Write and Cite

Research papers are a conversation between you and other scholars. To write a successful one, you will need to hone several important skills: research, notetaking, analytical thinking, and writing.

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On this page you will find resources to support each of these stages. More support is available in the library, so feel free to reach out to us if you have other questions. 

On this page you will find resources to help you on the "front end" of your writing journey. Most of these documents and sites focus on reading and notetaking strategies to help you build a research agenda and argument. Also included are a series of resources from the GSD and Harvard for productivity and time management. 

Questions to ask before you start reading:

1. How much time do I have for this text?

If you have more to read than you can realistically complete in the time you have, you will need to be strategic about how to proceed. Powering through as fast as you can for as long as you can will not be efficient or effective. 

2. What do I most need from this text?

Knowing your purpose will help you determine how long you should spend on any one part of that text. If you are reading for class or for research, or if you are reading for background information or to explore an argument, you will use different reading strategies.

3. How can I find what I need from this text?

Once you know what you need, there are strategies for finding it quickly, like pre-reading, skimming, and scanning.

Determining your purpose

Your purpose will become clearer if you first situate the text within a larger context.

Reading for Class

Your professor had a reason for assigning the text, so first try to understand their intention. The professor might tell you their reason or provide reading questions to direct you. You can also infer the purpose from headings and groupings in the syllabus and from how the professor has approached prior readings in past lectures. Looking ahead to how you might use the text in future assignments or projects will also help you decide how much time to spend and what to focus on.

Reading for Research

For independent research, you will first need to decide if a text is even worth reading. Plan ahead by knowing what you need, like background information, theoretical underpinnings, similar arguments to engage with critically, or images and data. Check the source's date and author(s) to determine its relevance and authority. Keep your research goals in mind and try to stay focused on your immediate goals. If you discover a text that interests you but is not for this project, make a note to come back to it later. However, a source that excites your interest and changes your research goals or argument can be worth following now so long as you still have time to make that change. 

Once you decide that a source is worth your time, you will apply your choice of reading strategy based on the type of information the text contains and how you plan to use it. For instance, if you want to use a graphic or obtain biographical information, a quick search would be enough. If you want to challenge the author’s argument, you will need to read more rigorously and slowly.

What is a literature review?
A literature review (or lit review, for short) is a critical analysis of published scholarly research (the "literature") related to a specific topic. It lays out the framework that your research builds upon, linking your project to existing work developed by other scholars and practitioners. Literature here means body of work, which traditionally includes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and thesis, or conference proceedings. In the case of design, however, literature may also include plans, sections, photographs, and any type of media that portrays the work.

What is a literature review's purpose?
A literature review establishes a set of themes and contexts drawn from foundational research and materials that relate to your project. It is an acknowledgment that your scholarship doesn’t exist in a vacuum. With the review, you identify patterns and trends in the literature to situate your contribution within the existing scholarly conversation.

A literature review

• establishes thematic groupings of source material. 
• critically assesses the strengths and omissions of the source material.
• elaborates on the implications of their findings for one's own research topic.

What does a literature review look like?
Each discipline has its own style for writing a literature review; urban planning and design lit reviews may look different than those from architecture, and design lit reviews will look significantly different than reviews from the biological sciences or engineering. Look at published journal articles within your field and note how they present the information. Generally, literature reviews are located in one of two places.

• Introduction: most scholarly articles and books will have a literature review within the introductory sections. Its precise location may vary, but it is most often in the first few paragraphs or pages.

• Dedicated literature reviews: these are stand-alone resources unto themselves. You can search for "literature review" and a topic, and you may find that one already exists. These literature reviews are useful as models within your field, for finding additional sources to explore, and for beginning to map the general relationships within the scholarly conversation around your topic. Be mindful not to plagiarize the source material.

How to conduct a literature review 

Each discipline has its own style for writing a literature review; design lit reviews will look significantly different than reviews from the biological sciences or engineering. Look at published journal articles within your field and note how they present the information. For the guidelines on how to develop your literature review for your DDes, please consult the official Guidelines for the General Exam. 

1. Focus on your topic 

A literature review aims to cover as much research as possible on a given topic. If the topic is too large, there will be too much material to cover it adequately. 

2. Preliminary Research 

After defining your thesis, define a few keywords that you will use to conduct your research. Try to restrict your search to trustworthy database sources such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, or published books. 

3. Refining your Research 

After gathering the sources, evaluate their relevance following criteria like authority of writer, relevance of theme and date of publication. You should aim to cover only what is necessary and relevant to your research. 

4. Analysis of literature 

Organize the content by themes and connections. Using subheadings might help in the process. Put the sources in relation to each other, identifying methodologies, arguments and possible gaps in the material, 

5. Writing the Review 

The review should be structured with an introduction, thematic subheadings following the key themes you identified during the analysis, and a critical conclusion. You should focus more on your analysis than on compiling a list of all possible sources on the theme. 

Before you start writing, check a few examples of literature reviews conducted in your field of research to familiarize yourself with the format. 

• Introduction: Your introduction should introduce the topic of your research, pointing out its relevance. It should end with your thesis or the results expected to be found with your research. Briefly touch upon your methodology. 

• Methodology: This can be part of the introduction or a separate section. Here, you will briefly explain the methods used to refine your research, how you found your source material, and how you organized them. 

• Discussion: Articulate the sources according to the themes identified in your analysis. Make sure you state your findings, your takeaways, and your conclusions, articulating how the literature is relevant to your research question. 

• Conclusion: Outline the gaps you found and assess how your research will contribute to that. 

Database search tip: Add the phrase "literature review" to your search to find published literature reviews.

External Resources

Visit the following links for more information, including tips on how to categorize your source material and how to compose your lit review.