The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success

This book is clearly outlined with easy-to-understand steps supported by wonderful visuals. The key vocabulary, tips section, and checklist all provide tremendous support to any reader wanting to take the needed steps to write a meaningful literature review. This book provides sections that are concise and to the point, making it very easy for readers to skim and refer back to as needed. I commend the authors for presenting such a complex task with so much simplicity. The exercises provided are a great resource for the reader, as well as to a professor who wants to use this book as a text and assign the exercises as class activities . . . I will be sharing this book with colleagues and recommending it to my graduate students. I will also be considering how I can incorporate this book into classes that I teach.
The strengths of The Literature Review include visuals, graphic organizers, checklists, practice activities, chapter structure, and glossary.

Major strengths are the detail and explicitness of the narrative. Everything is spelled out and there are lots of graphics to present a visual support for the content. The book does not skip anything but also does not talk down to the reader.
Clear, thorough, accessible, easy to read with good examples. Love the mapping in Step Three! The authors do an excellent job of discussing ideas, strategies, and tips. Logical, clear, and helpful conclusions are made throughout.
There is a clear framework for critically thinking about and applying a 6-step process for conducting a literature review . . . Unlike any other book, it provides a deep dive examination of how to approach and complete a high-quality literature review via a systematic critical thinking process.

Literature Review Flow Chart
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction: Doing and Producing a Literature Review
Key Vocabulary
Introduction Overview
The Purpose of a Literature Review
The Literature Review Defined
The Literature Review Process
Mindset: Personal Dispositions on Thinking, Doing, and Deciding
The Ethics of Reviewing the Literature
Reflective Oversight
Plan Wisely Before You Begin
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
1. Step 1: Select and Define a Topic
Key Vocabulary
Chapter Overview
Task 1. Identify a Subject for Study
Task 2. Translate the Personal Interest or Concern Into a Research Query
Task 3. Link the Research Query to the Appropriate Discipline
Task 4. Write the Preliminary Research Topic Statement
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
2. Step 2: Develop the Tools of Argumentation
Key Vocabulary
Chapter Overview
Concept 1. Building the Case for a Literature Review
Concept 2. Arguments—the Basics
Concept 3. Evaluating the Basic Parts of an Argument
Concept 4. Understanding Claims
Concept 5. Building Evidence
Concept 6. Warrant—Logically Connecting the Evidence to the Claim
Concept 7. Complex Claims
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
3. Step 3: Search the Literature
Key Vocabulary
Chapter Overview
Task 1. Select the Literature to Review
Task 2. Conduct a Literature Search
Task 3. Refine Your Topic
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
4. Step 4: Survey the Literature
Key Vocabulary
Chapter Overview
Task 1. Assemble the Collected Data
Task 2. Organize the Information
Task 3. Analyze the Patterns of Data
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
5. Step 5: Critique the Literature
Key Vocabulary
Chapter Overview
What Is a Literature Critique?
Concept 1. Making the Case for the Literature Review
Concept 2. Descriptive Argument Patterns: Factual Reasoning
Concept 3. Implicative Argument Patterns: Implicative Reasoning
Concept 4. The Implicative Argument: Nine Basic Patterns
Concept 5. Backing
Doing a Critique of the Literature: Building the Advocacy Argument
Task 1. Determining the Implicative Logic Pattern Inferred by the Topic of Study
Task 2. Reframe Claims to Meet the Prerequisite Conditions Identified by the Selected Logic Type
Task 3. Build the Advocacy Argument
Concept 6. Fallacies
Concept 7. The Case Is Everything
Summary
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
6. Step 6: Write the Review
Key Vocabulary
The Writing Process: Overview
Task 1. Write to Understand
Task 2. Write to Be Understood
Style Manuals
Checklist
Reflective Exercise
Last Words
Supplements
Supplement A The Role of the Literature Review
Supplement B Literature Review 101
Supplement C Writing a Journal
Supplement D SQRRR
Glossary
References and Further Reading
Index

The essential guide—updated, expanded, and easier to use than ever.
This pioneering book has provided countless graduate students and researchers with a road map to a quality literature review. Using its six-step model, you’ll narrow your research topic, focus your literature search, negotiate the myriad of books, periodicals, and reports about your topic—and, of course, write the review. The fourth edition features:

• New and improved graphics ideal for visualizing the process
• More explanations and tips, especially for writing in the early stages
• An expanded range of learning tools
• Additional reflection sections to direct metacognitive activities
• Four new reference supplements