What does a literature review for the purposes of a political science paper entail? (Details inside)
Asked by
Fly (
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November 26th, 2013
I am writing a fairly short paper (1200 words), and I have just discovered that a literature review for our sources is required for our papers. Naturally, our professor never once mentioned this as a requirement.~ Long story short, the paper is due tomorrow and I can’t seem to find a solid explanation or example of what a literature review for resources is actually supposed to contain. The only examples I have found are entire papers just about a specific publication. Keep in mind that there are about 4–5 sources, all of which are journals that are 3–6 pages long, and these reviews are supposed to be part of the total 1200 words. I may be over-thinking it, but the paper itself is about a completely separate thesis so I’m a little confused as to what I should be writing for the required literary reviews and how long each should be.
Note: I have e-mailed my professor for clarification. I thought I would ask this question in the meantime, so I can hopefully get some more work done while I wait for a response (and just in case she doesn’t respond).
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3 Answers
A literature review means that you have identified relevant articles and books in the field (whatever it is) and that your paper takes into account the ideas raised in these articles. You don’t need to agree with them, but you need to mention them and what they add to udnerstanding of the topic.
For example:
John Smith’s article on Defenestration in the Jungle was important because it introduced the concept of simian pair bonding. However, Smith’s thesis was disputed by Jones’ seminal research wrok in <whatever book>. Jones argued that <blah blah blah>
You want to develop each of these ideas and say why they were important.
From your details, it sounds as if you expect to be “giving a review” of each of your source papers. This isn’t what a literature review is. A literature review is a section of your paper (usually the first section), in which you discuss the development of the ideas that led to what you are writing about. It doesn’t necessarily have to include every source you use for your paper, and you can include some sources that you use for no other purpose than to explain how you arrived at your research question. However, depending on what your teacher wants, he/she may have made it a requirement that every source used in the paper be mentioned in the literature review.
The point of this section is to explain to the reader why you are asking your research question. So, it introduces all of the prior literature which contributed to your decision to ask your question in the particular way that you are asking it. You don’t have to tell the whole story of each paper that you reference. But by the end of the literature review, it should be clear to the reader why you are asking the question, why (and possibly how) your study will answer the question, and what contribution your answer will make to the existing body of literature on this topic.
Thanks, @elbanditoroso and @glacial! I have an idea of what direction to go in now. My professor did e-mail me back but she did not offer much in the way of clarification, so your answers were very helpful.
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