Literature Review，简称LR，是留学生论文中常见的一个重要部分，以下是本站长期总结整理出的一些要点，供大家参考： What this handout is aboutThis handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.IntroductionOK. Youve got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, settle down in your chair, and get ready to issue a thumbs up or thumbs down as you leaf through the pages. Literature review done. Right?Wrong! The literature of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. Literature could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources.What is a literature review, then?A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant. But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper will contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.Why do we write literature reviews?Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research papers investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.Who writes these things, anyway?Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself. topLets get to it! What should I do before writing the literature review?ClarifyIf your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from your instructor:Roughly how many sources should you include?What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?Should you evaluate your sources?Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?Find modelsLook for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word review in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic database. The bibliography or reference section of sources youve already read are also excellent entry points into your own research.Narrow your topicThere are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to read everything thats out there on the topic, but youll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.And dont forget to tap into your professors (or other professors) knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: If you had to read only one book from the 70s on topic X, what would it be? Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most seminal pieces in the field. Consider whether your sources are currentSome discip