how to write review1
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Supervising Masters & PhD students -
Writing a literature review
Dr Katherine Samuelowicz
Academic Writing & Research Consultant
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Why is literature review soimportant?
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Why is literature review so
important?
Its an integral part of the thesis (and students
need to bear this in mind from the beginning)
It sets the scene for the research presentedin the thesis
It provides justification for the research
presented in the thesis Some examiners claim they can judge the
quality of a thesis from its literature review
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What problems have you encountered
with students literature reviews as asupervisor and or as an examiner?
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Deficiencies (continued)
Literature Review the second most deficient
aspect of theses (typographical errors were first)
Most common criticisms: Failure to use recent
literature, and an inability to critically assess the
existing literature
Lengthy; irrelevant; outdated; tedious; repetitive;
bewildering; & flabbergasting
(Hansford & Maxwell, 1993)
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What is its purpose?
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What is its purpose?
To demonstrate professional competence in the
area of the research (ideally, students know the
background to their work and have anappreciation of the present state of the art: the
breakthroughs, the controversies, whats hot in
the field, etc.)
To justify the need for the research undertaken To establish the theoretical framework of the
research
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The literature review then needs
to:
Show a thorough knowledge of the relevantresearch, theory, ideology & opinion
(convergence/divergence of views) Locate students work within the above
Ensure the reader knows their review is selectiveand relevant to the research question
Evaluate the focal literature critically Distinguish between what has previously been done
or said and what is proposed in this study
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Therefore ..The literature review has to be:
DISCURSIVE - a logical argument
nota list of studies presented one after another(students need to focus on ideas, theories, issues,results not sources)
nota catalogue of facts
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When to do it? How to do it?
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When and how to do itAt the beginning
When students have first results
At the end, when all other chapters are
finished
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Some questions students could
ask when reading 1/2
Is the problem important and clearly spelled out?
Is the methodology well justified as the most
appropriate to study the problem? How were the results analysed?
Is the theoretical basis transparent?
What perspective are they coming from?
How large a sample was used?
Are the results presented new?
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Some questions 2/2
Are the generalisations justified by the evidence onwhich they are made?
How convincing is the argument made?
What is the significance of this research?
What are the assumptions behind the research?
Was the research influential in that others picked up
the threads and pursued them?
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When students have first resultsNow your students would be better equipped
to make sense of the literature
They would be able to synthesise findings, tostart placing their results within the body of
knowledge, to see the quality of results in
other studies, to see the finer points of
methods used
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At the end Now your students should be able to see
where their results belong, how they
compare with other results, what they add tothe understanding of a particular problem
They will be also see how previous researchmotivated their own research
They should be able to seamlesslyintegrated their lit review into the plot of theirthesis
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Structuring the reviewExaminers appreciate work which is logically
presented, focused, succinct, and in whichsignposts are used to help readers to understandthe path they are taking through the work Oneof the problems with work that is poorly presentedis that the examiner tends to lose confidence inthe candidate and can become suspicious thatthere are deeper problems of inadequate andrushed conceptualisation. (Johnson, 1997 p.345 in Mullinsand Kiley 2002)
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Helping students structuring their
lit reviewExercise
During the next 5 - 10 minutes plot out the story
your literature review is going to tell. You mayuse concept maps, diagrams, flow charts topresent your plot. Think about the sections intowhich you would like to divide your review.
Think about the abstract youve written in theprevious session to make sure that your reviewfits with the overall plot of the thesis.
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How to do it Plot out the story your literature review is going to
tell in order to achieve your purpose
Use maps or diagrams to shape it to see theoverall picture and to identify the core literature(re-do if emphasis changes)
From the diagram, organise the review intosections
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Ho to do it - working on sectionsOnce you have the overall story/plot for your
literature review work on sections:
- What is the point Im making in this
section?
- What is its purpose in the whole story?
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Reviewing
EVALUATE the worth of what others are doing(and build a bank of useful VERBS)
SHAPE this to show how your work logicallycomes out of what others have done
Bring together what you read into a FRAMEWORKand identify the relationships, contradictions,
anomalies. Dont forget to look critically at already acceptedwork
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Reviewing - ExamplesEstablish a bank of poor and good reviews
and discuss them with students
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Reviewing - Example 2 (final)Batt & Kompala (1989) lumped the biotic phase into
The key criticism of the model is that the proposed kinetics is
essentially unfounded
Whether there is a need to include a description of changes in cell
composition , also remains to be clarified. To my knowledge, no
data have shown
With 49 parameters, the model of Batt & Kompala is expected to fit
Thus, the fit was achieved to data that were wrongly transformed.
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Example 2 (contd)From a production point of view, the key point of interest is
what limits the system and how to overcome these
limits. The limitation of the system is what ultimately
determines the economics. Surprisingly littlefundamental research work has been performed on
animal cell culture in this area.
One reason for the lack of work in this area has been theassumption that growth is inhibited at
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Reviewing - VerbsLets look at the language used in Example 2
often students use three verbs:Smith (2001) says..
Black (2002) stated that
Green (1999) mentioned
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Reviewing - Example 3 (draft)
clearly judged to suffer from a number ofdeficiencies (Baker, 1974; Baker and Freeland,1975). These deficiencies For example, the
are some of the objections (Baker, 1976). Inaddition, the data validity (Dumbleton, 1986).Furthermore, many models did not in decisionmaking (Lee, et al., 1986). Lastly, most of themodels did not allow decision makers to prioritystructure associated with the multiple objectives.
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Reviewing - Example 4 (final)
In summary, recent writings have used the conceptof tradition as an intellectual phenomenon torelate . There are a number of commonthemes in the writings examined. First, there isan acceptance that . Second, this relationshipdepends not so much upon
There is also general agreement upon thedimensions of this intellectual and attitudinalbase.
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Reviewing - Example 5 (draft)
Definitions of food security used over the last ten years reflectan evolution from concern for early warning, to improvedprediction and understanding of the structural processes andoutcomes for prevention of food insecurity.
As well as broadening the focus of definitions, geographicalconcerns . Consequently there is a need for a soundgeneric definition that provides a structural frameworkapplicable to a range of . Operational definitions of food
security can be formulated from this general frameworkaccording to the specific context.
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Reviewing - Example 5 (contd)
One of the first definitions was given by . Sincethen food security has been defined in variousways . However, the various definitionsillustrate genuine differences in emphasis betweenthe scale and dimensions of .
While there may be differences, most definitions
include five components which form theframework of the food and nutrition system:
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Reviewing - Things to remind
your students Provide an OVERVIEW; remain in control
Clarify WHOSE CRITIQUE it is
Use SPECIFIC DETAIL when relevant Develop and assess DEFINITIONS
CLUSTER similar studies and review the body ofwork
Make use of SECTION SUMMARIES RE-WRITE at several stages
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Seek comments & talk about
your work with
Your supervisor
Fellow research students
Website: PhD: First Thoughts to FinishedWritinghttp://www.uq.edu.au/student-
services/linkto/phdwriting//
Mullins, G & Kiley, M. (2002). Its a PhD, not a Nobel Prize: How
experienced examiners assess research theses. In Studies inHigherEducation V.27, N.4.