First, of Course, Is Figuring out the Main Points That Need to Be Made

Reviews – Body 2

The most challenging part of a review is deciding how to organize the body. Despite their wordiness, reviews are fairly constrained by the “focus” or perspective the writer is taking. If you claim you’ll be examining mechanisms, then that is the only kind of information that should be in the body of the review. So step #1 in writing the review is to identify the perspective/focus of the paper.

Focus Statement:

The next step is to analyze the sources you are using in terms of the focus of the paper. Create broad categories/subheadings to begin with – you can always modify these later.

Body Sections -- the outline below is intended to help you organize your thoughts in a couple of different ways.

·  First, of course, is figuring out the main points that need to be made.

·  Second, since this is a Review paper, sources are equally important, so each section below also has room for writing in the associated literature. The easiest way to do this is to label each source with a number or letter and write the associated numbers/letters in the correct spot.

·  Third, body sections tend to follow a general--> specific pattern. The first paragraph or two deals with the biggest ideas in that section and usually contains the broadest set of associated literature.Two things tend to happen next.

o  First, one move is to exemplify the main ideas using individual studies. Thus, the pattern is to discuss the study and some of its main points, meaning only 1 or 2 sources will be used in the paragraph. These discussions are often made using author-driven sentences, e.g. "McConnel et al. found that drunk rats took significantly longer to make their way through the maze than rats injected with saline or amphetamines, concluding that alcohol has a more detrimental effect on gross motor executive functioning (McConnel et al., 2010)". [note: this is not a real study!]

o  Alternatively, you can narrow from the main explanation into a discussion of different facets of the topic itself. This also results in the narrowing of the literature to only a couple of sources. This kind of writing usually features topic-driven sentences, e.g. "Rats who had consumed the jello shots took significantly longer to navigate the maze than either their saline or amphetamine injected counterparts, suggesting alcohol has a more deleterious effect on gross motor executive functioning (McConnel et al., 2010)".

Exemplification and discussion can happen in either order; it depends on the paper. Also, you may not need to use both strategies. It could be that the way you're arranging the information only requires discussion OR exemplification.

Please note that the "point 1" and "point 2" are just to get you started with the pattern -- you might have 3 main points, or 4. The same goes for all other sections -- the template is a suggestion to help you organize, not a plan set in stone!

Topic Subheading –

Central ideas/Concepts/Explanation

·  Point 1 –

o  Associated Research

·  Point 2 –

o  Associated Research

Specific Examples à Research studies/Case Studies/Own Data

·  Study 1

o  Central Points

·  Study 2

o  Central Points

Critique – must be last thing in section, may happen in body or solely in conclusion

·  Point 1

·  Point 2