Confirmation of Candidature

Writing the Literature Review

Helen Thursby

Your Literature Review may be:

• stand-alone

• in the introduction

• in a separate chapter

• embedded in several chapters

• segmented into a series of chapters on several topics

Some common questions….

• Exactly what is the purpose of the lit review?

• What should I include / leave out?

• What is the relevant literature?

• When should I start writing it?

• How do I know when I’ve read enough?

• How do I write it?

• How do I maintain my own style?

Overview

1. Why write a literature review?

2. Finding the relevant literature

3. When to start writing

4. How to write the literature review

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Why write a literature review?

• to justify why your research proposal is worth pursuing

• to establish the importance of the topic

• to give necessary background information to facilitate reader understanding of your study

• to show that you are familiar with significant and/or up-to date research relevant to the topic

• to show that your study is one link in a chain of research that is developing knowledge in your field

Your link in the chain

may be to

● identify a gap in the kinds of research done

e.g. Basic, Applied, Exploratory

● identify a gap in one aspect of a topic

2. Finding the relevant literature

To focus your reading

• look at your research question• examine article’s text structure• read the text in detail• Identify research to support the LR

Strategies to find key readings (1)

• Define your focus by reading the history and context of study on the topic

• Use general texts to become familiar with writing in the topic area

• Follow reference lists at end of articles/book for key works

• Talk to academics and practitioners

Strategies to find key readings (2)

• Identify names that keep appearing in the literature

• Identify seminal studies on the topic

• Focus on academic, peer-reviewed literature

• But don’t overlook the value of current trends and debates in non-academic practitioner journals

Each time you read an article…

Summarise:• The main argument• The theoretical framework• The research design• The findings

Evaluate:• The quality of the analysis/discussion• How it contributes to the body of knowledge

Use summaries and notes to:

• Recognise the connections between studies

• Compare and contrast readings

• Recognise how writers/researchers are linked or separated by the line of argument they take

• Recognise “schools of thought” on a topic

i.e. create an Annotated Bibliography Thomas, Stone & Greenwood (1990). The real cost of compensation. Business and Administrative

Research, 15, 8, pp.146-162.

In an epidemiological analysis of 65,000 compensation claims for injured

workers in the Victoria in 1989, the authors found a correlation of +.98

between the age of the worker and the average length of time spent by

the worker on compensation benefits. This suggests that older workers

may take longer to recover from injury than younger workers. The

jurisdiction studied involved compulsory notification of all workers’

compensation claims at that time, which amounts to a reliable population

study of 65,000 claims. However, individual case data was not available

to the researchers due to confidentiality considerations, so the effects of

separate variables in their analysis could not be identified. The authors’

findings are consistent with Whacklow, Furtle and Crun (1989), whose

study of 2,000 compensation claims of a large county in Ireland found a

strong association between age and claim duration. However, the study by

Dunn (1989) conducted with US workers found no such association.

Evaluate the readings for relevance to your research

Credibility − who conducted the research?

− are they an authority in the field?

− how do you know?

validity

− where is it from?

− peer reviewed?

− from a website?

Ask

Is the literature

• accurate?

• objective?

• current?

• complete?

• from a relevant location?

When have you read enough?

If new information and arguments continue toemerge, it can indicate:

• You need to keep reading

OR• Your topic is not specific enough

If nothing really new is emerging, you can probably begin writing a chapter.

3. Beginning to write

It’s an iterative process - so start early.

4. How to write the lit review

• Overall structure• Introduction• Sub-sections• Creating coherence between sections• Synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature• Paraphrasing

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Structuring a literature review…e.g.

1. Chronological organisation historical or developmental context.

2. The 'Classic' studies organisation significant writings in your area.

3. Topical or thematic organisation sections representing categories or conceptual

subjects for your topic.

4. Inverted pyramid organisation begins broad, becomes more specific with studies focusing increasingly on the specific question.

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Activity: examples 2 and 3 on the handout.

Nature of the discussion

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Language: where is your voice?

Look at example 1 and work out where the

writer’s own voice is evident, e.g. in

• structure• integration of literature• comments on literature

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What is the effect of the different prominence in the sentences of example 4 ?

Language: prominence and tense

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Compare the use of tense

in: a) the reporting verb, b) the findings

• Arlington (2002) argues that nurses feel more comfortable touching older patients.

• Arlington (2002) suggested that nurses feel more comfortable touching older patients.

• Arlington (2002) found that nurses felt more comfortable touching older patients.

• Nurses feel more comfortable touching older patients (Arlington 2002).

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Reporting verbs

• Move away from ‘states’ and ‘says’

• The use of a meaningful verb contributes to your evaluative quality

• What other reporting verbs can you think of?

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And finally…

start writing and join a Writing Circle

Information for Research Higher Degree candidates

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Theses and research proposals to critique

https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/49426

http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/208816884

http://elena.aut.ac.nz/homepages/phd-students/stetho09/docs/full_proposal.pdf