Archive for February, 2009
February 25th, 2009 | 
Author: Literature reviews survey research done in a particular area. Although they also evaluate methods and results, their main emphasis is on knitting together theories and results from a number of studies to describe the “big picture” of a field of research.
Research articles, on the other hand, are empirical articles, specifically describing one or a few related studies. Research articles tend to focus on methods and results to document how a particular hypothesis was tested. The Introduction of a research article is like a condensed literature review that gives the rationale for the study that has been conducted.
Published literature reviews are called review articles. The emphasis in review articles is on interpretation By surveying all of the key studies done in a certain research area, a review article interprets how each line of research supports or fails to support a theory. Review articles are valuable, not only because they cite all the important research in the area surveyed, but also because they compare and evaluate all the key theories in a particular area of research. Again, notice the companion goals of a literature review: to describe and to evaluate.
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Book reviews generally include the following kinds of information; keep in mind, though, that you may need to include other information to explain your assessment of a book.
Most reviews start off with a heading that includes all the bibliographic information about the book. If your assignment sheet does not indicate which form you should use, you can use the following:
Title. Author. Place of publication: publisher, date of publication. Number of pages.
Like most pieces of writing, the review itself usually begins with an introduction that lets your readers know what the review will say. The first paragraph usually includes the author and title again, so your readers don’t have to look up to find this information. You should also include a very brief overview of the contents of the book, the purpose or audience for the book, and your reaction and evaluation.
You should then move into a section of background information that helps place the book in context and discusses criteria for judging the book.
Next, you should give a summary of the main points of the book, quoting and paraphrasing key phrases from the author.
Finally, you get to the heart of your review—your evaluation of the book. In this section, you might discuss some of the following issues:
• how well the book has achieved its goal
• what possibilities are suggested by the book
• what the book has left out
• how the book compares to others on the subject
• what specific points are not convincing
• what personal experiences you’ve had related to the subject.
It is important to use labels to carefully distinguish your views from the author’s, so that you don’t confuse your reader.
Then, like other essays, you can end with a direct comment on the book, and tie together issues raised in the review in a conclusion.
