Dr Dai Fei Yang Student Learning Unit University of Western Sydney 2009

1. Dr Dai Fei Yang Student Learning Unit University of Western Sydney 2009 Writing a literature review Material is adapted from Writing a literature review, the Student Learning Unit at RMIT University and Monash University.

2. Activity In many university courses, students need to write literature reviews as part of their studies. Discuss with a partner: What is a literature review?

3. A literature review • Discusses the writings or literature on a particular subject / topic • Covers the most relevant, recent and scholarly work in the field • Presents your work that supports, evaluates and critiques your • research topic. • A literature review is not • Just a summary of articles, texts or journals. • An analytical, opinionative or argumentative essay.

4. A review of the literature has the following functions • Provide background information needed to understand the • study • Show readers you are familiar with significant and/or up-to-date • research relevant to the topic • Establish a theoretical framework for your topic • Define key terms, definitions and terminology

5. The three key points of a literature review • What is the key research theory? • How the research was carried out (methodology)? • What is the gap that your research intends to fill?

6. Research your topic Locate resources Look at the structure of the text: the table of contents, the abstract, headings and sub-headings Understanding literature: read in-depth to find specific information to support your literature review.

7. Objectivity Your reading is to give an evaluation and critique of the literature chosen. Do not just select the parts of the literature that agree with what you think is right. Evaluating your readings It is important to critically evaluate your readings to establish: authority, validity, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage.

8. Authority • Who conducted the research? • Is the author an authority in their field of study? • What evidence is there to support this? • You must check the authority of the work you use, in particular when you use the resources from the internet.

9. Validity – ask these questions: • Where has this research come from? • Is it from a valid source, for example an educational institution or government site? • Is it peer reviewed, for example refereed journal? • If it is from a website: Does it contain information about the author, institution and publication date?

10. Accuracy • What is the literature about? • Is the literature accurate and how do you know? One way to • find out is to check if the same research is referred to in other • sources, or is it inconsistent with other findings? • What makes the literature believable? See validity.

11. Objectivity • Is there evidence of bias in the article? For example, would you trust research from a cigarette manufacturer claiming that smoking does not damage your health? • Do the statistics match those in other publications? If not, is the argument (method, research design etc) on which they are based convincing? • How do you know the data is true? What other supporting data is there?

12. Currency • What is the publication date? • Have you checked for more recent research? It is • important that your references are current.

13. Coverage • Does the review cover the area being studied sufficiently? • What is the sample size? Is it adequate? • Is there any further research that has not been mentioned or deliberately omitted from the review? If so, you need to explain why.

14. Summarising, analysing & organising your readings • Discussion • Work with a partner and list the things you will take notes when you read. • Make sure you include the following in your notes: • The main points / theories / key issues • Details of any quotes, or page referenced • All bibliographic information: author, date, title of book, • publisher and page numbers.

15. Your notes may also include: • How is original material cited: paraphrasing or direct quotes? • What is purpose? • What are the conclusions? • What evidences are used to support the claims? • What are your own thoughts on / about the readings. These are useful when you revisit the notes and use them in your writings.

16. You may need to identify: • Similarities and differences between various authors and their • research • What research agrees and disagrees? • What major questions remain unanswered? • What are the possible directions for future research?

17. Structure & planning your writing - mindmaps Mindmaps are a visual map to link and organise key concepts of your research. They also show links and relationships between ideas. You may want to number the key ideas in the order that you are going to write in your literature review.

18. Mindmapping

19. Literature review – writing an introduction • An introduction must tell the reader the following: • The topic: What you are going to cover in the review • The scope: key focus of your research • The application: how the review ties in with your own research topic.

20. Paragraphs • A paragraph should include: • A main statement / idea: topic sentence • Evidence from research to support or argue your idea: agree and / or disagree • In the literature review, you will need to integrating your readings into each paragraph and show logical links between paragraphs.

21. Verbs for referencing • To incorporate quotations / references into a literature review, you can use a variety of verbs. These verbs allow you to indicate the degree to which they support the author of the research. Examples: • The following words may be used to introduce references into your literature review: Discuss, state, claim, argue, suggest, support

22. A good literature review • Integrates the research of various authors • Shows similarities and differences of ideas • Shows wide reading • Shows analysis and critical evaluation of what you have read.

23. Example of student text: poor writing During the past decade, many researchers have shown interest in motivation. Their findings are reported here. Smith (1995) developed a model investigation conducted on …. (next paragraph describes Smith’s model) Jones (1998) asserts that … (another paragraph says what Jones asserted) …Hoey (1998) makes a clear distinction between …. (another paragraph states what Hoey says)… The student here has simply reported each author's theory without any analysis or integration.

24. What are the examiners looking for in a literature review? • A theoretical framework for your research • A clear understanding of the key concepts/ideas/studies/ models related to your topic • Knowledge of the history of your research area and any related controversies • Discuss ideas in a context appropriate for your own investigation • Evaluate the work of others • Clarify important definitions/terminology • Narrow the problem to show the study is feasible.

25. Questions to help you plan and draft your literature review • What has been done in your field of research? • What principles of selection are you going to use? • How are you going to order your discussion? Chronological, thematic, conceptual, methodological, or a combination? • What section headings will you use? • How do the various studies relate to each other? What precise contribution do they make to the field? What are their limitations? • How does your own research fit into what has already been done? (Adapted from Literature Review Guide, Gail Craswell, ANU).

26. Question time