The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success

by Lawrence A. Machi

A six-step model offers invaluable assistance for selecting a topic, searching the literature, developing arguments, surveying the literature, critiquing the literature, and writing the literature review.

Genres: Research, Writing, Nonfiction, Grad School, Education, Academia, Academic

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 2008

About the author

Lawrence (Larry) Anthony Machi

Reviews

[Neil R. Coulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a rather puzzling book. The title seems clear enough: The Literature Review. And teaching master’s and doctoral students, I often hear variants of the question, “What is a literature review supposed to be?” It’s a difficult question because I don’t like cookie-cutter, template-driven theses and dissertations; I prefer each project to cover the required ground in its own distinctive way. But that’s not helpful for students who are just looking for a template, at least to guide their work initially.

So this book sounds like it would be exactly what I need.

However...

Strangely, it doesn’t offer a clear answer to the basic “What is a literature review, anyway?” question. Instead, it’s more of a guide to the research project overall. I have other texts and ways of teaching my students how to create and craft a research project; what they’re asking with the literature review is just “What does a good literature review look like? How many words? How many sources? How much text about each source? What kind of comparing and contrasting among all the sources? How much do I give away about the conclusions in the literature review?” etc. It’s only on page 141 (out of 156) that we finally get the subheading “Literature Review Format.” And then the authors give some basic guidelines on the sections of a literature review. But it’s still not very specific, and nowhere is there just an example of a good literature review. It feels sometimes like the authors probably know what a literature review is, but they don’t want to give it away to just anyone. Late in the book, they’re meandering around writing tips that are very general and very beneath my grad students—for example, “When editing, adjust the content and flow of the composition and correct its organization and grammar” (136). [[facepalm]]

There is good information in the book, but it’s mistitled, and it’s not what I need for my students.

[Dr. Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 rounded up bc I am being nice.

Ugh this was interesting but also a slog to get through. I would not generally recommend it to people in science fields like chemistry, biology etc but students in social sciences or other humanities would definitely find this helpful as it's built for those fields. My literature review is about one specific gene and I don't know if all the organization used here is applicable to me since I don't think I will have an argument besides "here's what we know about this gene".

This book was also frustrating for me to read at times. They would have exercises throughout and questions at the end of the chapter that I did not understand or know how to answer even with reading the chapter beforehand. It felt like I was missing information to complete these activities. This book is really not made for neurodivergent people.

I will attempt to follow their plan, but no guarantees.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a good introduction into writing a literature review. Sometimes it seems to become confused between writing a literature review and writing a full book. Machi went to great lengths to dissect the different types of arguments a writer can make, creating the impression that the literature review is solely formulaic. For a beginning writer this might be necessary and helpful, but for graduate level work this is a bit overbearing.

This book is a pretty easy read. I was able to amend ideas about outlining and formatting to fit my personal style for visualizing my work in a way that was helpful. Machi also gives writers permission to skim the literature to be synthesized, even giving helpful ideas about how to do this. I am a person who needed permission to not read every word of every article as I often feel guilty when I run out of time to do an in depth study of each piece. Having official endorsement to read the abstracts and key paragraphs of the bodies relieved some of my anxiety surrounding the literature review on which I am currently working.

[Sara Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly readable and very practical book. It certainly shows that the scope of a lit review for a PhD is a huge task, but it lays out the steps very practically. The approach to organizing the research material looks so useful, I actually want to do a "test run" of the method for a shorter research paper I need to do.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book mostly unhelpful. It seems geared towards those wanting to do quantitative research in their dissertation. The strategies offered seem very complicated and confusing to me. I did get a handful of helpful tips from it tho.

[Hannah Colston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t love the way this book broke up the steps to a literature review. Most of this felt like it was repeating that same thing a million times in more complex ways that didn’t make sense.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2012). The literature review: Six steps to success. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage.

The author’s breakdown the elusive literature review. All successful research starts with serious inquiry and reflection. The researcher should prepare and be ready to spend countless hours reading, investigating and critically reflecting on the topic, problem and issues surrounding it. Plan you time and just write allowing your ideas to flow. You must pick a topic that you can become immersed in because you will need to know everything around that issue. “Preparation equals efficiency” p. 30. There were tons of examples of mapping so you can determine which research came first and which authors are most important to the field. Be diligent, focused and above all else be organized.

“One who seeks, finds; one who perseveres, wins” p. 87 Research is not to be feared; it is to be embraced. The problem has been identified, the answers are just waiting to be found. Keep your research problem and questions in mind at all times. You have to stay focused in order to critique the literature needed for your problem. The writing process: write, audit and edit.

This is a practical and easy to read guide on the basic elements of a literature review. The authors take away the mystery of preparing the literature review. The six steps are: 1) select a topic; 2) search the literature; 3) develop the argument; 4) survey the literature; 5) critique the literature; and 6) write the review.

[Kitab · Rating 4 out of 5]

In contrast to Christopher Hart's "Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination", this book is a much easier read. It's compacter, uses easier language, and quite a number of examples to motivate people struggling with the basics of writing a literature review. It uses a number of references including Hart's book to present argumentative techniques, which a struggling student/academician can use. In this way it follows the same strategy as another good book about writing academic papers Graf & Birkenstein's "They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing".

A major weakness of this book, as compared to "They Say/I Say..." is the lack of model articles. Also a few more examples in the beginning chapters could have made the text much more practical. My recommendation is to add 2-3 Model Articles in the appendices, and refer to them as examples within the text.

However, in spite of this shortcoming, the book does well in introducing writers to the basics of writing a literature review, and encourages them in doing so without overwhelming them with the philosophical basics of writing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been told that I'm a great writer of literature reviews, and in preparation on teaching a workshop for others on the topic, I thought I would read this. In particular, I was hoping for systemic and step-by-step advice that I could pass on. Frankly, I found more that confused me than that I thought I could use. To be clear, there is a lot of good advice here, and the authors certainly chart a more systemic course than I could articulate on my own. However, many of their charts seemed needlessly complex, and there weren't enough examples to understand how they would extrapolate their ideas in the context of actually writing a review.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Find a different book. Or use some of those awesome search skills you've honed doing your academic research to find a few really great internet resources on doing a lit review, print them out at the student computer lab, and use that fancy stapler next to the printer to make them into your very own book. Scrawl your name and the words "STUFF THAT WILL ACTUALLY HELP ME FINISH THIS PROCESS WITHOUT LOSING MY MIND" on the front, and sleep with it under your pillow. I mean, you will have to refer to it sometimes too, probably--but even if you don't, it might be more useful than this book.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talk about simplifying (and demystifying) the literature review! Why didn't I read this BEFORE my publications? Here's hoping I can apply this stuff to my dissertation...

[Fed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very helpful for who is writing a thesis or dissertation.

[Nisah Haron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for organizing your chaotic 'literature review' before preparing proposal for dissertation.

[David2smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book. The literature review model in this book in interesting and useful.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good read

[Liz Grauel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very useful to me as a person with a great deal of academic writing experience and provides good points and strategies for projects I am working on now, however it does not seem suitable for a novice researcher. There are parts of the book that would be helpful for a new academic writer at an undergraduate but without context and the wisdom from having completed formal literature reviews under instruction it may be overwhelming. That said, this is an excellent resource at the graduate level and provides useful tools and frameworks for large research endeavors.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-organized, detailed, and easily-consumed explanation of the purpose and process of completing a litersture review.

For simeone who has never completed a litersture review, this book provides both process and technique. It summarizes and then methodically detsils each step and substep and provides tools to aid in application. The mechanics of organizing a literature review are clear to me as a result of reading this book.

[Navin Valrani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good place to start for doctoral students but the book vacillates between what is genuinely useful in building a literature review to speaking to the reader as if they learning to write for the very first time. Some useful tips nevertheless for a student looking to get started on their first lit review.

[Sean Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent resource for PhD Students and Literature Review Writers

Excellent resource. Filled in a number of gaps as someone that understands the Academy but has little to no interest of working in that field. This explains the power of the literature review and the process leading up to it.

[Kathleen Hoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

wish i would have had this earlier

this book is useful as a writing guide; there are some things i do not think are reasonable (like its admonition that we write for at least 2 hours a day—ain’t nobody got time for that!), but this is a good guide for any graduate student.

[Erin Garlock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highschool senior paper 2.0

Only marginally more interesting than learning about writing reports in H.S. I found the content formulaic and overly wordy. Even as short as it is, the book could have been half its size

[Karim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. The most comprehensive book on the subject thus far. It was a hard read to get through. The conceptualization I had to grasp slowly, but once I understood it, I understood it. My book fell apart due to how often I referred to it.

[Rob Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent overview on how to do a literature review. I don't think this gave me everything I wanted, but it was fairly accessible and gave steps to doing one. I'll probably need to pick up a few more books to really get the information I need.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I have already written my literature review for my dissertation, I picked up this text to confirm I was on the right track. I really appreciated the practical tips. Although my writing process is a bit different that the more structured approach suggested, I can see how this text would be particularly useful to students who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with writing a literature review. And even I got a few ideas out of it to refocus my drafted literature review.

[Laura May · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not especially helpful.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wished there were online templates. I read the 2nd edition. Good information.

[Michael Vick · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a PhD student, this book is critical to your success with you dissertation.

[Walker Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pros: This book started off great, then went downhill from there.

Cons: I cannot pinpoint one thing about it. It was all over the place. Overall, very confusing and disappointing.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for graduate school

[Amy Colbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0