15 The 5 Cs of a literature review
To help you frame and write your literature review, think about these five ‘C’s (Callahan, 2014).
- Cite the material you have referred to and used to help you define the research problem that you will study.
- Compare the various arguments, theories, methods, and findings expressed in the literature. For example, describe where the various researchers agree and where they disagree. Describe the similarities and dissimilarities in approaches to studying related research problems.
- Contrast the various arguments, themes, methods, approaches, and controversies apparent and/or described in the literature. For example, describe what major areas are contested, controversial and/or still in debate.
- Critique the literature. Describe which arguments you find more persuasive and explain why. Explain which approaches, findings, and methods seem most reliable, valid, appropriate, and/or most popular and why. Pay attention to the verbs you use to describe what previous researchers have stated (e.g. asserts, demonstrates, argues, clarifies, etc.).
- Connect the various research studies you reviewed. Describe how your work utilises, draws upon, departs from, synthesises, adds to or extends previous research studies.
Understanding the difference between a literature review and an essay
So now that you know what a literature review is and how to write it, it is important to understand how a literature review is different from an essay. First of all, it is necessary to point out that many students struggle with understanding the difference between a literature review and an essay. This is particularly so because a student can use the exact same resources to create a literature review or an essay; however, what is different about the two is where the emphasis in the writing is placed (Thomas, 2012).
As discussed previously, a literature review focuses on everything that has been written about a particular topic, theory, or research. It is focused on the research and the researchers who have undertaken research on your topic. In contrast, an essay focuses on proving a point. It does not need to provide an extensive coverage of all of the material on the topic. In fact, the writer chooses only those sources that prove the point. Most professors will expect to see you discuss a few different perspectives from the materials that run contrary to the point you are trying to make. For example, suppose you want to write an essay about the negative effects of shiftwork on nurses. You would gather material to show that shiftwork negatively affects nurses, and the various ways it affects nurses. Now in this case, you might find the odd research paper that states shiftwork has no effect – although, I doubt it, because it has been extensively documented to have a negative affect. However, the point is that with an essay you are focused on providing information on your topic and proving your point.
Understanding the difference between a literature review and an annotated bibliography
There is a third type of academic writing that can also confuse students who are attempting to write a literature review and that is an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography provides all of the reference details of a bibliography, but it goes one step further and provides a short (approximately 150 words) description of the reference. An annotated bibliography is not to be confused with a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of journal articles, books, and other resources that someone has utilised in writing. The bibliography, provides a list of all resources that someone used to write a research paper and, unlike a reference list, includes references that may not appear in the body of the paper. No doubt you have had to create many bibliographies in your academic studies. Visit Writing an annotated bibliography (PDF, 677KB) to learn more and see a sample of an annotated bibliography.
References
Callahan, J. L. (2014). Writing literature reviews: A reprise and update. Human Resource Development Review, 13(3), 271-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484314536705
Thomas, J. (2012, September 26). Literature review vs. essay. https://blogs.qut.edu.au/library/2012/09/26/literature-review-vs-essay/
This chapter was adapted from “The five ‘C’s of writing a literature review” in An introduction to research methods in sociology by Valerie A. Sheppard, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
