conducting literature review1.ppt

7/28/2019 conducting literature review1.ppt

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Conducting Literature

ReviewBy

M R Selamat


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By the end of this presentation, you

should be able to:

Distinguish between plagiarized, cut-pastematerial and original contribution.

Find literature associated with your topic.

Properly quote literature from within yourthesis.

Properly list reference material at the end of

your thesis. Realize the severe consequences of plagiarism

and the merit of doing your work without it.


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What is a review of the literature?

A literature review is an account of what has beenpublished on a topic by accredited scholars andresearchers.

You will be required to write a chapter on literature

review. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to

convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas havebeen established on the topic you have chosen, and

what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be

defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your researchobjective, the problem or issue you are discussing, oryour argumentative thesis). It is not a descriptive list ofthe material available, or a set of summaries.


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A Good Literature Review is:

Focused - The topic should be narrow. You should only presentideas and only report on studies that are closely related to topic.

Concise - Ideas should be presented economically. Dont takeany more space than you need to present your ideas.

Logical - The flow within and among paragraphs should be asmooth, logical progression from one idea to the next

Developed - Dont leave the story half told. Integrative - Your paper should stress how the ideas in the

studies are related. Focus on the big picture. What commonality

do all the studies share? How are some studies different thanothers? Your paper should stress how all the studies reviewedcontribute to your topic.

Current - Your review should focus on work being done on thecutting edge of your topic.


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Besides enlarging your knowledge

about the topic, writing a literature

review lets you gain and demonstrate

skills in two areas:

information seeking: the ability to scan theliterature efficiently, using manual or

computerized methods, to identify a set ofuseful articles and books

critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles

of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.


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A literature review must do these

things:

be organized around and related directly to thethesis or research question you are developing

synthesize results into a summary of what is andis not known

identify areas of controversy in the literature formulate questions that need further research


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Ask yourself questions like these:

What is the specific thesis, problem, or researchquestion that my literature review helps to define?

What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I

looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy?quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a newprocedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies )?

What is the scope of my literature review? What typesof publications am I using (e.g., journals, books,government documents, popular media)? Whatdiscipline am I working in (e.g., environment,

geotechnical engineering, transportation, structure)?


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Ask yourself questions like these:

How good was myinformation seeking? Has mysearch been wide enough to ensure I've found all therelevant material? Has it been narrow enough toexclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sourcesI've used appropriate for the length of my paper?

Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? Do Ifollow through a set of concepts and questions,comparing items to each other in the ways they deal

with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing

items, do I assess them, discussing strengths andweaknesses? Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my

perspective? Will the reader find my literature reviewrelevant,

appropriate, and useful?


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Ask yourself questions like these abouteach text book or article you include:

Has the author formulated a problem/issue?

Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope,severity, relevance) clearly established?

Could the problem have been approached moreeffectively from another perspective?

What is the author's research orientation (e.g.,interpretive, critical science, combination)?


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Ask yourself questions like these abouteach book or article you include:

What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g.,psychological, developmental, feminist)?

What is the relationship between the theoretical andresearch perspectives?

Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to theproblem/issue? Does the author include literaturetaking positions she or he does not agree with?

In a research study, how good are the basic

components of the study design (e.g., population,intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are themeasurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate andrelevant to the research question? Are the conclusions

validly based upon the data and analysis?

A k lf l k h b


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Ask yourself questions like these abouteach book or article you include:

In material written for a popular readership, does the author useappeals to emotion, one-sided examples, or rhetorically-chargedlanguage and tone? Is there an objective basis to the reasoning,or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already

believes? How does the author structure the argument? Can you

"deconstruct" the flow of the argument to see whether or whereit breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effectrelationships)?

In what ways does this book or article contribute to yourunderstanding of the problem under study, and in what ways is ituseful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?

How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or

question I am developing?


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So what is a literature review?

A literature review is a piece ofdiscursive prose, not alist describing or summarizing one piece of literatureafter another. It's usually a bad sign to see every

paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher.Instead, organize the literature review into sections thatpresent themes or identify trends, including relevanttheory. You are not trying to list all the material

published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according tothe guiding concept of your thesis or research question.


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Now you can start writing DECIDE ON A TOPIC NARROW YOUR TOPIC CREATE AN INTRODUCTION FOR YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW ORGANIZE THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER Scan each article to get an overview of each one. Group the articles by categories. Read each article carefully, taking notes on each one. WRITE THE BODY OF YOUR PAPER

Make the structure and organization of your write-up explicit.

Integrate the studies you summarize in your paper. At the end of each section wrap up studies in a paragraph that tells the reader how

the studies relate and address your topic. Make sure you take note of key terms and definitions. Identify landmark studies in your write-up Identify major trends across the studies you are reading.

WRAP THE PAPER UP Present your conclusions. Present implications.

Present suggestions for future research.


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Quoting reference into your writing

Quoting: (Author, Year) Quoting: Author (Year) Quoting: (Author1 and Author2, Year)

Quoting: Author1 and Author2 (Year) Quoting: (Author1 et al., Year) Quoting: Author1 et al. (Year) Quoting: (Author, Year1, Year2, Year3, Year4)

Quoting: (Author1, Year1 and Author2, Year2) Quoting: (Author1, Year1; Author2, Year2; and

Author3, Year3)


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Ground motion was first incorporated into slope stabilityanalyses to study the effects from earthquakes (Sarma 1973).

This paper will not go much into the matters on pseudo-staticand permanent displacement concepts as discussed by Newmark(1965), Chang et al. (1983), Lin and Whitman (1986), Kobayashi

et al. (1990), Yegian et al. (1991), Leshchinsky and San (1994),and Kramer and Smith (1997). Instead, it will refer to works bySarma (1973, 1975, 1979), Sarma and Bhave (1974),Kjartannsson (1979), Hoek (1987), Dowding and Gilbert (1988),Kavetski et al. (1990), Ashford and Sitar (2002), and the authors

own earlier publications (Selamat 1999, Selamat and Chitombo2003), on how ground accelerations were computed into forcesthat were used in the pseudo-static or permanent displacementideas.


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This discussion highlights the relevance of Sarmasmethod on the emerging interest in the country in someareas of earthquake engineering (Adnan et al., 2005).

This discussion will refer to works by Sarma (1973,1975, 1979), Sarma and Bhave (1974), Kjartannsson(1979), Hoek (1987), Dowding and Gilbert (1988),Kavetski et al. (1990), Ashford and Sitar (2002), and theauthors own earlier publications (Selamat 1999, Selamat

and Chitombo 2003), on how ground accelerationswere computed into forces that were used in thepseudo-static or permanent displacement ideas.


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Quoting actual script into your

writing

Dowding (1996) writes .too little experience

from .earthquake engineering has spilled into

.blasting vibrations.


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Quoting actual script into your

writing

The trend as indicated in Fig. 1 is currently happening.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

Fig. 1Growth in Waste Recycling Activity. (After Aziz, 2004)


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Listing your reference

Author, Year. Title of Paper/Article. Name ofJournal/Bulletin. Vol. No. pp.

Author1, Author2, Author3, Author4, Year. Title of

Paper/Article. Name of Journal. Vol. No. pp. Author, Year. Title of Book. Publisher. Place. pp.

Author, Year. Title of Paper/Article. Name ofProceeding of Conference. Place. pp.

Author, Year. Title of Paper/Article. Name of Report.Name of Organization. Place. pp.

Http://www1.eng.usm.my/awam/servis


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Listing your reference

Adnan A., Abas M. R., and Hendriawan. 2005.Earthquake Induced Energy: Sources andHazard Analysis For Structural Earthquake

Resistant Design in Peninsular Malaysia. TheIngenieur of the Board of Engineers, Malaysia,Vol. 26, pp. 21-25


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What is Plagiarism

Rewriting someone elses script without quotingthe source.

Rewriting someone elses script as if it is your

own Cutting and Pasting internet materials

Publishing someone elses result without

permission Reproducing someone elses figure or table

without quoting source (as after Author, year)


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Thank You

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conducting literature review1.ppt