Conducting a Narrative Literature Review

• Usually moves from general to specific

  • Start by establishing context, then more to content more closely related to your topic

• Group by subtopics in a method of your choice

  • Break up into paragraphs or sections- introduction, body, conclusion

  • Discuss the relation between articles

  • Choose how to group your analysis:

    • Thematic, Methodological, Chronological, Argument based, Theory based

  • Use topic sentences to introduce content

• Avoid:

  • Focusing a whole paragraph on a single article

  • Introducing articles and simply giving summaries

  • Simply writing the equivalent of an annotated bibliography in paragraph form

Citation managers format references in the style you choose (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

IU students have free access to several citation managers (i.e., "bibliographic software").

NOTE: Always check the accuracy of citations created through these tools. They can be very helpful, but may make mistakes.

Citation Managers at IU