Masters in Project Management: Writing the Literature Review

1. Masters in Project Management:Writing the Literature Review Lawrence Cleary, Dr. Íde O’Sullivan, Research Officers Regional Writing Center, University of Limerick

2. Pints of Porter and Points of Order • Review of the Related Literature • What Is It, and What’s It for? • Issues of Credibility • Organization and Logic • Questions Your Lit Review Should Answer • Content and Form • Peel Me an Onion 2 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

3. Points of Order • Research papers are organized around the problem, not the topic per se. • The problem, in a sense, is the topic. • Problems, however, exist in contexts, as do solutions. 3 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

4. Pints of Porter • The literature that you read informs both the immediate context of the problem and the larger context of which it is a part. 4 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

5. Writing Prompt • What question am I trying to answer / problem am I trying to solve / hypothesis am I trying to affirm / claim am I trying to defend? • What do I need to know in order to answer that question? What other questions do I need to answer? 5 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

6. Writing the Literature Review • What is it? • What is its purpose? • To guide and inform your process • To inform your audience about the credibility and value of your conclusions 6 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

7. Chris Hart: Doing A Literature Review (1998, 2008: 15) • Speaking of the function and format of a lit review at the Master’s level: • “Analytical and summative, covering methodological issues, research techniques and topics. Possibly two literature-based chapters, one on methodological issues, which demonstrates knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages, and another on theoretical issues relevant to the topic/problem.” Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

8. Issues of Credibility • Definition from Merriam-Webster: “an interpretation and synthesis of published research” (Merriam qtd in Murray 2006: 108). • Choices speak to your understanding of the puddle. 8 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

9. Writing Prompt • What do I know about my research topic? • What I am looking for in the literature is... • What are the schools of thought in the literature? • The ‘great debates’ in my area are... 9 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

10. Organization • How will I organize my literature review? • Can I classify or categorize the stuff I’ve read so far? • Can I say how each piece of literature has helped to inform my over-riding questions and/or sub-questions? 10 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

11. Break • Coffee...Tea • Mmmm. 11 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

12. Questions Your Lit Review Should Answer (Murray 2006: 115) • Why is this subject important? • Who else thinks it’s important? • Who has worked on this subject before? • Who has done something similar to what I am doing? • What can be adapted to my own study? 12 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

13. Questions Your Lit Review Should Answer (Murray 2006: 115) (Con’t) • What are the gaps in the research? • Who is going to use my material? • What use will my project be? • What will my contribution be? • What specific question will I answer? • [What specific questions will my research not be able to address?] 13 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

14. Writing Prompt • If we can frame the main question in a hierarchy, below which are framed the sub-questions, and we can put these frames in a larger frame called the Literature Review, what frames are you ready to fill in? • If you do not organize your literature around your question and sub-questions, how else will you categorize the literature in order to organize your discussion? 14 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

15. Content and Form • Organizing Exercise: Handout 15 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

16. Outline the structure: write your chapter or section heading for the Literature Review. Write a sentence or two on the contents of the chapter and each section. List out sub-headings for each section. Write an introductory paragraph for each section. At the top of each section, write the word count requirement, draft number and date. ‘Writing in Layers’ (Murray 2006: 125-27) 16 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

17. Conclusion • As you write, your organization may change. • Many things determine order: Arguments have a logical order, as do comparisons, cause/effect relationships, temporal or spatial descriptions, etc. • However, dissertations are thesis driven. Your question, and what you need to know, strongly influences the organization of your final product. Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

18. Sources • Hart, Chris 1998, 2008 Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Imagination. Los Angeles: Sage. • Leedy, P.D. and Ormrod, J.E. 2005 Practical Research: Planning and Design, 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson • Murray, R. 2006 How to Write a Thesis, 2nd ed. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press. Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL

19. Sources • Nandhakumar, J. 2003 Interpreting Information Systems: A reflexive account of grounded theory analysis [ppt. online], available: http://project.hkkk.fi/gebsi/files/nav_activities/material/Nandhakumar_slides.pdf [accessed 15 Aug 2008]. • UEfAP.com 2008 Writing: Rhetorical Functions, Comparing and Contrasting Exercise 2 [online], available: http://www.uefap.com/writing/exercise/function/compcon2.htm[accessed Aug 16 2008]. 19 Regional Writing Centre, C1-065 Main Building, UL