About the Literature Review
"Literature review" is a fancy term for what's, practically speaking, the kind of paper you're already most accustomed to: the kind where you pick a topic, research some sources to develop a position, and then weave them all together into an essay.
It provides a review of the literature: a survey of what experts in the field are saying and have said about your topic. It can also identify knowledge gaps and possibilities for future research. You are not presenting an argument yet.
It should not be written like a book report: "This article by Smith says... [summary]." New paragraph, "The book by Hernandez says... [summary]." You're summarizing the big ideas (not the sources themselves) to the end goal of synthesizing all your research, with your citations sprinkled in throughout to indicate that yes, people are saying these things and look how it overlaps!
Organize by ideas/concepts, not by sources of information. Don't simply summarize one source after another. Look for patterns across your sources.
Take a look at this professionally published example (link goes to databases; login credentials or barcode required): notice how sources are frequently integrated and discussed. This one is a more formal lit review and gets into how the authors organized their search; it's also a standalone paper. Of note:
- Citations can be thick on the ground! It's a good sign when you have multiple sources that you can incorporate into one sentence. (The example uses APA style, but you'll be using CMOS footnotes, of course.)
- But you can also delve more deeply into single sources, too.
Citations: Let's Get Ready to Footnote
Word will handle all the numbering and spacing for you: just keep clicking the "Insert Footnote" button after sentences with quotes or paraphrases you need to add attributions to! Remember, footnotes have both long and short forms. See the Chicago Guide for more details and examples.
- FAQ: How do I create a footnote in Word? Guide courtesy of Elaine Patton, LSC-UP
Citing Multiple Sources in One Single Footnote
As discussed, you're really putting your sources to work in the literature review and you're especially trying to get them to gang up with each other. This means you may should have places where multiple sources are attached to a single sentence...and therefore to a single footnote.
Note: if you mention the author in-text...
If you've given the full name of the author in your paper, you can skip including the first name in your full footnote (and of course, the first name is dropped for the short footnote form anyway).
