So, You Have to Write a Literature Review

About the Author

DR. CATHERINE BERDANIER is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University at University Park. She holds an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University. Her research focuses mainly on graduate-level engineering education with emphasis on engineering writing and communication, attrition, and persistence. Her research has been funded through multiple NSF awards. She is the Director of the Engineering Cognitive Research Laboratory (E-CRL), where she and her graduate students investigate questions concerning the human side of engineering through a variety of quantitative, qualitative, experimental, and analytical methods.

DR. JOSHUA LENART is an Associate Instructor with the Communication, Leadership, Ethics, and Research (CLEAR) Program at the University of Utah where he also received his Ph.D. in Writing and Rhetoric Studies and now teaches technical communication for the College of Engineering. His teaching expertise includes administrative and organizational writing, grant writing, teambuilding, and strategic communications. His research expertise focuses on natural resource management policy as it relates to landscape-scale impacts on wildlife habitat, hydrologic systems, community resilience, adaptation planning, and long-term land use conservation. For the past five years, he has led various transdisciplinary research projects examining land, water, and wildlife resource management conflicts vis-à-vis policy, stakeholder input, feasibility and environmental impact assessment, and collective impact engagement.