Writing a Literature Review in a Second Language

Writing a critical literature review is sometimes the greatest difficulty encountered by graduate students in the process of writing graduate theses or dissertations. Based on analysis of writing samples and in-depth interview data, this study investigated five Chinese graduate students' experiences with writing a literature review at a medium-sized university in Canada. These students, from five subject areas, held different perceptions of a literature review, and saw the writing challenges they encountered mainly as linguistic problems, especially regarding vocabulary and accuracy at the sentence level. The strategies they used in the composing process were diverse, with different individuals relying on them to different degrees. Findings from this study suggest that Chinese graduate students need assistance to adjust to the new academic environment and writing genre expectations. This book will help faculty members to better understand ESL graduate students' struggle with writing a literature review in English for academic purposes, and might also assist universities in designing suitable language courses based on ESL students' needs.