Transcript Document

Masters in Project Management:
Writing
the Literature Review
Lawrence Cleary, Dr. Íde O’Sullivan,
Research Officers
Regional Writing Center,
University of Limerick
• Pints of Porter and Points of Order
• Review of the Related Literature
What Is It, and What’s It for?
Issues of Credibility
Organization and Logic
Questions Your Lit Review Should
Answer
• Content and Form
• Peel Me an Onion
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Points of Order
• Research papers are organized
around the problem, not the topic
per se.
• The problem, in a sense, is the
topic.
• Problems, however, exist in
contexts, as do solutions.
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Pints of Porter
• The literature that you read informs
both the immediate context of the
problem and the larger context of which
it is a part.
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Writing Prompt
• What question am I trying to answer /
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problem am I trying to solve /
hypothesis am I trying to affirm / claim
am I trying to defend?
What do I need to know in order to
answer that question? What other
questions do I need to answer?
Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL
Writing the Literature Review
• What is it?
• What is its purpose?
– To guide and inform your process
– To inform your audience about the
credibility and value of your
conclusions
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Chris Hart: Doing A Literature
Review (1998, 2008: 15)
• Speaking of the function and format of
a lit review at the Master’s level:
– “Analytical and summative, covering
methodological issues, research
techniques and topics. Possibly two
literature-based chapters, one on
methodological issues, which demonstrates
knowledge of the advantages and
disadvantages, and another on theoretical
issues relevant to the topic/problem.”
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Issues of Credibility
• Definition from Merriam-Webster:
“an interpretation and synthesis of
published research” (Merriam qtd
in Murray 2006: 108).
• Choices speak to your
understanding of the puddle.
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Writing Prompt
• What do I know about my research
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topic?
What I am looking for in the literature
is...
What are the schools of thought in the
literature?
The ‘great debates’ in my area are...
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Organization
• How will I organize my literature
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review?
Can I classify or categorize the stuff I’ve
read so far?
Can I say how each piece of literature
has helped to inform my over-riding
questions and/or sub-questions?
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Break
• Coffee...Tea
• Mmmm.
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Questions Your Lit Review
Should Answer (Murray 2006: 115)
• Why is this subject important?
• Who else thinks it’s important?
• Who has worked on this subject
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before?
Who has done something similar to
what I am doing?
What can be adapted to my own study?
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Questions Your Lit Review Should
Answer (Murray 2006: 115) (Con’t)
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What are the gaps in the research?
Who is going to use my material?
What use will my project be?
What will my contribution be?
What specific question will I answer?
[What specific questions will my
research not be able to address?]
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Writing Prompt
• If we can frame the main question in a
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hierarchy, below which are framed the subquestions, and we can put these frames in a
larger frame called the Literature Review, what
frames are you ready to fill in?
If you do not organize your literature around
your question and sub-questions, how else will
you categorize the literature in order to
organize your discussion?
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Content and Form
• Organizing Exercise: Handout
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‘Writing in Layers’
(Murray 2006: 125-27)
• Outline the structure: write your chapter or
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section heading for the Literature Review.
Write a sentence or two on the contents of the
chapter and each section.
List out sub-headings for each section.
Write an introductory paragraph for each
section.
At the top of each section, write the word
count requirement, draft number and date.
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Conclusion
• As you write, your organization may
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change.
Many things determine order: Arguments
have a logical order, as do comparisons,
cause/effect relationships, temporal or
spatial descriptions, etc.
However, dissertations are thesis driven.
Your question, and what you need to
know, strongly influences the
organization of your final product.
Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL
Sources
• Hart, Chris 1998, 2008 Doing a Literature Review:
Releasing the Social Science Imagination. Los Angeles:
Sage.
• Leedy, P.D. and Ormrod, J.E. 2005 Practical Research:
Planning and Design, 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson
• Murray, R. 2006 How to Write a Thesis, 2nd ed.
Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.
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Sources
• Nandhakumar, J. 2003 Interpreting Information
Systems: A reflexive account of grounded theory
analysis [ppt. online], available:
http://project.hkkk.fi/gebsi/files/nav_activities/material/N
andhakumar_slides.pdf [accessed 15 Aug 2008].
• UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Rhetorical Functions,
Comparing and Contrasting Exercise 2 [online],
available:
http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/function/compco
n2.htm [accessed Aug 16 2008].
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