Writing a Literature Review for

Engineers
Sue Wainscott
STEM Librarian, UNLV Libraries

Julie Longo
Technical Communications, Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering
Julie.Longo@unlv.edu
 HOW TO CONDUCT A QUALITY LITERATURE SEARCH
 Purpose of a literature review
 Getting started
 Search strategies
 Keeping up to date
 Organizing your material
 Reading and evaluating your material
 When are you finished with your literature search?

HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW

 Refresher: How to read a paper critically
 Levels of writing a literature review
 How to organize your material before writing
 Writing a Level I literature review: biblographic annotation
 Writing a Level 2 literature review: contrast and compare
 Writing a Level 3: integration and synthesis
Contents
These workshops count towards the Graduate College
Research Certificate Program.
You may want to apply for this program.
 Introductions

• Please introduce yourself to the group, including:

• Your name
• Your department

Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/29792566@N08/6140852961

When you hear
Type your answers here:
the phrase http://padlet.com/sue_wainscott/litrev
“literature
review” what
words come to
mind?

Any & all!

Good, bad,
indifferent…

Brainstorming!
Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brainstorming.png
http://padlet.com/sue_wainscott/litrev
 Purpose of a Literature (Lit.) Review

• Demonstrate your knowledge

• Explain how your research fits into the
context of what is already known
• Determine if your research idea is new
and interesting
• Give credit to and summarize the work
of the other researchers who have
written about the topic

Image from https://pixabay.com/en/question-mark-question-response-1019820/

Getting Started with Your Lit. Review

• What is the main purpose of

this literature review?
• Who is your target audience?
• What will the final product be?
• Thesis or dissertation
• Journal article
• Grant proposal
• Technical report

Image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegarfield/14922664313

 Small Group Activity!
Image from: https://pixabay.com/en/exchange-of-ideas-debate-discussion-222788/
Activity: Strategies for Lit. Reviews
1. Think about how you have approached a
literature review (with a written product) in the
past.
2. Share with your group some of the strategies you
think work best to accomplish one of the below
tasks:
• search for information resources
• evaluate those resources
• take notes on what you read
• organize the notes and resources you read
Activity: Strategies for Lit. Reviews
1. Think about how you have approached a literature
review (with a written product) in the past.
2. Share with your group some of the strategies you think
work best to accomplish one of the below tasks:
3. As a group, choose one spokesperson.

4. Share ideas with the whole room.

• search for information resources
• evaluate those resources
• take notes on what you read
• organize the notes and resources you read

http://padlet.com/sue_wainscott/litrev1
 Search in order to tell a Story
A good newspaper article story answers:

Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
Image from: https://pixabay.com/en/newspaper-news-journal-headline-152320/
Search in order to tell a Story
A good literature review (story) ALSO answers:

Who?
What?
When? Useful words for a
Where? Keyword Search
Why?
How?
Search Strategies
• Keywords
• AND, OR, NOT, *, and “”
• Author searching
• Look for review articles
• Subject Headings, linked
keyword lists
• Footnote chasing / using
bibliographies
• Citation tracking (Web of
Science & Scopus)
• Keep track of where you’ve
looked, what keywords you
used.

Image from: https://pixabay.com/en/sherlock-holmes-detective-462978/

Where you Look is Important
• What is a database?
• Advantages of using multiple databases?
• Subject specific
• Multi-disciplinary
• Search in multiple databases
• Discovery Tools :
• UNLV Libraries Quick Search
• Google Scholar
More than journal articles
 Other Sources
• Conference papers and proceedings
• Standards manuals / handbooks (current and older)
• Chemical and materials property data sources
• Government agency technical reports
• Professional association magazine articles
• Company and trade association white papers
• Patent applications and patent documents
• Data sets
 Keeping Up To Date

• Search alerts in
databases
• Table of Contents (TOC)
alerts
• RSS Feeds for journal
and other webpages

Image from: https://pixabay.com/en/alarm-clock-clock-time-minute-hour-590383/

 Organizing

• RefWorks
• Mendeley
• Zotero
• EndNote
• 3x5 cards
• BibTeX

Image from:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Don%27t_kill_your_reputation%2C_organize_your_information_-_NARA_-_518156.jpg
When is it time to stop searching?
• Recurring authors
• Recurring institutions, labs
• Recurring settings for experiments/measurements
• Recurring methods or results
 Patterns that let you know
you are done with your
search
 Law of diminishing returns
 Materials found are too
old
 (OR you run out of time…)
Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newport_Hill_Climb_finish_line.png
Sue Wainscott
sue.wainscott@unlv.edu
702-895-2262
UNLV Libraries home page
(http://library.unlv.edu)

Image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/223839049

HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW
 Refresher: How to Read a Paper Critically
 Levels of writing a literature review
 How to organize your material before writing
 Writing a Level I literature review: bibliographic
annotation
 Writing a Level 2 literature review: compare and
contrast
 Writing a Level 3 literature review: Integration and
synthesis
This means you must question everything!!!
Scan:
Title,
abstract,
figures, and
tables

If this paper Read the

looks introduction
promising, do to get a sense
a thorough of the study’s
read. goals.

Do you agree
with the Quickly read
results? through the
methodology
Do you have and results.
questions?

How to Read a Paper Critically

A THOROUGH READ OF A PAPER
MEANS ARMING YOURSELF WITH:
 Post-it notes
 Highlighter
 Ruler
 Any other tools to make sure you
gain understanding of the subject
(website links, thesaurus, etc.) http://lakerlutznews.com/lln/?p=18684

 This assumes you will read hard

copy, not online
 Having a favorite chair and favorite
drink (coffee, hot chocolate, soda)
often helps this process!
 The point is: you are reading,
challenging, and dialoguing with the
authors!

How to Read a Paper Critically

 A classic:
How to Read a Book
Adler and van Doren
ISBN-13: 004-2516291251
ISBN-10: 0671212095

How to Read a Paper Critically

Level I: Basic Assessment
 Tabulate
 Select
 Find the patterns
 Categorize (subheads)
 Describe

This is also known as a bibliographic annotation.

This level is author-centric.

Levels of Writing a Literature Review

Level I: Basic Assessment
 Tabulate
 Select
 Find the patterns
 Categorize (subheads)
 Describe

Level I: Basic Assessment

Author / Date Title Description
• Most researchers in the sciences do not plan how to write a literature
Ten Simple Rules for Writing a review
Pautasso, M. / 2013
Literature Review • Graphically describes the types of literature reviews
• States 10 rules in writing a good literature review.
• Qualitative Analysis or Content Analysis -- another name for
Literature Review?
Taylor-Powell, E.
• Includes papers, video, photos, other forms of data.
and Renner, M. / Analyzing Qualitative Data
• Five steps: know your data, understand what you want to analyze,
2003
organize your data, find the pattern among data sets, synthesize and
interpret.
• The need for a ‘plot’ or theme
• Emphasis on how to conduct a “complete” search
Analyzing the Past to Prepare for
Webster, J and • Two types of literature reviews: one centers on concepts (synthesis)
the Future: Writing a Literature
Watson, JT / 2002 and the other centers on authors
Review
• Find the patterns and address the knowledge gaps
• Evaluate your own assessment to see if it is solid
• “Integrative literature reviews...generate new knowledge about the
topic reviewed.”
• Reviews, synthesizes, and integrates material
• Organize ideas around topics with a rich source of literature; address
Writing Integrative Literature
the gaps for emerging topics.
Torraco, RJ / 2005 Reviews: Guidelines and
• What is the contribution of the literature review? What is the point or
Examples
the need?
• Concept structuring and traditional step in writing a literature review
• What sets an integrative LR apart: critical thinking and advanced
synthesis

Level I: Basic Assessment

Level I: Basic Assessment
 Tabulate
 Select
− What do you want your paper to accomplish?
− What is the focus of your study?
− Find the literature that most closely pertains to your study
and use those.
− Work with your faculty advisor

In my literature review, I want to define the three levels of

writing a literature review.

Level I: Basic Assessment

Level I: Basic Assessment
 Tabulate
 Select
 Find the patterns
 Categorize (subheads)
 Describe

Level I: Basic Assessment

Author / Date Title Description

Ten Simple Rules for • Most researchers in the sciences do not plan how to write a literature review
Pautasso, M. / 2013 Writing a Literature • Graphically describes the types of literature reviews
Review • States 10 rules in writing a good literature review.

• Qualitative Analysis or Content Analysis -- another name for Literature

Taylor-Powell, E. Review?
Analyzing Qualitative
and Renner, M. / • Includes papers, video, photos, other forms of data.
Data
2003 • Five steps: know your data, understand what you want to analyze, organize
your data, find the pattern among data sets, synthesize and interpret.

• The need for a ‘plot’ or theme

Analyzing the Past to • Emphasis on how to conduct a “complete” search
Webster, J and Prepare for the Future: • Two types of literature reviews: one centers on concepts (synthesis) and the
Watson, JT / 2002 Writing a Literature other centers on authors
Review • Find the patterns and address the knowledge gaps
• Evaluate your own assessment to see if it is solid
• “Integrative literature reviews...generate new knowledge about the topic
reviewed.”
• Reviews, synthesizes, and integrates material
Writing Integrative • Organize ideas around topics with a rich source of literature; address the gaps
Torraco, RJ / 2005 Literature Reviews: for emerging topics.
Guidelines and Examples • What is the contribution of the literature review? What is the point or the
need?
• Concept structuring and traditional step in writing a literature review
• What sets an integrative LR apart: critical thinking and advanced synthesis

Level I: Basic Assessment

Author / Date Title Description
• Most researchers in the sciences do not plan how to write a literature review
Ten Simple Rules for
• Graphically describes the types of literature reviews to identify what kind of
Pautasso, M. / 2013 Writing a Literature
review to write
Review
• States 10 rules in writing a good literature review.

• Qualitative Analysis or Content Analysis -- another name for Literature

Taylor-Powell, E. Review?
Analyzing Qualitative
and Renner, M. / • Includes papers, video, photos, other forms of data.
Data
2003 • Five steps: know your data, understand what you want to analyze, organize
your data, find the pattern among data sets, synthesize and interpret.

• The need for a ‘plot’ or theme

Analyzing the Past to • Emphasis on how to conduct a “complete” search
Webster, J and Prepare for the Future: • Two types of literature reviews: one centers on concepts (synthesis) and the
Watson, JT / 2002 Writing a Literature other centers on authors
Review • Find the patterns and address the knowledge gaps
• Evaluate your own assessment to see if it is solid
• “Integrative literature reviews...generate new knowledge about the topic
reviewed.”
• Reviews, synthesizes, and integrates material
Writing Integrative • Organize ideas around topics with a rich source of literature; address the gaps
Torraco, RJ / 2005 Literature Reviews: for emerging topics.
Guidelines and Examples • What is the contribution of the literature review? What is the point or the
need?
• Concept structuring and traditional step in writing a literature review
• What sets an integrative LR apart: critical thinking and advanced synthesis

Level I: Basic Assessment

Level I: Basic Assessment
 Tabulate
 Select
 Find the patterns
 Categorize (subheads)
 Describe
₋ In your own words or
₋ Quoted appropriately

Level I: Basic Assessment

 • Qualitative Analysis or Content Analysis -- another name for Literature Review?
Taylor-Powell, E. and Analyzing • Includes papers, video, photos, other forms of data.
Renner, M. / 2003 Qualitative Data • Five steps: know your data, understand what you want to analyze, organize your data, find
the pattern among data sets, synthesize and interpret.

Taylor-Powell, E. and Renner, M. (2003). Analyzing qualitative data. Madison, WI:

University of Wisconsin Extension. Retrieved from
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/G3658-12.pdf

Taylor-Powell and Renner (2003) discussed a systematic approach to organize and

describe qualitative information, in other words, information that is not in numerical
format. This includes describing the literature regarding a specific topic, results of written
answers in surveys, issues discussed in forums, and anecdotal material, and more. The
material could be written, spoken, or in video, photos, or other forms of media.
These authors emphasize identifying the patterns and organizing the data in categories, an
undertaking that the authors point out is “fairly labor intensive depending on the amount
of data you have” (Taylor-Powell and Renner, 2003), and crucial to the total effort. Once
the categories are established, they state the next step is to find the patterns existing
among the categories. This is the starting point in finding a way to synthesize the material
into a coherent literature review.

Example of a Level 1 literature review (author-centric)

Exercise:
 Each using their own literature search material, create a
table of three of the papers with Names of Authors,
Title of Paper, and three to five key bullet points for
each paper.
 We will give you about 10 minutes to do this.
 When you are finished, have another person review
your table and give feedback.

Level I: Basic Assessment

Level 1: Basic Assessment
 Not really considered a true literature review
 Also known as:
₋ Author-centric literature review
₋ Bibliographic Annotation
₋ This is the level we expect from undergraduates.
 We want to move you from Level 1 to Level 2, which is
where graduate students should be.
 Post-docs and Faculty should be able to write a literature
review at Level 3.

Level I: Basic Assessment

Cayla Buttram, David MacMillan III, & Dr. R.T. Koch, Jr. Updated November 2012. University of North Alabama,
Center for Writing Excellence.
http://www.una.edu/writingcenter/docs/Writing-Resources/Comparing%20the%20Annotated%20Bibliography%20to%20the%20Literature%20Review.pdf

Level I: Basic Assessment

Level 2: Compare: Compare and Contrast
 Tabulate
 Select
− What do you want your paper to accomplish?
− What is the focus of your study?
− Find the literature that most closely pertains to your study and
use those.
− Work with your faculty advisor
 Find the patterns
 Categorize
 Compare and Contrast

Level 2: Compare and Contrast

Level 2: Compare: Contrast or Collate
 This is what the literature calls ‘synthesis’ at the most
basic level
 You are trying to find the authors that are in agreement
with each other on a conclusion (collate) or disagree
(contrast) on a specific concept
 This what Webster and Watson (2002) were talking
about when they distinguished a literature review that
is ‘author-centric’ versus ‘concept-centric’

Level 2: Compare and Contrast

Webster, J and Watson, RT (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review. MIS
Quarterly. 26:2 pp xiii-xxii.
http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2625&context=misq&sei-
redir=1&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3DAnalyzing%2Bthe%2Bpast%2Bto%2Bprepare%2
Bfor%2Bthe%2Bfuture%26btnG%3D%26as_sdt%3D1%252C29%26as_sdtp%3D#search=%22Analyzing%20past%20prepare%20future%22

Level 2: Compare and Contrast

Author / Date Title Description
• Most researchers in the sciences do not plan how to write a literature review
Ten Simple Rules for
• Graphically describes the types of literature reviews to identify what kind of
Pautasso, M. / 2013 Writing a Literature
review to write
Review
• States 10 rules in writing a good literature review.

• Qualitative Analysis or Content Analysis -- another name for Literature

Taylor-Powell, E. Review?
Analyzing Qualitative
and Renner, M. / • Includes papers, video, photos, other forms of data.
Data
2003 • Five steps: know your data, understand what you want to analyze, organize
your data, find the pattern among data sets, synthesize and interpret.

• The need for a ‘plot’ or theme

Analyzing the Past to • Emphasis on how to conduct a “complete” search
Webster, J and Prepare for the Future: • Two types of literature reviews: one centers on concepts (synthesis) and the
Watson, JT / 2002 Writing a Literature other centers on authors
Review • Find the patterns and address the knowledge gaps
• Evaluate your own assessment to see if it is solid
• “Integrative literature reviews...generate new knowledge about the topic
reviewed.”
• Reviews, synthesizes, and integrates material
Writing Integrative • Organize ideas around topics with a rich source of literature; address the gaps
Torraco, RJ / 2005 Literature Reviews: for emerging topics.
Guidelines and Examples • What is the contribution of the literature review? What is the point or the
need?
• Concept structuring and traditional step in writing a literature review
• What sets an integrative LR apart: critical thinking and advanced synthesis

Level 2: Compare and Contrast

Dawadi S and Ahmad S (2013). Evaluating the impact of demand-side management on water resources under
changing climatic conditions and increasing population. Journal of Environmental Management. 114: 261-275.

Level 2: Compare and Contrast

Level 3: Integrate / Synthesis
 To be able to write at this level, you need to master
Level 1 and Level 2.
 You also need to gain sufficient experience and breadth
of knowledge in your field of expertise
 Level 3 has a narrative quality
 If you have compared and contrasted at Level 2, at
Level 3 you want to discuss why there were contrasting
results in the first place
 At this level, you might be offering your opinion on the
quality and accuracy of other researchers’ work
Level 3: Integrate / Synthesis
Dawadi S and Ahmad S (2013). Evaluating the impact of demand-side management on water resources under
changing climatic conditions and increasing population. Journal of Environmental Management. 114: 261-275.

Level 3: Integrate / Synthesis

Observations from Dr. Ladkany:
Literature citations are embedded in all the sections of a
paper except for the abstract and the conclusion, which are
your ideas exclusively.

Recommendation:
As you conduct your literature search for any of your
projects, see if you can identify if the literature review in
each paper was written at Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3.

Level 3: Integrate / Synthesis

Technical Writing Intensive
 Next Friday, April 15th
 SEB 1243
 9 a.m. to 12 noon

Bring your paper, report, dissertation, or thesis to

work on. You will have ample opportunity for one-
on-one counseling.

To register, sign up before you leave this

workshop today
Questions?