analysis of a literature review

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Analysis of a Literature Review

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Analysis of a Literature Review. For Today:. First, pass up your signed Statements of Intent ! Picking a Topic for Draft 1.1 Small group discussion of the prep assignment Full class discussion of the small group work What is a Literature Review? Brief Assignment 2 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: Analysis of a Literature Review

Analysis of a Literature Review

Page 2: Analysis of a Literature Review

For Today: First, pass up your signed Statements of

Intent! Picking a Topic for Draft 1.1 Small group discussion of the prep assignment Full class discussion of the small group work

What is a Literature Review? Brief Assignment 2 Prep Assignment For Next Class Brief Assignment 3

Page 3: Analysis of a Literature Review

Formulating a Topic for Draft 1.1: Chat with a professor in a field you are

interested in for ideas about areas where there is disagreement and need for exploration. The BEST papers come from this method.

Find an interesting article in a scholarly journal and look up the works it cites in the references. A Personal Librarian can save you a lot of time.

We should have a few free minutes at the end of class today, if you already have a topic in mind and want to bounce it off me.

Page 4: Analysis of a Literature Review

Small Group Work: Pull out your Prep Assignment. Get into groups of 3 (THREE ONLY),

and introduce yourselves. Exchange papers

Read your classmates paper As a group, discuss the following

questions: What is a literature review? What is the purpose of a literature review? What is the purpose of this literature review? Does your classmate’s paper summarize

the literature review or analyze the structure?

Page 5: Analysis of a Literature Review

What is a literature review?What is the "literature" of a literature review? Novels, plays, and famous works of poetry? Or something else?The "literature" of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic. "Literature" could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL.

Page 6: Analysis of a Literature Review

What is a literature review?

Is the author of a literature review making an argument about his topic?

NO! The focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

ON THE OTHER HAND, the main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper will contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation for a new insight that you contribute. You will write an academic research paper for Draft 2.2 later this semester!

Page 7: Analysis of a Literature Review

What is a literature review?What does it mean to “review”

the literature on a particular topic? “your review should not be simply a description

of what others have published in the form of a set of summaries, but should take the form of a critical discussion, showing insight and an awareness of differing arguments, theories and approaches. It should be a synthesis and analysis of the relevant published work”

What does this mean?

http://www.uk-student.net/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=122

Page 8: Analysis of a Literature Review

What is a literature review?A literature review is organized around ideas,

not the sources themselves. This means that you will NOT just simply list

your sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time.

Instead, you should look for the themes or issues connect your sources together.

E.g. Is there an aspect of the field that is missing? How well do your sources present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate theory? Is there a trend in the field? A raging debate? Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review.

Page 9: Analysis of a Literature Review

There is no single right way to organize a literature review:

Topic XPaper 1 Paper 2 Paper 3 Paper 4

A,B,C,D A,B,C A,B,D B,C,D

Paper 5 Paper 6 Paper 7 Paper 8

B,D A,D A,C A,C,D

Page 10: Analysis of a Literature Review

BA 2: Analysis of a Literature Review Purpose: To demonstrate your ability to

understand what a literature review is and to analyze its structure.

A mistake many students make on this assignment is summarizing the content and not analyzing the structure.

Your task for this assignment is to analyze a literature review in preparation for writing your own in draft 1.1. Your analysis should focus on the structure of the review and how that structure demonstrates the author’s purpose for writing it.

Page 11: Analysis of a Literature Review

BA 2: Analysis of a Literature Review DUE: Tuesday night @ 11:59:59 pm 400 – 600 word ESSAY (intro, thesis,

body, conclusion) Your analysis should consider:

the author’s purpose for conducting the review

the way the author has grouped the research on similar topics

and the kinds of information which the author provides about the sources and their authors

in addition, your analysis should consider the rhetorical effect of the author’s decisions

you must also include the author and title of the literature review in your introduction

Page 12: Analysis of a Literature Review

BA 2 Continued: You MUST use proper in-text citations. We are REQUIRING a Works Cited on BA2 Chapter 16 in the St. Martin’s e-handbook has the

information to help you construct correct in-text citations as well as a Works Cited. Hint: the literature reviews are in proper

MLA format (for your Works Cited) on the syllabus. You can easily copy and paste those citations onto the end of your assignment.

Also, remember to head your Works Cited section with the title “Works Cited.”

Page 13: Analysis of a Literature Review

Grading: C1—Issue Identification and Focus

Has the student correctly identified the purpose of the review, that is, the question(s) that the author is trying to address in conducting the review? Does the student focus on describing the organization of the literature review?  Has the student done a thorough and accurate job of discussing the author’s purpose, the way that the author groups the research, and the kinds of information which the author provides about the sources?

C3—Sources and Evidence How effectively does the student cite appropriate

examples from the literature review to support his or her points about organization?  How effectively does the student properly integrate quotations and tie these quotations to the main point?  Does the student use MLA format correctly? http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/ttu.php Section 13b for integrating quotations Using bookmarks in the Handbook!

Page 14: Analysis of a Literature Review

Grading: C5—Own Perspective How effectively does the student analyze the

rhetorical effect of the organization?  Is the student’s primary purpose to describe the organization and its rhetorical effect?

C6—Conclusion How effectively does the student’s conclusion

pull the analysis together? 

C7—Communication How effective is the organization of the

analysis?  How effective is the student’s writing at the sentence level?

Page 15: Analysis of a Literature Review

Now……Let’s critique a sample

BA2.

Page 16: Analysis of a Literature Review

For Next Class: Reading 3 – The reading is heavy, so start early! Read 12e

from the e-handbook, and then “Moving from Analysis to Synthesis,” pp.176-179 from the textbook. Next, do the Prep Assignment. Finally, complete the reading with Chapter 3, pp. 27-57 from the textbook.

Prep Assignment 2 Due in class next Thursday. BA 3 focuses on synthesis between

sources. We are going to practice synthesis using movie reviews.

See the handout for this under “Prep Assignments” on the class website.

Page 17: Analysis of a Literature Review

BA 3: Synthesizing Sources The Prep Assignment and reading

will help you to understand the why and how of synthesizing sources.

Analyzing the structure of a literature review in BA 2 will give you a look at how someone else is synthesizing their sources.

Page 18: Analysis of a Literature Review

Next Class: Library Database Tour!You must use the library database to locate your sources for BA 4, and later, for Draft 1.1 and Draft 1.2.

You will essentially be working with the sources you choose for the rest of the semester!