How to write a literature review for undergraduate thesis

Literature review, also called research review, refers to a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the relevant literature on a certain academic issue (or research field), and a review of the academic issue (or research field) within a certain period of time. A paper formed by analyzing, summarizing, organizing and commenting on research results and existing problems. Literature reviews generally provide objective descriptions and comments on the current status of research in order to predict development and research trends or seek new research breakthroughs. It is an important type of academic paper. Learning to write a literature review correctly is an essential basic ability for scientific researchers, and it is also an important way to avoid low-level and highly repetitive research.

Requirements for writing a literature review

Literature review is an important academic paper, which plays an important role in graduate thesis writing, project application and writing, and the cultivation of scientific research writing skills. irreplaceable role. Therefore, mastering this writing skill is of great benefit to improving scientific research capabilities. Only by reconstructing the theoretical system of literature review-related knowledge in accordance with the basic characteristics of literature review can we write a literature review with clear ideas, informative content, and concise language, and provide a reference for carrying out scientific research. To this end, based on the concepts and characteristics of literature review, the author puts forward several requirements for writing a literature review. However, when writing a literature review, you need to answer the following basic questions first:

First, what research have been conducted on a certain topic (or content) by domestic and foreign researchers? Answer the question “What was studied?”

Second, how do domestic and foreign researchers conduct research on a certain topic? This is the answer to the "how to study" question.

Third, regarding the research results, what is the correlation between the studies of domestic and foreign researchers? That is to answer the question "What are the differences and connections between correlation studies?"

Fourth, what are the outstanding contributions or effects of this research? How did later generations evaluate this research? Answer the question “How was the research?”

The above questions are the core questions in conceiving a literature review. If they can be answered clearly, then the main content of this literature review will basically be formed. However, you must also pay attention to the following principles in order to write a high-quality and high-level literature review.

(1) The "three best" principles for selecting literature

When writing a literature review, collecting and selecting literature is the prerequisite. Based on the author's experience, the author summarizes the "three most" principles when selecting documents, that is, the "most authoritative, most classic and latest" principles. "The most authoritative" refers to the books, papers, conference papers and other types of literature and materials of the most influential and well-known domestic and foreign scholars, experts and professors in a certain research field, mainly academic papers; the "most classic" is Refers to those world famous works that have experienced the test of history and society in the development process of Chinese and foreign history and culture, mainly books; "the latest" refers to various articles published in recent years (generally defaulted to 5 years), and " The latest "information" is mainly reflected in newspapers, because newspapers have a relatively large information replacement speed and information carrying capacity, and are updated every day.

The following is an example of writing a literature review in the field of "Higher Education". The "most classic" literature is a series of 12 Chinese-translated world masterpieces on higher education published by Zhejiang Education Press in 2001. , such as John S. Brubaker’s Philosophy of Higher Education. Such famous works are academic monographs that have experienced the test of history and the world, so they contain greater cultural and intellectual value. If you fail to collect this very important literature when you are thinking and writing a literature review, then your research will lack important theoretical support, and the research results will be predictable. The "most authoritative" papers are academic papers published in "Higher Education Research" and "Educational Research". They represent the current status of research development and the most cutting-edge academic trends in this field. The “latest” literature refers to educational knowledge or reports delivered in newspapers such as People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, China Social Sciences Online, Education News, Teachers’ News, etc. Adhering to these "three best" principles will provide the most precious and valuable literature for subsequent research, which is beneficial to research and use.

(2) The principle of loyalty in reading literature

After selecting the literature, it is time to read the literature. Documents are both research materials and objects of criticism. When reading documents, you can read in the order of "history - writings - theory", so that you can get closer to the understanding of the original text, and you can distinguish who is the author's point of view and who is the point of view of predecessors, which are descriptive words and which are It is an argumentative text. In particular, some researchers advocate the reading method of "historical treatises". The author has slightly adjusted the order of the three chapters here and advocates reading in the order of "history - works - treatises". The reason is as follows: There is a significant difference between "writing" and "theory". Writings are more original, have wider knowledge coverage, and are more logically related, while essays have limited knowledge coverage, and most works are just interpretations or interpretations of writings, which are relatively secondary works. The basis of its research is already based on other people's literature, while writings, especially academic monographs, reflect more of the author's originality. They rely more on long-term educational and life practices, and their research results are of great significance to The guiding significance and role of practice are more targeted and effective.

During the research process, some researchers, in order to publish papers quickly and cost-effectively, start without fully collecting the literature or without truly understanding the meaning of the literature. Writing, this violates the principles of objectivity and seeking truth from facts in research. Be faithful to the original point of view of the original text. Especially some foreign language materials. It is not easy to be faithful to the principle. Documents on certain topics or disciplines are not the most original or first-hand information available to ordinary researchers or people. The reasons for this kind of research are: first, the identity and status of the researcher; second, the preciousness of the literature and materials; third, the characteristics of the subject major. Due to the above reasons, the implementation and implementation of the principle of fidelity will be greatly compromised.

(3) Principles of combining reviews when writing

When writing a literature review, you should combine "summary" and "description". The literature review should include descriptions and comments, and the cited documents should be refined and analyzed. Try to avoid giving only a general introduction to the cited documents. On the basis of extensive collection and reading of literature, we make rational comments on existing research results to provide direction and basis for further research. Some researchers do not systematically review the existing research literature to find suitable research questions or predictable hypotheses, but claim that a certain type of research lacks literature, thereby considering their research to be exploratory research. Such a selective review of literature contains obvious subjective bias.

"Synthesis" means to collect the words of "hundred schools of thought" and comprehensively analyze and organize them; "Synthesis" means to describe and comment on the views and conclusions of the literature based on the author's views and practical experience. Only when the two are reasonably integrated can it be considered a qualified literature review. If the topic you are studying is about moral education, search through websites such as CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, National People's Congress Copy Materials, Bailian Library, and Google Academic Search to find a comprehensive collection of literature on moral education. As everyone knows, there are still some important documents that have not entered your field of vision. Such as academic papers on moral education research in the China University Humanities and Social Sciences Network. The papers on this website are mainly papers published in the journal "Moral Education Research" sponsored by the Institute of Moral Education of Nanjing Normal University. However, this part of the papers and research results cannot be accessed on the above-mentioned commonly used websites.

(4) Reader awareness when writing

Literature review is a type of academic paper, and its reader group is special. It is mainly for reading by scientific researchers or teaching personnel in universities, scientific research institutions, journals, R&D centers, enterprises and institutions, etc. In short, it is mainly for peer communication. In view of this special group of readers, when writing a literature review, you need to consider the cultural needs of this group, learn to think from others' perspective, and write in professional and plain language while adhering to academic norms and professional ethics, so that readers can understand and understand the author’s true meaning.

The so-called reader awareness refers to the imaginary readership of the writing process and the target group of people to talk or communicate with during the writing process. There is always an "hidden reader" in the author's creative process, and this "reader" exists in every aspect of the author's creation. Another meaning of reader awareness in writing is to learn to think from others’ perspective. If I were a reader, what would I gain from reading someone's literature review? What is new and unique about this literature review? Is there a feeling of déjà vu? Sometimes, when you read literature reviews written by others, you can often find a sense of déjà vu. In fact, most of these articles are low-level and highly repetitive. If when reading other people's literature reviews, you can find something that shines in your eyes, or you are amazed, or you feel that you are still not satisfied after reading it, then this type of literature review is considered a superior work. Empathy means to experience the literature review written by yourself from the perspective of readers through rational analysis and comparative analysis. Just imagine, what kind of first impression will it leave on readers? If we are good at thinking like this, we will find a direction for revising the literature review, so that we can continuously improve the level and quality of our papers.

To sum up, the more appropriate way to write a literature review is to maintain "moderate" - impartiality. Because no one can say with complete certainty that his or her research is perfect, and no one can evaluate that other people’s research has no value at all. Of course, this kind of "golden mean" should also pay attention to moderation. If you have mastered detailed and reliable literature and made a rational analysis of the research problem, then you must have the courage to break the "gold mean" balance.

(This article is not original and is reproduced from the WeChat public account "Social Science Academic Circle", author Wang Zibo)