Daniel P. Richards
Volume 6
Chapter Description
A literature review can take many forms and can be found in a wide array of academic, scientific, technical, and workplace documents spanning all fields and disciplines. Sometimes it is the full document; sometimes it is but part of a document. From essays in philosophy to journal articles in oceanography to grant applications in microbiology to proposals in public policy to informal reports in social media marketing to business pitches in accounting, each have a type of literature review component that are connected more by function (what it does) than by form (how it is organized). That is, the form can take many shapes: A literature review can be a three-page section of an academic essay, yes, but it also can be a one paragraph overview of common platforms used by other companies in their social media marketing. It can be a background research section of a grant application for a municipal project. The functions, however, by and large stay the same. The goal of this essay is to examine what these functions are and, in doing so, present the case that a literature review is not supplemental but foundational to any piece of writing—including those in more technical documents.
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