How to review the literature

There are three things you should consider in reviewing the literature in Chapter 2.

1. Organization
How do you organize the ideas in Chapter 2? Begin this chapter by explaining the most general ideas, then write the more specific ideas. So the organization is: general --> specific.

For example, I wrote a thesis titled "The Use of Context Cues by the Students of English IKIP Malang in Reading Comprehension". The most general idea is reading comprehension, and the most specific one is context cues, so I organized Chapter 2 in this way:


2. Quoting, Paraphrasing & Summarizing
You have learned about them in the course Academic Writing 1, haven't you? Here is a little review:

• Don’t quote too much, only the sentences that you cannot paraphrase or summarize.
• Restate other authors’ ideas in your own words most of the time. (In other words, paraphrase most of the time.)
• If the texts are too long, summarize the ideas.

3. Taking Notes
Make notes directly as you read books, journal, papers, and theses/dissertations. Usually you read lots of them, so if you find a relevant idea and don't take notes immediately, you may forget which idea in which book.
Softwares are available to help you do this, such as Endnote. The use of cards is not recommended because:

• It takes longer time to make them.
• You use paper, which means more trees have to be cut down. This is not environmentally friendly.