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Nursing Graduate Student Library Research Guide - RUL

Information to support graduate students as they become proficient users of library resources and services

Preparing an annotated bibliography to begin

         An annotated bibliography includes article citations with paragraphs of varying length that summarize or evaluate the article's content.  Crafting the annotated bibliography will help you learn more about the subject you want to investigate.  it will also "encourage" you to read more critically.  When you're finished with your annotated bibliography, you can determine each article's contribution to the development of your ressearch question.

      Purdue's Online Writing Lab has a great section on writing annotated bibliographies with an example in APA style.  The section on quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing as well as the section on evaluating sources might be useful to you.

      Another helpful site from Diana Hacker has writing related information for students.  An example of an APA annotated bibliography is included.  Here's the link: http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/rules6e/pdfs/Hacker-Haddad-APA-AnnBib.pdf

    

Literature review process

The process you follow to develop a literature review is very similar to conducting a research study.  You begin with a research problem, collect data, evaluate the data, analyze and interpret it and then prepare your work to share with others. 

Research question

  • Use concept mapping as an aid to development.
  • Make sure the question is important to you to maintain your interest.

Data collection

  • Gather appropriate articles through your searches of the Libraries’ journal article databases.    

Data evaluation

  • Note common themes emerging from your readings.
  • Identify relationships among the themes.
  • Write a brief paragraph describing the themes or categories.  You can also include the relationships among them and how they connect with your overall idea.

Analysis and interpretation

  • Continue to read to make sure all relevant authors, methodologies are included and all irrelevant items are removed. 
  • Write individual sections using annotations and point out relationships among articles.  Articles are the evidence to support your critique.  You will be more successful if you begin with the articles as the support rather than starting with the point you want to make and then drawing in the articles.

Presentation

  • Merge individual sections into integrated document. 
  • Add introduction and conclusion sections.
  • Make sure all sections support your ideas and edit or revise accordingly.