Mapping the Gap

Abstract

A good literature review section doesn’t regurgitate everything you’ve read on the topic. Hopefully you’ve read a lot, and much of that won’t fit into your manuscript introduction. So, how to select and organize the pieces you should include? This chapter introduces writers to the metaphor of mapping the gap. Using this approach, writers learn to distil the literature to key knowledge claims, which are then organized carefully to pull the reader into the white space – the gap – that your work fills. We offer strategies for characterizing the gap, and provide a tool – the knowledge claims table – to facilitate the work of drafting a literature review. The result: a persuasive summary that reveals what’s known and what’s unknown, thus making a strong case for the research.