area of study.

Such literature reviews are generally a bit broader in scope and can extend further back in time. This means that sometimes a scientific literature review can be highly theoretical, in addition to focusing on specific methods and outcomes of previous studies. In addition, all sections of such a “review article” refer to existing literature rather than describing the results of the authors’ own study.

In addition, this type of literature review is usually much longer than the literature review introducing a study. At the end of the review follows a conclusion that once again explicitly ties all of the cited works together to show how this analysis is itself a contribution to the literature. While not absolutely necessary, such articles often include the terms “Literature Review” or “Review of the Literature” in the title. Whether or not that is necessary or appropriate can also depend on the specific author instructions of the target journal. Have a look at this article for more input on how to compile a stand-alone review article that is insightful and helpful for other researchers in your field.

literature review examples

How to Write a Literature Review in 6 Steps

So how do authors turn a network of articles into a coherent review of relevant literature?

Writing a literature review is not usually a linear process—authors often go back and check the literature while reformulating their ideas or making adjustments to their study. Sometimes new findings are published before a study is completed and need to be incorporated into the current work. This also means you will not be writing the literature review at any one time, but constantly working on it before, during, and after your study is complete.

Here are some steps that will help you begin and follow through on your literature review.

Step 1: Choose a topic to write about—focus on and explore this topic.

Choose a topic that you are familiar with and highly interested in analyzing; a topic your intended readers and researchers will find interesting and useful; and a topic that is current, well-established in the field, and about which there has been sufficient research conducted for a review. This will help you find the “sweet spot” for what to focus on.

Step 2: Research and collect all the scholarly information on the topic that might be pertinent to your study.

This includes scholarly articles, books, conventions, conferences, dissertations, and theses—these and any other academic work related to your area of study is called “the literature.”

Step 3: Analyze the network of information that extends or responds to the major works in your area; select the material that is most useful.

Use thought maps and charts to identify intersections in the research and to outline important categories; select the material that will be most useful to your review.

Step 4: Describe and summarize each article—provide the essential information of the article that pertains to your study.

Determine 2-3 important concepts (depending on the length of your article) that are discussed in the literature; take notes about all of the important aspects of this study relevant to the topic being reviewed.

For example, in a given study, perhaps some of the main concepts are X, Y, and Z. Note these concepts and then write a brief summary about how the article incorporates them. In reviews that introduce a study, these can be relatively short. In stand-alone reviews, there may be significantly more texts and more concepts.

Step 5: Demonstrate how these concepts in the literature relate to what you discovered in your study or how the literature connects the concepts or topics being discussed.

In a literature review intro for an article, this information might include a summary of the results or methods of previous studies that correspond to and/or confirm those sections in your own study. For a stand-alone literature review, this may mean highlighting the concepts in each article and showing how they strengthen a hypothesis or show a pattern.

Discuss unaddressed issues in previous studies. These studies that are missing something you address are important to include in your literature review. In addition, those works whose theories and conclusions directly support your findings will be valuable to review here.

Step 6: Identify relationships in the literature and develop and connect your own ideas to them.

This is essentially the same as step 5 but focused on the connections between the literature and the current study or guiding concepts or arguments of the paper, not only on the connections between the works themselves.

Your hypothesis, argument, or guiding concept is the “golden thread” that will ultimately tie the works together and provide readers with specific insights they didn’t have before reading your literature review. Make sure you know where to put the research question , hypothesis, or statement of the problem in your research paper so that you guide your readers logically and naturally from your introduction of earlier work and evidence to the conclusions you want them to draw from the bigger picture.

Your literature review will not only cover publications on your topics but will include your own ideas and contributions. By following these steps you will be telling the specific story that sets the background and shows the significance of your research and you can turn a network of related works into a focused review of the literature.

Literature Review (RRL) Examples

Because creating sample literature reviews would take too long and not properly capture the nuances and detailed information needed for a good review, we have included some links to different types of literature reviews below. You can find links to more literature reviews in these categories by visiting the TUS Library’s website . Sample literature reviews as part of an article, dissertation, or thesis:

  • Critical Thinking and Transferability: A Review of the Literature (Gwendolyn Reece)
  • Building Customer Loyalty: A Customer Experience Based Approach in a Tourism Context (Martina Donnelly)

Sample stand-alone literature reviews

  • Literature Review on Attitudes towards Disability (National Disability Authority)
  • The Effects of Communication Styles on Marital Satisfaction (Hannah Yager)

Additional Literature Review Format Guidelines

In addition to the content guidelines above, authors also need to check which style guidelines to use ( APA , Chicago, MLA, etc.) and what specific rules the target journal might have for how to structure such articles or how many studies to include—such information can usually be found on the journals’ “Guide for Authors” pages. Additionally, use one of the four Wordvice citation generators below, choosing the citation style needed for your paper:

Wordvice Writing and Academic Editing Resources

Finally, after you have finished drafting your literature review, be sure to receive professional proofreading services , including paper editing for your academic work. A competent proofreader who understands academic writing conventions and the specific style guides used by academic journals will ensure that your paper is ready for publication in your target journal.

See our academic resources for further advice on references in your paper , how to write an abstract , how to write a research paper title, how to impress the editor of your target journal with a perfect cover letter , and dozens of other research writing and publication topics.

How to undertake a literature search: a step-by-step guide

Affiliation.

  • 1 Literature Search Specialist, Library and Archive Service, Royal College of Nursing, London.
  • PMID: 32279549
  • DOI: 10.12968/bjon.2020.29.7.431

Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. Breaking the exercise down into smaller steps will make the process more manageable. This article suggests 10 steps that will help readers complete this task, from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for the search and saving the results and search strategy. It discusses each of the steps in a little more detail, with examples and suggestions on where to get help. This structured approach will help readers obtain a more focused set of results and, ultimately, save time and effort.

Keywords: Databases; Literature review; Literature search; Reference management software; Research questions; Search strategy.

  • Databases, Bibliographic*
  • Information Storage and Retrieval / methods*
  • Nursing Research
  • Review Literature as Topic*

Do a more advanced search »

Essays about: "example of foreign literature in research"

Showing result 1 - 5 of 18 essays containing the words example of foreign literature in research .

1. Exploring the Integration of Artificial Intelligence Tools in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Pedagogy. A Literature Review

Author : Rasmus Andersson ; Axel Ringhagen ; Albin Tapper ; [2024-01-18] Keywords : Teachers ; implementing AI ; EFL classroom ;

Abstract : The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in schools has sparked a polarised debate about its negative impact on critical thinking, plagiarism, and problem-solving skills. Future educators will be affected by the tools, prompting this thesis to explore their potential benefits and challenges through a literature review. READ MORE

2. DOES FOREIGN AID PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS? Evidence from a quantitative large-N study of 121 aid-receiving countries, 2003-2021

Author : Nora Engvall Olmås ; [2023-10-30] Keywords : human rights ; physical integrity rights ; civil liberties ; foreign aid ; Official Development Assistance ; bilateral aid ; multilateral aid ;

Abstract : Human rights are in crisis. Even if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrates 75 years in 2023, the anniversary comes at a time when the world is experiencing human suffering so grave that international human rights organizations are alerting for a global human rights crisis. READ MORE

3. Pedagogical Tools Available for the Development of Reading Skills in English as a Second Language (ESL) for Students with Dyslexia - A Literature Review

Author : Sebastian Lindgren ; [2023] Keywords : dyslexia ; reading skills ; reading comprehension ; literacy ; pedagogical tools ; English as a Second Language ESL ; English as a Foreign Language EFL ; upper secondary school. ;

Abstract : Dyslexia is a widely known disorder that impairs the diagnosed students’ literacy in multiple ways. There is a lot of research done on how dyslexia hinders literacy skills in a person's first language; however, not as much research has been done on how the disorder affects the reading skills in English as a second language (ESL). READ MORE

4. Challenges faced by Chinese Brands in Internationalisation – Taking ‘Anta’ as an Example.

Author : Fu Luomanni ; Yang Liying ; Wu Lisuichao ; [2022] Keywords : Brand Internationalisation ; Internationalisation ; Anta company ; Sportswear ; China ; MNEs ; MNCs. ;

Abstract : Background: Since the Go Global policy in 1999, Chinese firms have been growing and expanding exponentially in the global market. The internationalisation of Chinese firms has attracted not only business partners, policy makers but also researchers with their unconventional process and method. READ MORE

5. The role of Networking in Internationalization - The case of Swedish fashion firms’ internationalization

Author : Melina Amel Sayyah ; Karl Rydberg ; [2019-08-08] Keywords : Networks ; Networking ; Internationalization ; Foreign market entry ; Fashion firms ; Fashion industry ; Sweden ;

Abstract : Research has shown that networking is a crucial factor for successful internationalization of firms. The role of both formal and informal networks has been stressed as essential to access networks abroad. READ MORE

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COMMENTS

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  2. How to Write a Literature Review

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    Abstract. Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. Breaking the exercise down into smaller steps will make the process more manageable. This article suggests 10 steps that will help readers complete this task, from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for the search and saving the results and search strategy.

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    The rest of this study is organized as follows. First, after the introduction section, the literature review of the various CSFs is depicted in Section II. Section III reveals research methods, where MCDM, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis, the sampling procedure, and the Delphi method are presented in detail.