Module 9: Am I Writing an Annotated Bibliography or a Literature Review?

Differences Between an Annotated Bibliography and a Literature Review

The biggest challenge that you can encounter when you are writing a Literature Review is how to present the relevant studies.  You have spent hours researching and reviewing journal articles about research studies that are relevant to your topic. You want to share them and the easiest way is to describe each of the studies in a paragraph or two.  This is a logical process, but it can get confusing to your readers if you just bombard them with study after study without any additional narrative that ties them together.  This sort of content presentation is called an Annotated Bibliography. (Not how you should organize your literature review.)

Annotated Bibliography

When the emphasis of a written document is individual articles, then is it called an Annotated Bibliography.

An Annotated Bibliography is defined as a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. (Engle, 2016)

Annotated Bibliography Example:

Technology Integration Research Review: Annotated Bibliography
Please notice how each of these descriptions of an article stands on its own.  There is no reference to other articles or discussion about how they might be used together. to substantiate an idea.

A Literature Review

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A Literature Review can be defined as “a well-written analytical narrative that brings readers up-to-date on what is known about a given topic.”   Helen Mongan-Rallis (2006) states that a literature review “goes well beyond merely summarizing professional literature.  It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of the relationship between different works, and relating this research to your work.“

We are writing an Integrative Review which “reviews, critiques, and synthesizes the representative literature on a topic in an integrated way that new frameworks . . . are generated.”  This type of review includes all of the studies that the author can find that are relevant to a specific topic or theme in the research. The studies are organized using the topics/themes as the framework, not the articles. (USC Libraries, 2005)

Buttram, MacMillan, and Koch (2012) created a table that compares Annotated Bibliographies with Literature Reviews.  This graphic contrasts the purpose, structure, and components found in each of this genre.

Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr.
Updated November 2012
UNA Center for Writing Excellence

Furthermore, they created a figure that describes how an annotated bibliography can feed into a literature review.  This is especially useful because it depicts how appropriate studies are compared and contrasted throughout a literature review.  The review is driven by the topics/themes, not the research.  The research is just used to provide the necessary foundation for discussing each topic/theme.

Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr.
Updated November 2012
UNA Center for Writing Excellence

An annotated bibliography might be a valuable way to organize your research, but ultimately you will want to use your findings to share and substantiate your interpretation of how studies have explored the various themes and subthemes of your selected research topic.

Is it clearer now?  What are the realizations that you experienced?  Are you still confused about the structure or intent of a literature review? 

Please answer these questions and provide any other resources that you may deem useful for you colleagues by placing them in the comments section of this RWLD.

Z

Module 8: Describing Your Methodology

Your methodology is an important part of your review because if verifies the exhaustive research that you used as a basis for your analysis.

You need to explain to your reader how you located your sources; what you used to decide which of your discovered should be further examined; the procedures you used to analyze your sources; and the criteria you used. 

The parts of the methodology are thoroughly discussed on the Methodology Assignment page.

The Methodology is one of the parts in your literature review where you can write in the first person.  You can say "I used ERIC and Education Abstract to search for relevant resources."


How to Write a Methodology

This 9-minute video reviews the parts of a methodology and explores 4 example methodologies.



Examples

Here is a link to the Methodology Examples reviewed in the video.

Module 7: Using APA to Write a Lit Review and How to Write the Introduction

You know what to write, now you need to explore how to write it. This module will provide some guidance on how to write a literature review. It will discuss the content and the writing techniques that you should use to create a successful review. (NOTE: This video talks about "research questions" - in our class we are discussing "research themes." We try to answer Research Questions. Research Themes are used to organize discussions about what is being researched in specific fields.

Writing Using APA Format
You may be tired of reading about writing in APA format.  You have a whole book filled with that information, don't you?  Here are 2 great videos that you should spend less than 15 minutes watching. They deal with citing references and how to write the references on the References page. Not exciting but informative. You will also fin the  Enjoy.

• Citing in APA Format describes how to cite sources effectively in your writing and how to vary your writing when citing sources (5 minutes).
• Writing References According to the APA Manual explains how to format your reference list (9 minutes).
• APA Format: A Quick Guide is a cheat sheet for using APA.  It details paper format, citations, quotes, and references. 
• Dos and Don'ts of Writing a Literature Review Read through this document once now, and then once before you begin writing your paper. It's interesting how many of the tips will stick with you and shout out when you are writing.

Writing an Introduction
The Introduction is the most important part of your review.  This is where you create the framework for your review by describing the area of study you will be reviewing, why it is important, and what can be done with the results. It is where you build a foundation by defining necessary terms and introducing the trend(s) that you will be discussing in your review.

These areas need to be addressed.  They don't need to be in this order, but they all need to be presented in a manner that is logical and persuasive: 

• State the purpose of the paper (literature review)
• Identify the importance of the problem
• Define the scope of the review
• Explain why this analysis is appropriate
• Suggest how the review could be applied
• List and define terms that the reader should understand to make sense of your review
• List the research themes you found (typically 2 – 4)

Resources

• How to Create an Introduction video - Dr. Z explains how you can best write your introduction. He steps you through the parts of an introduction and provides examples to follow. (8 minutes)



• One-Theme Literature Review Template - This is a template for your 10-page literature review. You can download it from here or from the Course Content folder in our eLearning site.  Clicking this link will ask you to make a copy of the Google Doc. 

Writing a Paragraph
Some people don't understand how to create a paragraph. You have a topic sentence that describes the content of the paragraph and the rest of the sentences address that topic. You all seemed to have mastered creating a paragraph, but I thought you might enjoy what I found.

• Paragraph Writing Song by Heath - Catchy song that tells you how to write a paragraph. It's a little simplistic for our style of writing, but it provides a good foundation. English and elementary teachers -  it looks like this is a whole series of songs. (1.5 minutes).
• To Write a Paragraph song - Is another sing-along, but not as informative. (1 minute)

Module 7: Lit Review Organizational Overview

Before you can write a literature review, it would be helpful to have an understanding of a literature review's components. This overview begins by providing a narrative of these components and then an outline of the important parts of each section.

The Literature Review Overview

The department requirement for the Master of Arts in Education may be met through completion of a scholarly review. The purpose of such a review is to identify and develop a better understanding of a problem by analyzing information from appropriate sources.

Conditions under which a review is especially useful will include the following:

• When research and scholarly works related to a specific problem appear to present ambiguous or conflicting results, and there is a need to select a most likely means to solve a problem.
• When published research and scholarly works related to a problem area appear in isolated and varied disciplines, and there is a need to discover the contributions from within each discipline in order to use them in the solution of a specific problem.
• When you have identified a problem which is best resolved by analyzing information usually found in published or related sources.
• A review shall include the following major components. In addition to the following sections, your paper should also include: title and approval pages (samples attached), a table of contents, an abstract, and a bibliography/list of references. Other divisions and subsections may be included.

Your literature review will be composed of 4 sections. The following paragraphs explain what is included in each section. An outline is also included at the end of this document.*

Introduction
Describe the problem which the review will help resolve and indicate why an analysis of existing information is appropriate for addressing this problem. The introduction should also present the importance of the problem, the scope of the review, and how the results of the review might be applied. The problem may be made specific by presenting one or more trend for which the review will provide answers.

Methodology
Explain the method of identifying and locating sources, the rationale for selecting the sources to analyze, the procedures to be used in analyzing the sources, and the criteria for evaluating the information found. 

Analysis and Discussion
Present evidence and ideas summarized from the sources analyzed. This review is driven by the problem presented, and by sub-topics related to that problem. Therefore, individual sources are to be reviewed, not as isolated entities, but with attention to the contribution they make to the topic under discussion. Information based on personal experience, observations, or interviews may be included as a means of clarifying questions, exemplifying research conclusions, or as a source of new information. The source and limitations of such supplementary information should be clearly stated. An evaluation of the quality or adequacy of the related sources may also be included. This evaluation may relate to individual works, or to characteristics of several investigations available on a specific topic. This review, then, is a result of a search for the information which will provide the most useful answers available for your research topic.

Conclusions and Recommendations
Identify and synthesize findings from the analysis as the conclusion of the review. Recommendations for future research, classroom applications, educational policies and procedures, program revision, or other warranted situations should be presented.

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Outline

1. Introduction
1. State the purpose of this literature review
2. Identify the importance of the problem
3. Define the scope of the review (e.g., middle school English courses)
4. Explain why this analysis is appropriate (needed).
5. Suggest how the results of the review can be applied.
6. List and define terms that the reader should understand to make sense of your review. (cite the source of each definition)
   
2. Methodology 
1. Explain the method you used for identifying and locating your source.
1. Include the databases and search terms used. Put your search terms in italics to make them stand out.
2. Explain your rationale for selection sources
3. Explain the procedures used to analyze your sources.
4. Identify your criteria for evaluating information found and how you determined if it would be used in your review. This might include evaluating the author, journal, year of publication, citations, etc.
   
3. Analysis and Discussion
1. Intro paragraph(s) set the framework for this section.
2. Reintroduce the research question and then describe the themes that you found in your research of the literature. This will provide this section’s basic organization using each of the themes as a subheading.
3. In each theme,
4. Intro paragraph – describes the meaning and a couple of sentences about the findings.
5. Review individual sources, not as isolated entities, but with attention to the contribution they make to the theme.
6. End with a summary paragraph
   
4. Conclusions and Recommendations
1. Conclusions
1. Organize using each of the themes you identified at the beginning of the review.
2. Identify and synthesize findings from the analysis.
1. Clearly show how the themes are supported or negated.
2. Recommendations
1. Future research – required
2. Additional recommendations – Select the relevant ones.
3. Classroom applications
4. Educational policies and procedures
5. Program revision

* Based upon the C&I: Handbook for Master’s Degree Programs