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How to Write a Literature Review. Or How to avoid having your committee die of boredom. Purpose. To show you did something this semester? To help you define your research question. To place your research in the literature. To help the reader understand what you are doing.
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How to Write a Literature Review Or How to avoid having your committee die of boredom
Purpose • To show you did something this semester? • To help you define your research question. • To place your research in the literature. • To help the reader understand what you are doing. • To show why your research is interesting.
Important! This is not just busy work: You need to know what’s been done. Selling your work is crucial on the market A good literature review: Makes you look professional Makes your work stand out as important Provides a common ground for discussion.
Where to find the Literature • Field class reading lists • Your Advisor • Survey Articles (JEL, Handbooks, New Palgrave Dictionary) • References Lists of Articles you read • S.S. Citations index (who cited classic articles on same topic) • EconLit Search • SSRN, Google Scholar Search
Stay Organized • Make notes on every paper you “read” • Lists of papers by ??? (see more below) • Learn to read it one or three times: • One time for big picture, what does this paper do? • Second time for details: study it! • Third time, put details back into big picture. • Begin to focus on Critical turns in the literature.
Organization Options • Chronological Paper by Paper coverage. • Great for your notes.. • Terrible to read…Not really a lit review • By Issue • By Common results • By Common data • By Common models/methods Most Likely a combination of all.
Keep in Mind Your Goal: What is your research Question? How does this paper fit in with what you are doing? What’s the big picture? Above all, the literature review should be designed to highlight YOUR research: what will you add? How will your results inform the profession? How will your results answer the open questions?
Audience • Who you are writing to is crucial. • Ultimately, you are writing for a journal audience. • Economists (typically), usually in your field. • Think other graduate students who have passed the field exam. • You can assume they understand the literature and may have read some of it. The goal is to remind them, and tie it together to your work.
Length • Long enough to cover the subject, short enough to keep it interesting (there’s an old saying…) • Two lengths: • Journal Article (shorter, 2-3 pages of a 25 page paper) • Proposal/Thesis (longer, 5-10 pages) • Take some time and read a few people’s thesis. • Pick a few papers in AER/JEP/QJE and see what they look like.
Good Writing • Spelling and Grammar • One idea per paragraph • Transitions, between paragraphs and sections • Active voice (“Bollinger (2003) demonstrates that”…rather than “In Bollinger (2003) it is shown that”)
Plagiarism • Any time you use the same words, you must put it in quotes and acknowledge it. Changing one or two words is not sufficient. • If in doubt, quote and cite. • It can be difficult, but think about how you would explain it to your non-economist friends, then start from there.
Citation Style • Chicago manual of style. • Typically, I see the use of last name, year of publication in journals • Many researchers are unclear on this(Bollinger 2003; Smith 2008) • Bollinger (2003) is perhaps the least clear on this issue. • In the references, then • Bollinger, Christopher. 2003. Confusing the Reader: A How to Guide. Journal of Irreproducible Results, π:17-65.
