Literature Survey, Literature Comprehension, &

Literature Review

Literature Review Process

Literature Comprehens

ion

Literature Review

Literature Search

Identifying

Exploring

Contextualising

Formulating

Justifying Noting

SummarisingCommenting

Structuring

Drafting

Developing

Clarifying

Reading Critically Comprehension

Focus on understanding as reader intended What it says

Critical Review Focus on interpreting What it does Recognition that text is one way of viewing subject

Reading Critically – Initial Steps Recognise a text as a presentation of a

subject by the Author(s) Structured and presented in a particular way

contains a beginning, middle, and end uses illustrations to explain, clarify or expand on

remarks uses evidence to support remarks e.g. cites other

sources, presents results uses particular language to portray topics organises remarks in a logical sequence

Reading Critically – Description Describe the text from each of the perspectives

on previous slide Structure

what is included in the beginning, middle and end why

Examples what the examples are examples of where are they from

Evidence nature of the evidence – sources used and how, types of result

Language and Style choice of language or terms– what types of terms are applied

to what topics What type of sequence is used

Reading Critically – Description What is achieved by the text?

What is achieved by describing topics a certain way

What is assumed by selecting certain types of evidence

Is there a particular perspective

Reading Critically – Assessment Think critically How well does the text do what it does? All texts should

Address a specific topic Clearly define terms Present evidence Explain exceptions Demonstrate clearly cause and effect Present conclusions shown to follow logically from

earlier arguments and evidence

Reading Critically – Assessment Evaluate the text Does it make sense? How does it fit into the area? Does it agree/disagree with other texts? Does it offer new evidence? Or types of

evidence? Does the evidence support the arguments? Are the conclusions logical?

Inference Readers construct meaning from a text by

what they take the words to mean how they process sentences to find meaning drawing on their knowledge of the language and of conventions of social communication.

Inference Other Factors

knowledge of the Author(s) occasion or publication the audience

Readers infer unstated meanings based on social conventions, shared knowledge, shared experience, or shared values. make sense of remarks by recognizing

implications and drawing conclusions. Readers read ideas more than words Readers infer, rather than find, meaning.

Inference Consider the following statement:

The Senator admitted owning the gun that killed his wife.

What can you infer from this statement?

Inference Consider the following statement from Robert

Skoglund, The Humble Farmer of Public Radio in Maine (http//www.TheHumbleFarmer.com), as follows:

We had visitors a week or so ago. Houseguests. Six of them. One of them was Oscar who teaches geology at the University in Utrecht. Now I love houseguests. Usually. But when they arrived I discovered that two of them couldn't even walk into the house. Had to be carried in. And then I found out they couldn't talk, either. What would you have done if you'd been in my place? How do you handle a situation like that?

What can you infer from this statement?

The Literature Review Process of consolidating the various strands of

past research into a single narrative contextualizing your research.

Combining separate elements to create a cohesive, coherent whole

START WRITING NOW!

Literature Review Identify your themes Create a map of based on your themes

How do they link together ? Where do they contribute to your work ? What papers link to each theme?

Construct in the order the most clearly supports your thinking.

Literature Review – How to? Consider each article that you have

reviewed What does it do for you ? Is it significant enough to go into the review ? Does it provide context or background ? Is it a quality source? Does it identify issues or problems? Does it help build towards the ‘gap’ in the

research you are identifying ? Could you take this article out and it wouldn’t

make any difference ? Does it simply repeat something from another

source? Am I only including it to show how many papers

I’ve read?

Literature Review PlanningCommon Points Grid One planning technique – common points grid

During your comprehension you will have noted of words or ideas that repeat themselves. noted of conflicts or contradictions in the information

From this you can derive the main research questions texts answer

And the way the research answers the question - Incorporating your noted contradictions

Turn these answers into “categories.” Create a grid using Author(s)’ names and

categories as organizing features. Fill in the grid with details from source material.

Common Points Grid - example

Author(s) Maintenance

Wrapping Migration Redevelopment

Author(s) A Outlines a case study of maintenance over years – signals key challenges for redevelopment

Author(s) B Outlines key problems experience by ongoing maintenance

Leading researcher in DB area – proposes approach most adopted in area

Argues redevelopment not viable for 24/7 systems – provides examples

Author(s) C Proposes new approach – challenges that proposed by Author(s) B

Argues redevelopment not viable for 24/7 systems – provides examples

Research Question: What coping strategies exist for legacy systems?Possible Answers: A range of solutions are adopted which have a range of impacts on the system being considered

Initial Grid

Literature Review You don’t have to do it all in one go Write sections about what you know

when you know it If you are building summaries and

commentaries as you go you should be able to compile and edit these

You will have to draft and edit For the first draft include as much content as you

want then edit it down to be coherent and concise

Literature Review - Structure The beginning or introduction section

Introduce the chapter or paper Explain what you will be talking about and why

Literature Review - Structure The middle section

Headings and sub-headings = map of your thinking

Introduce the main research topics and provide definitions for key concepts that are important to your research

Discuss related research Identify key researchers Show gaps, issues or problems

Literature Review - Structure The end or conclusion section

will be a summary of your critical thinking Reiterate your arguments in a concise way

Using Sources in your work Provides evidence and examples to support

your arguments, propositions, opinions or findings Establishes credibility

Providing a map to reader of where your work fits And what its based on

Allows reader to locate, review and test evidence and examples used Or to use it for their own purposes

Gives recognition to work which you’ve benefited from

Demonstrates that you have considered relevant work in the area

Using Sources in Your Work To support what you are saying Introduce someone’s work or opinion in order

to discuss Show differences between other peoples’ work

or opinions Show differences between your own work and

that of others

Two Things You Need To Know Citing

Acknowledging within the text/content of your work the source or sources you are using to build an argument or support an opinion. 

It is ok to use someone else’s work in this way. Do this when

You want to take an section of a source. Make it clear why you are using it, put it in quotations and

acknowledge the source You want to paraphrase or present a summary of information

taken from a source(s). Be careful! It is not ok simply to rewrite. You must also cite and

reference. You want to support your argument or opinion.

Here you are simply saying ‘I have read respected sources in the area and these guys agree with me’

Two Things You Need To Know Referencing

When you cite someone’s work you must include the full detail of where to find the original text.

You do this by including a reference list, usually at the end of your submission.

Each reference details The Author(s) Name The Year of Publication The Correct Title Where the source can be located – Details of Publication

This enables the reader of your work to locate any sources and read them for themselves.

Citing and Referencing Performed as a pair If you cite You must include the full detail in your

reference list

Handling Common Knowledge Any knowledge that is so well known that it can be

found in numerous sources does not have to be cited.

E.g. A large number of programming languages use compilers

to translate source code to machine executable code. However, some are translated into a form which can be interpreted when needed to form machine code.

If however you want to state something about what the efficiency or effectiveness of this you will need to cite a source to support your argument:

 

Using Sources in Your Work To report

Facts, figures, definitions etc E.g

Citation:2009 showed that only 32% of all software projects were deemed successful (Standish 2009).

Reference:Standish (2009), Standish Chaos Report 2009. Available: http://www.standishgroup.com/, [Date Accessed: 1st October 2011]

Format for Website:Author(s) (Year), Title of site in italics. Available: URI, [Accessed: date]

Using Sources in Your Work To acknowledge

You are using some particular approach E.g.

Citation:The process of developing a literature review used in this lecture is that by Diana Ridley (Ridley 2008).

Reference: Ridley D (2008), The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step

Guide for Students, Sage Publications Ltd. Format for Book:Author(s) (Year), Name of Book in italics, edition if relevant,

Publisher.

Using Sources in Your Work Support for your opinion - Quotation:Citation:

The Waterfall model is still one of the most recognised models of software development. However, as Boehm states, “by the end of the 1970’s, problems were cropping up with formality and sequential waterfall processes” (2006).

Reference:Boehm, B (2006), ‘A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering’, In the Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering (ICSE’06), Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China May 20-28, ACM New York.

Format for conference paper:Author(s) (Year), ‘Title of Paper in single quotation marks’, Title of

Conference in italics, edition if relevant, Location and date of conference, if known, Place of Publication if known, page numbers if known.

Quoting Use if

Author(s) is key researcher or Authoritative You can’t think how you would paraphrase and retain the

meaning Use sparingly

Literature review is about your thinking Short quotes

Run into your text with quotation marks and citation Long quotes

Start on separate line Indent Give citation You can leave out words and replace with …

Quoting If you quote

You need to comment Don’t quote too much

Are you really presenting your thoughts and opinions?

Summarise and Paraphrase Paraphrase

Extract meaning of a short section or paragraph Keep it short Use your own words Make it shorter than the original Include the citation

Summarise State in short Make sure you cover key points – leaves out detail Use your own words Include the citation

Using Sources in Your Work Support for your opinion – Paraphrase Citation (multiple sources)

It is recognised that there are problems in using rigid, formal approaches to software development such as the Waterfall model (Boehm 2006; Green and DiCaterino 1998).

Reference:Boehm, B (2006), ‘A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering’, In the Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering (ICSE’06), Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China May 20-28, ACM New York.Green, D. and DiCaterino A. (1998), A Survey of System Development Process Models, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, Available: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/reports/survey_of_sysdev/survey_of_sysdev.pdf, [Accessed: 24th February 2011]

ParaphrasingExtract from Boehm 2006:

“The most widely adopted agile method has been XP, whose major technical premise in [14] was that its combination of customer collocation, short development increments, simple design, pair programming, refactoring, and continuous integration would flatten the cost-of change-vs.-time curve in Figure 4. However, data reported so far indicate that this flattening does not take place for larger projects. A good example was provided by a large Thought Works Lease Management system presented at ICSE 2002 [62]. When the size of the project reached over 1000 stories, 500,000 lines of code, and 50 people, with some changes touching over 100 objects, the cost of change inevitably increased. This required the project to add some more explicit plans, controls, and high-level architecture representations.”

[14] Beck, K. Extreme Programming Explained, Addison-Wesley, 2000[62] Ehn, P. (ed.): Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts, Lawrence Earlbaum Assoc. (1990)

Good Paraphrasing: Citation:

As Boehm points out the size of a project appears to have a significant impact on the effectiveness of XP as a methodology (Boehm 2006).

Reference List:Boehm, B (2006), ‘A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering’, In the Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering (ICSE’06), Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China May 20-28, ACM New York.

ParaphrasingCitation:

XP does not appear to flatten the cost-of-change-vs-time curve for large projects (Boehm 2006).

Reference List:Boehm, B (2006), ‘A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering’, In the Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering (ICSE’06), Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China May 20-28, ACM New York.Bad Paraphrasing

HARVARD Referencing Name/Date system http://www.dit.ie/study/mature/support/acade

mic/citing/#harvard

How to cite The correct way to cite

Work by one Author is (Smith, 2005) Work by two Author(s) is (Smith and Jones, 2005) Work by multiple Author(s) is (Smith et al., 2005)

Sometimes if there are three Author(s) – they can all be listed

Works by the same Author(s) in the same year Distinguish by adding a, b, c etc after the year E.g. (Boehm 2006a; Boehm 2006b)

Please note: Since “et al.” is an abbreviation of the phrase “et

alia” the full stop is necessary. Additionally as it is a foreign phrase it must always

be in italics.

How to reference A Book

Author(s) (Year), Name of Book in italics, edition if relevant, Publisher.

Include the edition if there are multiple editions – you must indicate the one you used

Ridley D (2008), The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students, Sage Publications Ltd.

A chapter in a book Author(s) (year), ‘Title of chapter in single quotes’, In plus

Author(s)/editors of book, Title of Book in Italics, Publisher, page numbers if known.

McCann, J M (1994), ‘Generating, Managing and Communicating Insights. In Blattberg’, In R C, Glazer, R and Little, J D C (Eds), The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

How to cite/reference A Journal Article

Author(s) (year), ‘Title of article in single quotes’, Name of Journal in Italics, Volume, Issue, Page Numbers

Bisbal J, Lawless D, Wu B and Grimson J (1999), ‘Legacy Information System Migration: A Brief Review of Problems, Solutions and Research Issues’, IEEE Software ,Vol. 16 (5).

A Conference Paper Author(s) (Year), ‘Title of Paper in single quotation marks’,

Title of Conference in italics, edition if relevant, Location and date of conference, if known, Place of Publication if known, page numbers if known.

Boehm, B (2006), ‘A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering’, In the Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Software engineering (ICSE’06), Shanghai International Convention Center, Shanghai, China May 20-28, ACM New York.

How to cite/reference A report by a company where no Author(s) is listed

Use the name of the company Standish (2009), Standish Chaos Report 2009. Available: http://www.standishgroup.com/, [Date Accessed: 1st October 2011]

A website You must include the URI and the date accessedGreen, D. and DiCaterino A. (1998), A Survey of System Development Process Models, Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, Available: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/reports/survey_of_sysdev/survey_of_sysdev.pdf, [Accessed: 24th February 2011]

How to cite/reference What if I read something which cites a source

which I haven’t read myself ? And I want to refer to it ?

E.g. X’s theory of y (X 1999) as cited in (Z 2000) states

that…. Do not use this too often

Check this out of the library…