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How to write a

literature

review

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Purpose of Literature Review

Provide some form of background to the

research problem being studied;

Describe the relationship of each work to the others

under consideration;

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Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in previous

research;

Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory

previous studies;,

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Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort,

Point the way in fulfilling a need for

additional research,

and

Locate your own research within the context of existing

literature.

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Where should the literature review be if it is embedded

within the report?

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It should come

after the

introduction

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How should you approach your literature review?

• Find useful sources • Look through the sources and decide which ones you will

use in your literature review (The most important ones)• Make sure you understand the original material. You cannot

review what you do not understand.• Make notes, circle, underline the material to highlight

which parts you are going to summarize, quote and paraphrase.

• Group the authors who say the same things together and put those who say different things on their own.

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How should you approach your literature review (con’t)?

You should be ask yourself the following critical thinking questions:

Who do I agree with?

Who makes sense?

Who does not have a good idea and what is wrong with their idea?”

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Your literature review should:

• have an introduction, a body and a conclusion

• pull out main ideas from the authors

• not only summarize what people say, but critically review what they say

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Useful sources:

• Journal articles (SIT library)

• Monographs (old articles in the library)

• Computerized databases (archive folders)

• Conferences proceedings

• Dissertations

• Empirical studies (what others have done before)

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Useful sources (con’t): • Government reports and reports from other bodies

• Historical records (Museum, library, National Heritage board)

• Statistical handbooks (public archives office – request from HR)

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Critical reading – evaluating and analysing sources

A number of the sources mentioned on the last two slides may be on the web.

It is important to approach such materials with the same critical eye as you approach printed material.

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Questions to ask yourself during planning stage:

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?

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Questions to ask yourself during planning stage (con’t) :

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?

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Use of tenses

The verb tenses you use in your literature review reveal more to your reader than just the time frame.

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The PRESENT TENSE is used for:

a generalisation (in overviews, statements of main points, etc.) OR a generally accepted scientific fact:

Example: " This thesis investigates the second approach.“

a statement made by you as a writer:

Example: " Non-standard applications such as CASE, CAD/CAM are now emerging.“

a statement reporting the position of a writer and your support or lack of support for this position:

Example: " Therefore, this sequential approach is impractical in the real world where projects are typically large (Radice, 1988) and the activities from one stage may be carried out in parallel with the activities of another stage."

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The PAST TENSE is used to:

describe the contents, findings, or conclusions of past research. It emphasises the completed nature of a past activity. It is often referred to as the 'reporting' tense, and is traditionally used by scholars to report all past findings, including even very current research in some cases.

Example: " This model was not popular in the software industry until it was later refined by Boehm (1976)."

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The PRESENT PERFECT TENSE is used to:

indicate that research in the area is still continuing, or that the research has immediate relevance today

Example 1: " Several researchers have studied distributed database design."

Example 2: " Fricke (1983) has illustrated that black liquor shows three rheological behaviours.”

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The PRESENT PERFECT TENSE is used to:

generalise about past literature

Example: " Software has been tested manually for most of the last four decades.”

present a view using an information-prominent citation

Example: " The services that have been identified for the future B-ISDN include [7] [77] [78]."

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Overview: The importance of tenses:

Tenses are used to indicate more than chronology:

Use the past tense in reporting others' research to indicate that that research is of secondary importance to your current work.

Use the present perfect to indicate that the research is of more direct and primary importance.

Use the present tense to indicate your general position relative to reported research.

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THE END