I use this literature review activity for two capstone classes (one in Sociology, one in Political
Science). The class tends to be roughly 80% Seniors, 15% Juniors, and 5% Sophomores. The
classes range in size from 8 to 27 students. Although I use this exercise for the capstone class
(where students ultimately have to write a 15-20 page paper of original research), this could be
used in any class as most undergraduates lack experience writing literature reviews. Although the
literature review exercise is derived from a Cultural Criminology study published by Lisa Kort-
Butler in 2012 (Rotten, Vile, and Depraved! Depictions of Criminality in Superhero Cartoons,
Deviant Behavior, 33, 566-581), my Political Science students enjoy and get as much out of it as
my Sociology students.
Most undergraduates lack real training in how to write a literature review. Common problems for
students in writing their first literature review include a lack of synthesis (such as writing each
paragraph about an individual study) and too many specific details from a given study (e.g.,
reporting sample size and coefficients). Consequently, the literature review often fails to
adequately set up the hypothesis, methodology, and subsequent findings of the student’s
capstone paper.
To provide students with more guidance before having to write their literature review, I have a
special literature review day. First, I give a brief presentation (roughly 10-15 minutes) on how to
write an effective literature review (see my slides for details). After discussing things that make
for a good literature review (as well as a not so good literature review), I provide students with a
short example of a literature review that is not well-written, and ask the class “What mistakes
does this literature review commit below?" (slide 6). Mistakes include having a topic sentence
that is all about an individual study, the literature review contains irrelevant information, and the
literature review does not synthesize the paragraph around a single idea. I then show them a
“new and improved” version of the same information presented more efficiently and synthesized
more effectively and have them tell me why this literature review is better (slide 7).
Once the presentation is complete, I break the class into small groups (3-6 people) and hand each
group the boxed citation statements below (which I cut-out, mix up, and give to them in a
folder). I then tell students that they are going to re-assemble these 19 sentences back into a
working literature review of 4-5 paragraphs, creating a topic sentence for each paragraph.
Students typically need 20-25 minutes to complete this task. I let students know that there is no
single right way to organize these sentences—students successfully do it in a variety of ways,
although it is often around similar themes.
Once everyone is done (or we have reached the time limit), each group shares with the class how
they organized the citations and the topic sentences that they gave for each paragraph. If we have
time, I have the group write down each of their topic sentences for each paragraph. If time is
tight, I simply have them write on the board the topic sentence that they believe is their best. If
students contribute to the discussion in their group (and students almost uniformly do), they
receive their full participation grade for that class period.
Students generally have very few questions about the activity. The only things that really need
clarification are that students do not need to worry about the order of the paragraphs or the