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Mastering the Literature Review - Uncovering Insights and Shaping Your Research: Getting Started

This guide was created for the Mastering the Literature Review - Uncovering Insights and Shaping Your Research workshop on October 22, 2024, and revised for the McNair Scholars instruction session on February 13, 2025.

Selecting Your Topic - Steps 1 & 2

When conducting a literature review, your first task is to:

Create a research topic statement:

  • Identify a subject to study, ideally translating a personal interest or concern into a research query
  • Connect your possible research query to an appropriate academic discipline
  • Write a preliminary research statement that is limited to one subject of study, linked to an academic discipline, which will connect you to relevant literature

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The Literature Review Process/Model

Laurence Machi and Brenda McEvoy's Literature Review model consists of 6 steps.

This image depicts Laurence Machi and Brenda McEvoy's six step process for conducting literature reviews. The first step is select a topic, the topic is specified then develop tools of argumentation, once the tools of argumentation are organized then search the literature, once the literature is explored and catalogued, then survey the literature, once you document and discover content, then critique the literature to advocate and define your argument, and finally write and cite the review to address and answer your research question.

Literature Search Planning Form

Preparing to Make Your Case - Develop Your Argument

Literature Reviews use two types of arguments to make your case:

Inductive arguments (or argument of discovery) discuss what is known about the subject in question and forms the summary portion of your literature review

Implicative arguments (or argument of advocacy) analyze and critique existing knowledge in the literature to answer the research question, and forms the synthesis portion of your literature review.

To further develop your argument, you'll also:

  • Map out claims you find in the literature
  • Note and critique data and its relevance
  • Note any gaps in the literature
  • Search for any connections