Literature Review

Dr Ayaz Afsar

Aims and Objectives

What is literature review? Why do you need to do one? Why do we write a literature review? When do we write it? What goes into it? Speaking with your own voice. Pitfalls A successful literature review

Remember

Literature is reviewed, mentioned, called on throughout the thesis.

Especially – in the first chapter (what is the topic of the thesis?) and in the last chapter (what has the thesis added to the field?), but also throughout.

But most theses also have specific ‘literature review’ chapters.

‘state of the art’

Understand Present State of the Art

You need to read what other people have written and make an

assessment of where your research will fit into that body of work

The purpose of a literature review

The rhetorical purpose The examination purpose The readership purpose

5

The rhetorical purpose

Creating a Research Space: Other people have said this This raises a number of questions No-one has answered the questions Therefore I will answer them

Identifying the Field: My thesis is unique It draws on and brings together a combination of research you

haven’t thought of before The literature review defines this Field

6

The examination purpose

Showing you know the field – who are the ‘big players’? what is the well-known research?

Showing understanding of what has been done before – reporting people accurately.

Showing a critical awareness of what has been done before – an ability to form and express your own view, to establish yourself as an ‘equal researcher’.

7

The readership purpose

What does my reader need to know before reading the rest of my thesis?

8

When to write it?

Throughout the PhD, reading, note-taking, writing small sections.

But wait!

How many words can you afford to spend on the literature review?

What particular areas do you need to review?

The literature review is the second-to-last thing you write.

9

Types

1. A survey article

2. A review that forms part of a research paper, proposal, thesis or

dissertation

Underpins the argument why the project is worth doing.

Means not only tracking down all the relevant information but also taking

a critical position on the ideas contained therein, and producing an

argument that leads to the exposition of the research problem.

When do you need….?

‘A history of corpus linguistics’

Detailed review of specific papers

Summaries of large areas of research

…to quote?

…to paraphrase?

…to comment?

11

Your own voice In the literature review, we should be aware of you as a researcher.

You achieve this by…

Selecting the material

Interpreting the material

Commenting on / evaluating the material

Contextualising the material

12

Critical reading skills

Better word would be ‘analysis’ not to denigrate or find fault but to

present a critique, a scrutiny, an analysis, or an examination of them

Providing a description is not enough; give your own personal and

professional appraisal of the content and quality of the text in question.

Look at the text from different perspectives to reveal a

multidimensional view of the work

Perspective 1

The structure of the argument Detect the conclusion type-words, e.g. ‘therefore’, it follows that’, as

a result’, ‘we can conclude that’

What evidence is given to support the conclusions?

Is the evidence credible, i.e. does it come from reliable sources?

Is the logic of the argument sound, i.e. what are the steps in the

argument that lead from the evidence to the conclusions?

Perspective 2

The assumptions upon which the writing and arguments are based

All writing is rooted in theory and based on values and must be

appraised in relation to these.

Need to have some knowledge of the different theoretical positions in

your subject in order to be able to detect them and know what they

imply, e.g. feminist approach in social science, a modernist approach in

architecture, and a Freudian approach in psychology. In each there are

competing theoretical standpoints with their own values

Perspective 3

The wider context of the work

Intellectual work is carried out in a complex arena where power,

politics, fashion, economics, competing orthodoxies and many other

factors play influential roles. These can be determining factors in the

formulation of views and need to be exposed in order to understand the

forces behind them.

Perspective 4

Comparison with other work

There are no absolute values to which you can appeal in order to

make assessment. There are no clear rules about what is right and

wrong.

Critical reading can be used to make comparisons between texts in

order to highlight the different approaches, levels of thoroughness,

contradictions, strength of arguments, implications of theoretical

stances and accepted values, and types of conclusions.

Doing the review 1

Investigation for literary review: 4 directions

Research theory and philosophy To establish the intellectual

context(s) of research related to your subject.

History of development in your subject To trace the background to

the present thinking.

Doing the review 2

Latest research and development in your subject To inform about

current issues being investigated and the latest thinking and practice, to

discuss the conflicting arguments, and to detect a gap in knowledge.

Research methods To explore practical techniques that have been

used, particularly those that might be relevant to your thesis.

Structure your literature review

Select the notes you made from the literature> the most relevant>only

those that summarize the positions, ideas or evaluations

Number the notes in any order

Draw a sequence of 4 or 5 paired boxes in a line. This will help you to

map out the review of the literature together with the steps of your

argument: one seq. of boxes to outline the steps in your argument, the

other paired boxes to list the supporting literature notes at each step

2

Insert the outline of the argument in one line of boxes in the form of

short statement in each box in turn to trace the steps of the argument.

Insert the numbers of the notes that underpin each step in the adjacent

box

Levels of citations 1

Block and indented quotations

Ranger insisted on the need for good quality design:

Building will not function properly if sufficient consideration is given to

solve complicated design problems poor design results in inconvenient

planning, poor quality of spaces, higher maintenance costs and frequent

breakdown of services. (2004, p. 36)

Within-sentence quotations

According to Ranger, ‘building will not function properly if insufficient

consideration is given to solve complicated design problems’ (2004, p. 36)

Levels of citations 2

Paraphrase/summary

Ranger (2004) argued that neglecting the resolution of design issues

results in poor quality buildings.

Generalization (combining several sources)

There is wide agreement that lack of sufficient time and resources to

resolve design problems in buildings results in poor quality

developments (Hendry, 1998; Waldren, 1999; Smith, 2002; Ranger,

2004).

Pitfalls (things that can go wrong)

Plagiarism

Failing to say properly that an idea belongs to someone.

E.g. ‘It is important to take xxx into consideration (Goo 2012)’

Who is making this recommendation?

‘According to Goo (2012), it is important to…’

24

Checklist for literature review 1

Make sure that your review is not just a list of previous research

papers or other literature, devoid of any assessment of their relative

importance and their interconnections.

Make an overview of the literature to produce and guide to the rich

interplay and major steps in the development of research in your

subject.

2

Check that the important issues of your research problem are

introduced through the analysis of the literature. A simple

chronological account of previous research will not give a sufficient

thrust to the argument of why your research problem is significant

and how it continues the research effort.

3

Ensure that the general theoretical background is intimately connected

to your examination of the more detail writings about ideas and specific

research that leads to your own research project. The theory should

help the reader understand the attitude behind the reviewed literature

and your own philosophical stance.

4

Make links across discipline boundaries when doing an

interdisciplinary review, rather than keeping each separate and

examined in turn.

Many research subjects anyhow cannot be hermetically sealed

within one discipline, so the connections are there to be exposed.

You might even be able to suggest some new links that need to be

investigated.

5

Ensure that you have included some account of how the previous

research was done, so that you have a precedent for your own

approach to methodology.

The End