How to Draft a Literature Review Plan: Tips and Guidelines

This article provides tips and guidelines on how to draft a literature review plan. It includes insights from experts on how to organize and analyze literature, develop an outline, and write a cohesive essay. The article also highlights the importance of finding a common theme, narrowing down the topic, and using evidence to support the arguments.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW PLAN 1
LITERATURE REVIEW PLAN
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

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Literature Review Plan
Introduction
Most scholars have defined the literature review as an annotated bibliography that
summaries articles one has reviewed, but as the summary of what is read is captured in the
literature review, the literature review goes further beyond summarizing literature as it looks at
one's topic of interest and provides a critical analysis on relationships among different works
relating to one's topic. It is also written to provide a theoretical framework for a research study.
How to Draft a Literature Review Plan
Galvan (2006), gives a step to step way on how to write a literature review plan. The
author first recommends one to read APA guidelines to familiarize himself with core elements in
the APA style. Secondly, one's topic has to be related to the project one is doing. Galvan (2006)
also encourages one to identify the literature that will be reviewed. This can be done by
familiarizing with online databases and relevant databases such as Google Scholar and searching
using Furl. Once one has located articles for his review he is to analyze and organize the
literature before writing. This can be done by skimming through the articles, grouping the
articles into categories and taking notes. Galvan (2006) also recommends one to summarize the
literature in a table as a way to summarize, organize and overview your findings. Using notes
one is also to develop an outline of your final review and while writing the review identify the
broad problem area without forgetting to cite all references. One is also to aim for a clear and
cohesive essay and write a conclusion for the end of the review.
Webster, J., & Watson, R.T. (2002) says as one reads articles on one's topic he is to write
an abstract on each source read. The author encourages one to find a common theme in the work
read and organize them into categories and see how the categories relate to one another. Based

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on one's readings one has to look for more authors who are important in the field one is looking
into. Webster, J., & Watson, R.T. (2002) recommends the use of annotations in writing of a
section discussing articles relevant to the theme and showing how the articles relate to each other
and to the theme rather than focusing one's writing on an individual article. Now that one has a
thematic section he ties them with the introduction, conclusion, and revisions showing how they
relate to one another and the overall theme.
Troyka, Quitman (2002) looks at how a literature review plan should be drafted and
encourages one to seek clarity as to the type of sources to use and if one should critique or
synthesize the sources. One is also to look for literature reviews in his areas of interest and get
the type of themes he wants to look into. The author looks into how one can narrow his topic as
it will be easier to limit the number of sources you need to read to get a good survey. Once one
has stated his focus he looks into the most effective way to present the information using topics
and subtopics. Troyka, Quitman (2002) says the literature review plan must contain three basic
elements which are: introduction, body and conclusion without forgetting the use of evidence.
Anson, Chris M. Schwegler (2000) says it should capture an overview of the subject,
division of the works into categories, explanation of each work and conclusions as to the pieces
which are best considered. Pyrczak, Fred. (1999) further evaluates the different sources on how
to draft a literature review plan and sees how information may be incorrect especially by the use
of online databases advocated by Galvan (2006). Webster, J., & Watson, R.T. (2002) talks about
finding a common theme and how they can relate with one another but does not look into key
issues such as citation especially if the findings are borrowed from other researchers. Troyka,
Quitman (2002) looks at how to present topics and subtopics to get clarity in his work but fails to
explain further how one can get clarity by distinguishing between research, theory, and opinion.

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In summary, different articles and books are written showing different ways on how to
draft a literature review plan, most ways are seen to consider the same approach in writing the
review such as scheming through to get an overview of the subject.
References
Galvan, J. (2006). Writing literature reviews: a guide for students of the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.).
Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
Webster, J., & Watson, R. T. (2002). Analyzing the past to prepare for the future: Writing a literature
review. MIS quarterly, xiii-xxiii.
Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall, 2002.
Anson, Chris M. and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. Second
edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
Pyrczak, Fred. (1999). Evaluating Research in Academic Journals. Pyrczak Publishing