How To Introduce The Literature

By Samantha Newport.

When starting a new academic piece such as a quantitative report or dissertation, you need to start by introducing the literature from the area you are researching. This portion of your work should provide background information to the reader about previous studies done on your topic. You should also provide a justification for why you are doing this research and why it is necessary to expand the literature available in this area. By explaining and justifying your research and its importance, you are ‘building a rationale’ for your study.

Good rationales include some of these key points:

To test (what?) theory:
For example, you may want to test whether eco-friendly messages being advertised in schools have a significant impact on children’s behaviours, such as encouraging them to recycle more.
To replicate an existing finding:
You could do this by replicating an existing study to support their findings and add to the literature with your own. For example: Previous research may present a strong positive correlation between exposure to eco-friendly advertisements and eco-friendly behaviour in school children. You too may decide to do a correlation design with the same variables but with a different participant sample. Instead you may decide to study older people in education, such as University students.
To extend the literature beyond the findings of previous research:
Alternatively, you may try to add to the research by investigating the relationship between eco-friendly messages and behaviours further by using different types of eco-friendly messages to your target sample, so to see which type is more effective (e.g messages that include fear and catastrophe narratives vs ones that promote positive action and instruction for change).
To resolve any anomalies found in previous research:
Previous studies that you cite in your literature review may have had inconclusive results or weak statistical findings. You may want to address these inconsistencies or discrepancies in your own investigation but with a better design.

When writing your introduction to the literature it is really important that you do the following:

Write in third person. You are writing an objective scientific piece of work, it cannot include anything personal or anything based in your own opinions or feelings. You must remain objective, neutral and value-free. Imagine that you are somebody who is writing a textbook for students – write formally and professionally, there cannot be any reference to “me, myself and I”.
Go into sufficient detail with supporting references when discussing theory and empirical research. Use the ‘PEEL’ method – make your (P)oint, (E)xplain it, give (E)vidence for it, and then (L)ink it back to your point. You need to develop skills in providing as much key detail as possible, as briefly as possible. This is a skill that you learn over time. When commencing research, try to summarise an entire journal article in 500 words, then when it comes to the write-up - depending on your word count - try to limit it even more with fewer words (200-300) and a more carefully selected way of phrasing things (e.g. see if you can replace 3 words with one more effective word that still gets the point across – an easy way to do this is to look up synonyms). The ability to be compact and concise in your writing takes time and practice. Keep at it. Just remember that when discussing findings of a study, simply state what was found and what that means. Keep it reasonably short, to the point but informative.
Always be critical and never take research at face value. Just because a piece of research has been published or uses good language, does not necessarily make it reliable. In psychology, we can never 100% prove or disprove anything, we as scientists merely build up more research either for or against something. Lots can also go wrong during the research process, so it is important to keep an eye out for what the report is really saying. For example, a study may report that chewing gum once a week increases your chance of tooth rot by 70%. This sounds terrifying (and completely made up as an example), but if you look at the details of their report you may see that they had an incredibly small sample size. Therefore their study has little validity. Therefore in your write-up always look for the strengths and weaknesses of the research you come across and discuss them. Use these points when building your own rationale and to guide the methods of your own research.
Be organised with your material. Work like you are in an upside down triangle: the top (the beginning of your research) should be big and broad, discussing general theory and literature related to your hypothesis. As your write-up continues, ‘the triangle’ should get narrower and narrower, meaning that your points should get more and more specific. For example, you could be researching into what sexism looks like in 2019 and its impact. You could start by discussing research and theory surrounding the social history of gender-roles and conceptualisations of sexism. You could then get more specific by delving into Hollywood’s involvement in their portrayal of women, messages surrounding the ‘female body’ and gender differences in response to it, concerning stereotyping and mental health.
Be ‘dramatic’ but maintain objectivity. That is meant in the sense of leaving a ‘cliff-hanger’ at the end. Outline your prediction or state your hypothesis at the end with either an alternative or null hypothesis. Encourage the reader to join you on the journey of scientific discovery in an academic tone. Make your research sound really interesting and worth-while, with professional language and a clear aim.

When writing your introduction to the literature, it is important to always be critical with your content. Use the following check-list to make sure that you are ‘on-point’ with your work:

Imagine you are someone who has no idea about your research area and no knowledge at all about your subject. Is your rationale clear? Does what you write make sense to the average person? Be careful when using scientific language as it can get in the way of what you are trying to say, if used too heavily. If you are using specialised vocabulary, make sure to include a definition somewhere.
Is your rationale concise and backed up by appropriate research?
Have you sufficiently evaluated the literature critically, taking into account the strengths and weaknesses? Did you use the PEEL method when presenting these points?
How organised is your material? Does it ‘funnel’ nicely from general to specific as if in an upside-down triangle?
Have you clearly communicated your hypothesis?

If you have done all of these things, congrats! You have written a great introduction to the literature and can now move on to the next stage of writing your report.