What should a lit review include?

From Judi: What exactly does a literature review entail to arrive at a description of the current state of the literature regarding your area of study? 

Unfortunately, that is not an easy question, Judi! One of the best ways to approach the literature review is to take an historical approach. In this approach, you trace the development of the concept through time. So let's say you are interested in resilience in the elderly; you would want to see first when resilience begins showing up in the literature as a variable, then when it begins to be applied to the elderly. You would then want to discuss the various ways it has been examined in the population and what the research has reported. By the time you are done, it should be clear to the reader what the current state of the literature is. 

One additional aspect that students don't consider is to include how your study will be addressing the issues. Let's say your lit review finds that the topic of resilience has not been applied to the oldest old (people over the age of 85), you would want to point out in your lit review that your study will be adding this element to the literature. 

One thing to keep in mind as your write c. 2, by the end of the chapter the reader should be convinced that your study is the next logical step. To get the reader to this point it is important to be pointing out as you go what your study adds, then in the summary you can remind them of these points. 

One final reminder, you need to be an expert in your area of study. This means you need to read everything you can find on the topic, even if it is not included in your paper.  Next time, we consider the topic of commitment.