Writing about many different sources should be familiar to you but also might feel a little different due to this likely being a different genre of writing than you are accustomed to using.

I want to talk about three things on this page:

1. Writing literature review vs. a “Research Paper”
2. Using quotes and paraphrases
3. Using a consistent documentation style or system of citation

Literature Review

The Purdue Online Writing Lab defines a literature review this way, which I think is apt: “A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis).”

When you writing a review of literature for a white paper, you are writing about that body of knowledge from an interested standpoint.

For instance, in the white paper on climate change (see previous modules, like this: White Paper Structure – ENG 4950: Data and Writing Toward Social Change, Spring 2021 (cuny.edu)), this was written by the US Department of Agriculture, so the review of the literature about climate change was in some ways focused on research on the impact of climate warming on farming, food, etc.

Depending on your topic (e.g., climate change) and the organization you are writing on behalf of (e.g., the USDA), how you shape your review of research literature will be influenced by that standpoint.

Go to the Purdue Online Writing Lab for more, but generally speaking, when writing a review of literature, these two things are important to keep in mind:

• be intentional about how things are organized (e.g., the time the research came out? clustered around themes of the research? clustered around different theories, methods, or academic disciplines?)
• try to synthesize rather than summarize or analyze individually. In other words, try to build connections between the sources you cite. See example white papers as models for this.

 

 

Using Quotes and Paraphrase

Many of you may be familiar with doing this, but for some, it might have been a while since you had to think a lot about paraphrasing and quoting in a lengthy paper.

For a review, check these resources out:

• Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting – ENG 2100: Writing I, Fall 2020 (cuny.edu)
• Functions of Paraphrasing and Quoting – ENG 2100: Writing I, Fall 2020 (cuny.edu)

 

Documentation Style and System of Citation

Be consistent! As you will see in the example white papers, try to have a consistent way of citing information by doing one of the following:

• Using a documentation style you know and are comfortable with (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago)
• In the prompt I do ask you to use a documentation style, but as long as you are consistent and I can easily find sources, I’m happy. Being consistent with citing sources in some way (e.g., using footnotes or endnotes, having a reference list for all sources, hyperlinking to sources) is helpful for any reader who might want to read the sources you cite and follow along.

For using a documentation style, please review this for help:

Documentation Style Nuts and Bolts – ENG 2100: Writing I, Fall 2020 (cuny.edu)

 

Task

There is no task on this page. I hope you use it as a resource for these topics related to research writing. Keep me posted if you have questions on these topics.

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