Have a 1500 word lit review to do for work. Have covered my first two articles, had another 2 but now feel one of them isn’t really in context..
I have 800 words already and my next articles prob gonna need a fair bit of the remaining word limit never mind my summary and conclusion.
There’s no set amount of articles noted and I’m kinda in a hurry to get this (and others) done..
Not too bothered about the mark as long as I pass..
So, do you think 3 articles/studies is enough?
Tia.

No. More articles, less words !

It’s a “review” not a discussion/conclusion/mini dissertation.

Your supervisor should have given some direction on range of articles, to me 2/3 sounds a bit thin, may depend on the field ?

find 15 articles. group them into three. write 500 words on each group.

simples

The idea is to review the literature that surrounds any given subject. Assuming you are not in the tiniest of areas, three sources is not going to do it. It’s hard to lay down how many sections as this tends to emerge out of the material you gather, i.e. they will naturally cluster into blocks or zones of literature. Three main points of 500 words would be fine but that could be pushed to four or even five. The point of the exercise is for you to make sense of what has been written and obtain an overall picture of the field. If your reference list is not part of the word count, there’s no reason why you cannot cover the subject in some depth as in-text you might cite a list of papers in one sentence, e.g. Orange 5s are a controversial topic on numerous web forums dedicated to mountain biking (Smith, 1999; Jones, 2000; Davies, 2004; so forth, 2012).

As others suggest you need to look for trends in the literature as studies on the same subject may contradict each other due to methodological differences and the fact that they may have sampled their populations in different ways.

It’s not a massive area of study tbh.. Yes, I could dig up 10 or 15 articles but a large portion of them prob wouldn’t be completely relevant. I’ve got a sample paper that had four articles and passed.. Was hoping I could get away with doing three..but I guess four it is!!

My MA tutor advises that there is no requirement for quantity in a lit review. He advocates that you can easily do a lit review of one or two key texts as this gives you space to really go into depth on them.

However, it might just be one of his quirks and you may find the person doing your assessment might be looking for more sources.

Don’t get me started on referencing!!
Actually, on that subject- can I take it the references don’t count towards the word count?
Using the Harvard system..
Btw, don’t want to say where I work specifically but my employer isn’t always as organised as they could be..eg- here’s 5 essay topics. Get them done and hand them in basically.. It’s all changed recently.. Essays! Bah!

Do you mean references or bibliography ? Anyways, neither count towards your word count AFAIK.

From what I am lead to believe, the word limit is to stop people dribbling on for 20,000 words. I have looked after a few interns and it is hell trying to get them to write reports sensibly and clearly, rather than use all the tourtured 3rd person internally referential prose, and than come out and state a fact ! It’s all “the evidence would suggest that at the hour of 0700 the sky could be percieved as having what some would interpret as a pleasant aspect, although it must be noted that other views are held”. When they could say “it’s a nice day”

I think what I am trying to say, and I hope it is helpful, is that you will get more out of your word count if you write clearly and simply.

I once did a 1500 word lit review that had around 60 references in it. Probably excessive, but I did get 97% for it.

I would certainly say that 2-4 papers is not a literature review – thats a literature glance. As an academic I would want to see 15 or so to show that you have covered the topic widely. On top of that, you need to be able to write concisely – thats the point of a 1500 word limit.

Think of it like this – papers in journals like ‘nature’ or ‘science’ are 2000 words long and have a limit of 30 references – when I wrote one recently, I really wanted to have more than the 30 references in it…

Generally speaking, the citations (e.g. where you write ‘(Chipps, 2012)’) and the reference list (where you list the full reference at the end of the document) do not count in the word count. Nor do tables or figure captions.

It’s not being marked by a uni, and I don’t think I’m supposed to be reviewing so many articles..
Just showing that I’ve read up on the the topic, have an understanding of the articles I’ve reviewed and am able to show this..
Btw, it’s compression only CPR by laypersons in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest so it’s riveting!
Ta for all the helpful responses!

Hope you’ve included that Vinnie Jones staying alive add.

I’ve found about half a dozen papers without even trying…. One of which is a meta-analysis of all the others so will have loads of references in its references….

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20818864

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21273279

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20924010

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21093974

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20951422 (the meta-analysis from the lancet)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21879215

3/4 is just not really trying very hard!

4 isn’t enough for a lit review especially on something that has medical guidelines written on the basis of that eveidence.i’m with dr death on this one, i hd a quick squiz and found those too on pub med. Also look through the new CPR guidelines and you’ll pick up loads of refs (US, Aus,and UK have all changed fairly recently)

Gordon Bennett!
Already have a meta analysis, I’ve added another couple of articles and cited/quoted a couple of other things in it as well..
As much as I appreciate all your suggestions (knew posting the topic could backfire!) i don’t think it needs to be as comprehensive as you all seem to be suggesting!
Theres a big time element involved too, so my main concern is getting it in and getting a pass mark!
Thanks again for all your help and advice..

Ioum. Made reference to it.
Dr D, think I’ve got four of those you found already. Including humfl et al’s meta-analysis..
Its done now ‘cept the references so ta again one and all.

I would certainly say that 2-4 papers is not a literature review – thats a literature glance. As an academic I would want to see 15 or so to show that you have covered the topic widely. On top of that, you need to be able to write concisely – thats the point of a 1500 word limit.

This … but then it seems you asked for advice, in a hurry, and didn’t much like what came back … ahem. 🙄

TBH a 1500 lit review of anything involving CPR is a pretty stupid assignment. With 15 papers most of your paper is going to be semi plagiarised. I’d have been ripped a new one by my tutor if I included so many references in such a short paper.

Is this for university? If so you will get the highest marks for having enough of your word limit left to make some original points or points that at least show you have thought about the subject at hand.

However if you can group the references into different categories then I don’t see the harm in adding more, just make sure you reference them all together after making a single statement that covers the lot of them.

Art, fair Nuff. Wouldn’t disagree with you. Posted this thread up initially at stupid o’clock when I was working and trying to get it done and a bit stressed- for various reasons, not just because of the lit review!
I’m grateful for the responses and have added more articles and citations to my review as a result.. Think I’m at nine references now which I’m reasonably happy with.
Appreciate it’s probably no where near as good as some folk on here could do but if it passes I’m happy.
Cheers for all the feedback folks!

Cheers bwaarp.

so my main concern is getting it in and getting a pass mark!

therin lies the problem with society/education. Not interested in learning, not interested in doing a good job, not interested in excelling on impressing – just coasting along doing just enough not to fail.

Fwiw Poly that’s not usually the way I work, especially when it comes to my work.
Making an exception for this tho.. Too complicated to explain why and don’t think I want to just now anyway..
Ta for the input though.