IBO4001 Business DissertationHow to Review the Academic Literature

• Please note that this work is assessed - it counts for 10% of your overall dissertation grade.

• Hand-in date: 20 January 2010 to the Student Assessment Office, Park Campus, and online via the NILE site

• Word count: c. 4000 words.

Reviewing the academic literaturePurpose: explore previous and current academic thinking surrounding your topic.

Three distinct phases:–finding relevant books/ journal articles either in print or online;–reading – and understanding – relevant books/ journal articles; –reviewing (‘writing about’) relevant books/ journal articles.

The literature review is dealing with academic theory – generally speaking empirical/ sector/ industry data should not appear here.

Finding relevant books/ journal articles

• Essential first step in the process – the beginning, not the end.

• Books: established ideas, rather basic

• Journals: greater variety of views, greater depth of comment

• Use respected academic sources

• Make a note of the full reference of everything you find as you find it! Going back to find the full reference later on is a tedious and frustrating process.

Reading and understanding relevant books/ journal articles

• As you go through the material you’ve found, make a note of the key points made by each author that you read.

• It may be useful to build a grid/ matrix to highlight the key areas uncovered by your research.

• For example…

Reading and understanding relevant books/ journal articles

Issue/ Idea/ Topic/

Concept/ Theme #i

Issue/ Idea/ Topic/

Concept/ Theme #ii

Issue/ Idea/ Topic/

Concept/ Theme #iii

Issue/ Idea/ Topic/

Concept/ Theme #iv

Author 1 XX X - -

Author 2 - XX X -

Author 3 X XX - XX

Author 4 XX X - X

Author 5 XX - - X

Author 6 X - - XX

…………. .......... .......... .......... ..........

Author n XX X - -

Reading and understanding relevant books/ journal articles

• In this example, three major issues/ ideas/ topics/ concepts/ themes/ call-them-what-you-will have become apparent during the research, along with a further area (#iii) which only one author has mentioned.

• Grouping ideas in this way helps to identify the major points, the major schools of thought, that need to be discussed in the literature review itself.

Reviewing (‘writing about’) relevant books/ articles

• The literature review will have a brief introduction giving an overview of what is about to be discussed.

• This is followed by an outline description of the ideas and, more importantly, by an in-depth discussion – a critical review – of each of the points/ schools of thought identified.

Reviewing (‘writing about’) relevant books/ articles

• In the example above, this means reviewing what each writer has said about issue #i, presenting, comparing and contrasting their ideas.

• This would then be followed by a similar approach to issue #ii and issue #iv.

• As we’ve already decided that issue #iii is relatively unimportant, it may well be omitted from the discussion.

• It is also useful to give an overall conclusion or overview of the literature.

Reviewing (‘writing about’) relevant books/ articles

• It is important to distinguish between the researching and the write-up.

• The researching is done on an author-by-author or paper-by-paper basis.

• The write-up is done on an issue-by-issue basis in which the views of different writers are compared and contrasted. In other words, your write-up would emphasise the ideas, not the authors (though, clearly, authors’ names are mentioned).

Referencing

• Your work must be fully and correctly referenced using the Harvard system.

• Remember! In the text, cite only the author’s surname and the date of publication (and the page number for a direct quote). Give the full reference at the end of your work.

• At the end, include one comprehensive list of all the (academic) publications – books, journals and websites - you have consulted, arranged alphabetically by author. This does not count toward the word limit for this piece of work.

Finally…

• Remember that the literature review is a crucial part of the final dissertation. You should expect to include this work, usually in a modified form, in the final dissertation.

• It is important to the success of your dissertation that you complete the literature review to a good standard. Be sure to talk through your ideas with your supervisor and to provide a draft version for discussion before you hand-in the assessed copy.