LITERATURE REVIEW IN DESIGN
1. It is a piece of discursive prose –
2. Summarizes published information in a
particular subject.
3. Has an organization pattern.
4. Combines both summary and synthesis.
LITERATURE REVIEW IN DESIGN
Discursive Prose
Proceeding by argument of reasoning
rather than by intuition .
Digressive – passing aimlessly from one
subject to another.
Digressive = rambling
Literature review is a generalized view of the
topic.
Annotated bibliography provides information
on one source at a time.
1. Summary is a recap of the important
information of the source.

2. Synthesis is a reorganization or a
reshuffling of the information.

3. Might give a new interpretation to old

information, or combine new with old.
 SUMMARIZE
Summarize each item briefly

FOLLOW
Follow through thesis and concepts

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT
Critical Assessment of material

Objectives are the following:

- Information seeking
INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION
Overall introduction and conclusion to formulate the question, problem - Critical appraisal
or concept your chosen material illuminates.

summary
Literature review must do this
1. Be organized around and related directly
to the thesis and the research question.
2. Synthesis results into a summary of what
is and what is not.
3. Identify areas of controversy in the
literature.
4. Formulate questions that need further
research.
Pre-requisites for writing the literature review.
- Roughly how much should you include ?
- What types of sources.
- Books
- Journals
- Articles, websites
- Should you summarize, synthesize or critique your
sources by discussing a common theme.
- Should you evaluate your sources?
- Narrow your topic.

Pre requisites
Strategies
- Find a focus (central idea, that
focuses on the themes).
Sections of Literature Review
- Introduction.
- Body
- Conclusion / Recommendations
- Organize The Body

Focus
- Be Selective
- Use quotes sparingly.
- Summarize and synthesize
- Keep your voice
- Use caution when paraphrasing.
- Revise Revise Revise
Architecture Tuesday May 3, 2011 (source).
Literature review in Architecture

Revise