Resource

Literature Review

Author: ATU Galway

What is it?

A piece of academic writing, which summarises and reviews previous research on a topic without bias. In the literature review students’ review scholarly articles, books, and other sources. The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a particular topic.

Advantages & Challenges

Advantages

Challenges

Advantages

Conducting a literature review enhances students’ research skills as they learn to search for, evaluate, and synthesize relevant scholarly sources.
Analysing and synthesizing existing literature requires students to engage in critical thinking, evaluating the credibility, relevance, and significance of various sources.
Writing a literature review helps students develop their writing skills, including organisation, clarity, and coherence. It provides practice in academic writing conventions such as citation, referencing, and proper formatting.
Completing a literature review empowers students to work independently and take ownership of their learning.

Challenges

Tips for Use

Clearly define the assessment criteria for the literature review, including expectations for depth of analysis, breadth of sources, critical evaluation, and synthesis of ideas. Provide students with a rubric to guide them.
Allow students to select topics for their literature reviews that align with learning objectives. Encourage them to choose topics that are sufficiently narrow to allow for in-depth exploration but broad enough to find an adequate range of sources.
Offer guidance and support to students throughout the process of conducting their literature reviews. Provide resources on how to search for academic literature and resources available through the library.
Emphasize the importance of academic integrity in the literature review. Provide guidance on how to properly cite sources and avoid plagiarism and communicate consequences for academic dishonesty.

Resources

Durham University: Assessment-Guidelines_Literature-Reviews.pdf (durham.ac.uk)
Chan C.(2009) Assessment: Literature Review, Assessment Resources@HKU, University of Hong Kong: TALIC – Assessment Resource Centre (hku.hk)
University of Toronto: The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It | Writing Advice (utoronto.ca)
Charles Sturt University: Literature review – Division of Learning and Teaching (csu.edu.au)

Resource for students:

Atlantic Technological University: Home – Literature Reviews – LibGuides at ATU Library

Deakin University: Literature review | Students (deakin.edu.au)

Sample Rubrics

Chan C.(2009) Assessment: Literature Review, Assessment Resources@HKU, University of Hong Kong: TALIC – Assessment Resource Centre (hku.hk)

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