{"id":134,"date":"2019-05-13T18:05:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T22:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/?post_type=chapter&p=134"},"modified":"2019-07-23T14:44:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T18:44:34","slug":"understanding-the-difference-between-a-literature-review-and-an-essay","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/chapter\/understanding-the-difference-between-a-literature-review-and-an-essay\/","title":{"raw":"Understanding the Difference Between a Literature Review and an Essay","rendered":"Understanding the Difference Between a Literature Review and an Essay"},"content":{"raw":"So now that you know what a literature review is and how to write it, it is important to understand how a literature review is different from an essay. First of all, it is necessary to point out that many students struggle with understanding the difference between a literature review and an essay. \u00a0This is particularly so because a student can use the exact same resources to create a literature review or an essay; however, what is different about the two is where the emphasis in the writing is placed (Thomas 2012).\r\n\r\nA discussed previously, a literature review focuses on everything that has been written about a particular topic, theory, or research. \u00a0It is focused on the research and the researchers who have undertaken research on your topic. In contrast, an essay focuses on proving a point. \u00a0It does not need to provide an extensive coverage of all of the material on the topic. In fact, the writer chooses only those sources that prove the point. Most professors will expect to see you discuss a few different perspectives from the materials that run contrary to the point you are trying to make. For example, suppose you want to write an essay about the negative effects of shiftwork on nurses. \u00a0You would gather material to show that shiftwork negatively affects nurses, and the various ways it affects nurses. Now in this case, you might find the odd research paper that states shiftwork has no effect \u2013 although, I doubt it, because it has been extensively documented to have a negative affect. However, the point is that with an essay you are focused on providing information on your topic and proving your point.\r\n

Understanding the difference between a literature review and an annotated bibliography<\/h1>\r\nThere is a third type of academic writing that can also confuse students who are attempting to write a literature review \u2026 and that is an annotated bibliography. \u00a0An annotated bibliography provides all of the reference details of a bibliography, but it goes one step further and provides a short (approximately 150 words) description of the reference. \u00a0An annotated bibliography is not to be confused with a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of journal articles, books, and other resources that someone has utilized in writing. The bibliography, provides a list of all resources that someone used to write a research paper and, unlike a reference list, includes references that may not appear in the body of the paper. \u00a0No doubt you have had to create many bibliographies in your academic studies. Here is a link to a website where you can learn more about annotated bibliographies and also to see a sample of an annotated bibliography: Annotated Bibliographies<\/a>","rendered":"

So now that you know what a literature review is and how to write it, it is important to understand how a literature review is different from an essay. First of all, it is necessary to point out that many students struggle with understanding the difference between a literature review and an essay. \u00a0This is particularly so because a student can use the exact same resources to create a literature review or an essay; however, what is different about the two is where the emphasis in the writing is placed (Thomas 2012).<\/p>\n

A discussed previously, a literature review focuses on everything that has been written about a particular topic, theory, or research. \u00a0It is focused on the research and the researchers who have undertaken research on your topic. In contrast, an essay focuses on proving a point. \u00a0It does not need to provide an extensive coverage of all of the material on the topic. In fact, the writer chooses only those sources that prove the point. Most professors will expect to see you discuss a few different perspectives from the materials that run contrary to the point you are trying to make. For example, suppose you want to write an essay about the negative effects of shiftwork on nurses. \u00a0You would gather material to show that shiftwork negatively affects nurses, and the various ways it affects nurses. Now in this case, you might find the odd research paper that states shiftwork has no effect \u2013 although, I doubt it, because it has been extensively documented to have a negative affect. However, the point is that with an essay you are focused on providing information on your topic and proving your point.<\/p>\n

Understanding the difference between a literature review and an annotated bibliography<\/h1>\n

There is a third type of academic writing that can also confuse students who are attempting to write a literature review \u2026 and that is an annotated bibliography. \u00a0An annotated bibliography provides all of the reference details of a bibliography, but it goes one step further and provides a short (approximately 150 words) description of the reference. \u00a0An annotated bibliography is not to be confused with a bibliography. A bibliography is a list of journal articles, books, and other resources that someone has utilized in writing. The bibliography, provides a list of all resources that someone used to write a research paper and, unlike a reference list, includes references that may not appear in the body of the paper. \u00a0No doubt you have had to create many bibliographies in your academic studies. Here is a link to a website where you can learn more about annotated bibliographies and also to see a sample of an annotated bibliography: Annotated Bibliographies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":724,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-134","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":125,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134\/revisions\/551"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/125"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/134\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/researchmethods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}