Literature review

 Lit. review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.

 Mostly it is part of a thesis or report.

 Purpose is to convey the readers: • what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic • What their weaknesses are strengths and

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Literature review

 Lit. review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g. your research objective, problem or issue in hand, or your hypothesis)  Lit. review is NOT just a descriptive list of material available, or a set of summaries.

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Literature review

Lit.

review lets you gain demonstrate skills in two areas:  Information seeking and Ability to scan the lit. efficiently, using manual or computerised methods, to identify useful articles and books  Critical appraisal Ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies

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Literature review

Lit. review should:  be organised around and related directly to the thesis or research question  synthesise results into a summary of what is and is not known  identify areas of controversy in the literature  formulate questions that need further research

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Literature review

Ask yourself questions:  What is the specific thesis, problem or research question that my lit. review helps to define?

 What type of literature review am I doing? Am I looking at issues of theory?

methodology?

Policy?

quantitative research? qualitative research?

 What is the scope of my lit. review?

What type of publications am I using?

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Literature review

Ask yourself questions:  How good was my information seeking?

 Has it been wide enough to ensure I have found enough relevant material?

 Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material?

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Literature review

Ask yourself questions:  Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Have I assessed them for their strengths and weaknesses?

 Have I cited studies contrary to my perspective?

 Will the reader find my lit. review relevant, appropriate and useful?

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Literature review

For each article/book, ask yourself:  Has the author problem/issue?

formulated a  Is it clearly defined? Is its significance clearly established?

 Could the approached problem more have effectively another perspective?

been from

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Literature review

For each article/book, ask yourself:  What is authors’ research orientation (e.g. interpretive, criticism …)  What is authors’ theoretical framework (psychological, developmental …)  What is the relationship between theoretical and research perspectives?

 Has the author done lit. review? Are the contrary perspective papers included?

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Literature review

For each article/book, ask yourself:  How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis accurate and relevant? Are the conclusions justified?

 How does the author structure the argument?

 In what way does this article/book contribute to our understanding of the problem?

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

Literature review

Lit. review is not a list describing or summarising one piece of literature after another.

 It’s usually a bad sign to see every paragraph started with the name of a researcher.

 Organise the lit. review into sections based on themes or identified trends.

 Do not try to list all the material ever published, rather synthesise and evaluate.

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How to find the literature?

 Start from the library -> journals, books, magazines, databases -> talk to library staff, if needed!

 Search on the Internet:  http://www.altavista.com

 http://www.google.com/  http://www.ask.com/

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How to prepare literature review

 The purpose of the lit. review is to document the state of the art with respect to the problem in the hand.

 This will provide a foundation for the research you will carry out in your project.

 If you do not conduct a thorough lit.

review, there is a danger you will be re inventing the wheel, or overlooking an important approach.

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How to prepare literature review

 Do not hand out your first draft!

 Get it checked with someone (your supervisor, knowledgeable friend …) and revise it so that it is a polished document.

 Consider using headings to separate different aspects.

Examples include introduction, etc.

background, theories, methodologies, frameworks, discussions, results, conclusions, synopsis, references

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How to write references?

 Use a consistent style (such as APA)  http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbo ok/DocAPA.html

 http://ldl.net/~bill/aparev.htm

 Do not use old references (not too many any way)  Be consistent both in citing and listing.

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