LITERATURE REVIEW ESSAY

LITERATURE REVIEW ESSAY

This section explains the literature review essay in more detail, including the skills it is testing. Your grade for the module comes from your mark for this essay. It is due in by 6pm on Saturday 10 December.

What is a literature review essay?

The piece of work on which you will be graded for this module is a 2000-word historiographical essay, or literature review. A literature review essay is an essay dedicated to telling the story of how modern scholars have defined and debated a topic. We don't study the past in a vacuum, but whenever we write about a subject - whether it's Neolithic tool use, Roman love poetry or ministerial resignations in the Thatcher government - we are joining a conversation which has long roots. The way that we ask and answer questions on our topic is also shaped by the traditions and practices of our academic discipline. The purpose of the literature review essay, therefore, is to get you thinking about the academic conversations and debates that have shaped a topic you are interested in.

The class in week 8 discusses what a good literature review should include, possible ways to structure a literature review and ways in which you might use a literature review when writing about the past outside this module. You will find some sample literature review essays written by past students under week 5 which you can look at for guidance. Under week 5 you will also find two possible structures for your literature review: a chronological survey (in which you follow the way the topic as been studied over time) and a thematic survey (in which you assess major themes in how the subject has been studied). Under week 9 you will find a further worksheet, to help you evaluate how primary sources feed into and shape your topic.

How do I choose a topic?

Your literature review can be on any topic with an academic literature that interests you. It's a chance to follow up a personal interest that you might not otherwise be able to explore in your degree. Is there an issue or theme that particularly interests you? (E.g. could you link the essay to a theme linked to your family history, or to a hobby or sport, or is there a historic person, place or subject that fascinates you?) Or, if you already have a plan for your dissertation, you could write the review essay on a topic related to your dissertation. NB. You can't write on exactly the same topic as your dissertation, because of the rules on self-plagiarism (you cannot submit the same work twice). But you can pick a topic which will help you come to your dissertation idea with a clearer understanding of its scholarly landscape.

For example:

- If you are interested in writing your dissertation about the impact of the Second World War on black communities in Paris, consider writing a literature review on the history of Paris or the social history of twentieth-century France.

- If you are interested in writing your dissertation about the role of fish in Bronze Age diets in Britain, consider writing a literature review on food histories or the economic structures of Bronze Age Britain.

- If you are interested in writing your dissertation about the significance of animal analogy in ancient Greek comic literature, consider writing a literature review on interpretations of Greek comedy or on animal symbolism in literary texts.

In each of these examples, your literature review will support your dissertation work, but it will not be so closely related that you have to avoid copying the same content in two different assessments.

We will also offer individual meetings if you have questions about the specific topic you'd like to research. So don't worry if you feel stuck and puzzled, there will be lots of support!

Skills being tested:

- your ability to put the skills learnt over the module into practice, and undertake an independent study of the academic literature on the topic of your choice.

- your ability to build up a bibliography of academic literature on your topic.

- your ability to sort, organise and thematise the works you review, in order to identify chronological or thematic turning points and major developments in the academic conversation about your subject.

- your ability to write up your findings in a clearly organised way, and to summarise the current state of your field.

Top tips:

- Recognise that this is a different type of essay to the essays you normally write. To use the fruit bowl analogy, if your normal essay is an apple, this literature review essay is a banana. The most common reason for students to get a fail mark or a mark in the 50s on Exploring the Past is submitting a standard essay which debates their topic. These are often very interesting essays, but they fail because they don't explicitly discuss the ways in which the academic literature has developed. Remember that this literature review essay is all about studying how your topic has been studied and discussed by scholars over time.

- The difference between solid marks and high marks is often down to stepping back and explaining why the developments you identify are significant. Remember to include sentences explaining the implications of developments. The final sentence of each paragraph is an excellent place to do this, as is the end of each section of your review.

10th of Dec

this is the structure that they want

Sample Plan 2: the thematic survey Narrative: tell the story of how modern scholars have defined and debated the chosen topic Analysis: try to explain how the changes in these debates have been shaped by, and shaped, wider social processes. Introduction - What is the topic you are surveying the historiography of (very short historical summary) - Why is it worth surveying (short summary of problems/disputes/areas of uncertainty and why this topic may matter to several fields or areas of society - What topics or themes come together to make this single field of study - What sections you intend to divide your essay into - One or two sentence summary of the current state of the field Section 1: the first of the major themes you have identified as being important in this topic - Within each section of a thematic essay it will often be useful to work chronologically. - How did the study of this theme emerge? - What were some key works and turning points? - What is the state of the theme now? Is it still important? Is it now largely treated as known or is it debated? Section 2: important turning point study up to another important turning point study or major event of social change - Within each section of a thematic essay it will often be useful to work chronologically. - How did the study of this theme emerge? - What were some key works and turning points? - What is the state of the theme now? Is it still important? Is it now largely treated as known or is it debated? Section 3: important turning point study or major event of social change to current debates and key works - Within each section of a thematic essay it will often be useful to work chronologically. - How did the study of this theme emerge? - What were some key works and turning points? - What is the state of the theme now? Is it still important? Is it now largely treated as known or is it debated? Conclusion - Summarise points made and explain how the three themes interact to create the field you are interested in, which are dominant now and have been over time, etc. - Offer a slightly longer summary of the current state of the field - Optional: suggest new directions the field could now move in, using new methodologies or adopting new theoretical frameworks/historiographical positions *N.B. In a thematic survey the conclusion will often be longer than in a chronological survey because you will need to use it to bring together the separate surveys of thematic elements to provide an overview of how they jointly constitute your focus of study, where the tensions between them are, etc.

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