{"id":300,"date":"2015-09-15T17:59:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T09:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neuro-memento-mori.com\/teaching\/?p=300"},"modified":"2016-11-12T05:23:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T21:23:59","slug":"week-3-so-whats-the-difference-between-an-annotated-bibliography-and-a-literature-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neuro-memento-mori.com\/teaching\/week-3-so-whats-the-difference-between-an-annotated-bibliography-and-a-literature-review\/","title":{"rendered":"So what’s the difference between an annotated bibliography and a Literature Review?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image by Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr. Updated November 2012 UNA Center for Writing Excellence. See this link<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A literature review is a piece of discursive prose<\/strong>, not a list<\/strong> describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. Beginning\u00a0every paragraph \u00a0with the name of a researcher sends a red flag to a reader or examiner expecting a Literature Review. Organize the literature review into sections according to\u00a0themes or identify trends and debates, including relevant theory. You are not expected\u00a0to cover\u00a0all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question. The literature review is not your opinion.<\/strong>\u00a0It\u00a0does provide the foundation<\/strong> on which you will \u00a0develop and present your opinion\/hypothesis with all the expected evidencen subsequent chapters.<\/p>\n

If you are writing an annotated bibliography<\/strong>, you may need to summarize each item briefly, but should still follow through themes and concepts and do some critical assessment of material. Use an overall introduction and conclusion to state the scope of your coverage and to formulate the question, problem, or concept your chosen material illuminates. Usually you will have the option of grouping items into sections\u2014this helps you indicate comparisons and relationships. You may be able to write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each section.<\/p>\n

A literature review is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an\u00a0annotated bibliography would be organised.\u00a0This means that you will not<\/strong> just simply list your sources and go into detail about each\u00a0one of them, one at a time.\u00a0As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider instead what themes or\u00a0issues connect your sources together.<\/p>\n