Last Update: 5/14/2023

Literature Review (+Reflection)

INSTRUCTIONS

IN BRIEF

Students will select and synthesize sources from their Research Logs (and new sources as needed) to explain to a specific
group audience (that needs to be informed of the research conversation) how information and perspectives in these sources
work in concert to form a nuanced answer to their research question. The literature review should open by establishing a clear
exigence for the question, focus throughout on complex connections (beyond agreement/disagreement) between sources,
and conclude by tying the conversation together to answer the question and to expose remaining (or new) research gaps.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Review Your Completed Synthesis Matrix

 Consider Your Inquiry and Answer: Now that you have analyzed your synthesis matrix and have added supplemental
sources to fill any identified research needs, read down each theme column once more to analyze source connections
(how your sources agree with, disagree with, and/or complicate one another) as a means of understanding what your ma-
trix suggests about a potential answer to your research question and how these sources come together (contributing dif-
ferent perspectives and information to the conversation) to inform that answer.

 Identify an Audience Appropriate for Your Purpose: Consider which members of your discipline need to understand
the current conversation on the issue as it relates to your inquiry. Potential audiences for literature reviews include aca-
demics of ranging disciplinary knowledge (from graduate students new to the discipline to those with specialized expertise
elsewhere in the discipline), as well as non-academics in the discipline (professionals in the field who read stand-alone lit-
erature reviews to keep current with disciplinary knowledge, for example).

Step 2: Compose a Rhetorically-Aware Literature Review

 Prepare for Your Writing: Conduct additional research to fulfill the needs of this new rhetorical situation (while keeping in
mind that you may discover new research needs as you begin drafting your literature review). Then, prepare a rough out-
line that plans your thematic organization (strong and focused paragraphs that move through the themes identified in your
matrix), which should include how you intend to establish exigence and purpose, and what evidence you intend to synthe-
size for each theme and/or body paragraph. Keep your audience (and their disciplinary knowledge) in mind as you outline.

 Find and Analyze Genre Samples: While you will have received ample instruction in writing a literature review, it is im-
portant that, before you begin drafting, you analyze examples of stand-alone literature reviews published within your par-
ticular discipline. Search the Annual Reviews to find three such discipline-specific genre samples and take note of unique
structural, linguistic, and referential expectations, paying careful attention to how writers in your discipline synthesize and
analyze sources as they explore complex connections, and how they tailor their synthesis for their disciplinary audience.

 Write with Genre and Audience Awareness: The literature review you produce should be tailored for the genre and
your selected disciplinary audience. Refer to your discipline-specific genre samples while drafting so that your writing
demonstrates consistent awareness of structural, linguistic, and referential genre expectations, and keep your disciplinary
audience in mind as you make decisions about what concepts or terms you should (and should not) define, what context
you should provide, what information you should emphasize, etc.

END-P AGE REFLECTION

On the final page of your project, respond to the following three reflection questions.

1. Discuss at least three distinct choices you made in your literature review with regard to its content (what you wrote) and its
language (how you wrote it) to effectively tailor the writing for your disciplinary audience.

2. Discuss at least three distinct choices you made in your literature review to meet genre expectations, to what extent you
found these expectations challenging to meet, and what strategies you used to overcome these challenges.

3. Discuss what individuals or organizations hold influence over the resolution suggested by your literature review, and what
other resolutions either have been proposed (and/or attempted) in the past or could be proposed in the future.

Projects submitted without the end-page reflection receive a 10% deduction.

This work, created by George Mason University’s Composition Program, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
 Last Update: 5/14/2023

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The Literature Review project has been designed to serve the following English 302 course learning goals (highlighted in gray):

 Students will be able to analyze rhetorical situations–audience, purpose, and context–in order to recognize the expecta-
tions of readers and understand the main purposes of composing across multiple contexts relevant to their fields of study.
 Students will understand the conventions of academic and non-academic genres, to include usage, specialized vocabu-
lary, format, and attribution/citation systems.
 Students will be able to apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced academic and non-academic
texts of relevance to their fields of study.
 Students will identify and synthesize multiple perspectives in articulating and refining a research question relevant to their
fields of study.
 Students will engage in a recursive process of inventing, investigating, shaping, drafting, revising, and editing to produce a
range of academic and non-academic texts of relevance to their fields of study.

This project has also been designed to serve the following Students as Scholars (SaS) learning goals (highlighted in gray):

 Core: Articulate and refine a question, problem, or challenge

 Ethical: Identify relevant ethical issues and follow ethical principles
 Discovery: Distinguish between personal beliefs and evidence
 Method (1): Gather and evaluate evidence appropriate to the inquiry
 Method (2): Appropriately analyze scholarly evidence
 Context: Explain how knowledge is situated and shared in relevant scholarly contexts

This work, created by George Mason University’s Composition Program, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.