1B. Planning and Researching

A project schedule  is an effective way to manage your time and help break down the Literature Review into manageable chunks. Giving yourself dedicated time to each part of the Literature Review process, will allow you to manage your time and efforts, while balancing your other academic, social, and familial obligations. Here is a visual representation of how to allocate your time for a Literature Review. Let's look at the planning stage of your Literature Review.
Graphic representative of the literature process. Description found below.
How much time should you spend? Introduction: 5%; Planning: 10%; Researching: 25%; Organizing: 10%; First draft: 25%; Revising: 15%; Proofreading: 10%.

Understanding Your Assignment

 

Writing a successful Literature Review begins with understanding what you are being asked to do and how to effectively complete the assignment. While deciding your approach, consider the assignment expectations, building analytical skills, and reference and style guides.

 

Assignment Expectations

 

Before starting your Literature Review, it is crucial to understand your professor’s expectations, including the number of sources you should use, the types of sources you need to evaluate, the number of pages you need to write, and the format of the Literature Review. To ensure you complete the assignment properly, follow these steps:

  1. Start budgeting your time by noting the due date.
  2. Note the requirements, such as the number of sources you must consult, page length, reference style, and other special criteria your professor has asked you to include.
  3. Highlight key words within the assignment's main question or description that will guide your research approach and writing. Look for words like synthesize, analyze, evaluate, or critique that will tell you how to examine your sources. Also look for words such as how, why, explain, or demonstrate that give you a question that needs to be answered. Engaging with the assignment criteria will help you to frame your Literature Review and develop your thesis.
  4. Examine the rubric for a detailed description of how your assignment will be graded. This will help you meet the content and writing requirements while also helping you to focus your assignment overall.
  5. If you still have questions after reading the assignment criteria, try to find the answer to your question in the syllabus or assignment criteria before contacting your instructor.
Review the Understand Your Assignment (PDF) page to help you conceptualise this process.

Building Your Analytical Skills

 
In addition to research skills, Literature Reviews build analytical skills: summarizing, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. In order to balance these skills during your Literature Review, consult the Building Analytical Skills (PDF) page.
Building analytical skills: summarize, synthesize, analyze, evaluate. A description is linked to below.
Building Analytical Skills: summarize, synthesize, analyze, and evaluate. Description PDF

Reading and Note Taking

 
Decorative

 

Complete the Reading Effectively and Efficiently module.

Planning Your Approach to Research

 
Here is a visual representation of how to allocate your time for a Literature Review. Let's look at the researching stage of your Literature Review.
Graphic representative of the literature process. Description found below.
How much time should you spend? Introduction: 5%; Planning: 10%; Researching: 25%; Organizing: 10%; First draft: 25%; Revising: 15%; Proofreading: 10%.

Productive Writing Strategies

 
Here are some productive writing strategies to help you manage your Literature Review:
  • Break your Literature Review into planning, reading and research, analyzing, summarizing, and revising stages.
  • Work backwards from the assignment’s final deadline and assign realistic deadlines to each stage.
  • Mark these deadlines on your calendar. Try using the Project Schedule (PDF) worksheet to keep you on track.
  • Writing is iterative and usually takes longer than you anticipate, so be sure to give yourself enough time to work through all the stages of the writing process.
  • Use the resources you have access to, such as subject librarians, research guides, and search tools, to help you effectively use the time you devoted to researching.
  • Use a note-taking strategy to help you stay on track by eliminating redundancies in your research methodology and by keeping your notes organized.
  • Screen and select the most relevant sources to read. If a source does not fit within your search criteria, do not try to make it fit.
  • Look at the reference lists of other Literature Reviews or sources on your topic to help you find additional material to consult.
  • Budget your time using the space allowance method as a rough guide.
  • Eliminate distractions as much as possible. Dedicate a time and location for writing.
  • Set writing goals that you can meet each day. This can be either a time goal or a word count goal. The Pomodoro technique is a proven strategy that breaks your total writing time into smaller portions, which helps focus your attention.
  • Your first draft does not need to be perfect. It is more time efficient to have a page you can later edit than no page at all.
  • Leave time to revise your work. This stage is equally important to the writing stage.
  • Implement a strategy that focuses on one or two concerns for each read-through.
  • Give yourself time between each draft before revising your writing again so you can approach it from a fresh perspective.
  • Use these revision strategies to optimize your time: Revision Strategies (PDF)
  • Review your work from the reader's perspective to ensure clarity and coherence.

Planning Your Approach to Research

 

A project schedule  is an effective way to manage your time and help break down the Literature Review into manageable chunks. Giving yourself dedicated time to each part of the Literature Review process, will allow you to manage your time and efforts, while balancing your other academic, social, and familial obligations.

Use the Project Schedule (PDF) worksheet to plan your Literature Review.

Blank Project Schedule. A description is linked to below.
Literature Review Project Schedule. Description  PDF
Here is a sample of a completed Project Schedule (PDF).
Sample of a completed Project Schedule
Sample of a Completed Project Schedule. Description  PDF
Decorative

 

Complete Module 1: Creating Your Research Question of the Research Methods: The Basics course.

  

References

Write Online (n.d.). Literature Review. Retrieved from http://writeonline.ca/litreview.php?content=section1 and licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.