Theory and Literature Review

In this post, I would like to share how to review the literature to support your research proposal, research report, etc. 

Literature Review

Literature review means discussing and critically evaluating current literature on a chosen topic. The aim of literature review is to demonstrate that the writer has extensively researched the literature and critically evaluated its quality. In reviewing literature,it is not enough to describe what others have discovered, you need to view their work with your own insight (an effective review presents, analyses and synthesizes material from a range of sources). The final product of the literature review should be an hypothesis, not an answer. Moreover, an effective literature review should have a clear focus and direction and be presented in a logical, clear and well organized manner using academic style both correctly and consistently.

Starting a Literature Review

• Locating the literature
• The first step is a comprehensive literature search.
• You need to access a wide range of the available literature in the area of study.
• The age of material is important.
• Start with the seminal reference everyone else quotes and use bibliographies and reference lists from this and other major texts to direct to more articles.
• Methods of locating literature include library catalogs, relevant CD-ROM and databases, online library searches and library links on the web and other WWW resources

• Reading the literature. Read both critically and actively and keep your purpose for reading in mind while you read. Previewing and skim reading will help you to focus your thoughts, identify key issues or arguments under discussion. and keep questioning as you read, keeping the main focus of your review in mind.

• Goals of Reading
• To review the text
• To use context clues and a dictionary to understand new words
• To identify and mark important ideas in a chapter
• To recognize how authors organize and develop ideas
• To identify new words and phrases that describe the methods or patterns of organizing and developing ideas
• To apply comprehension skills to vocabulary and text material

• Reading techniques  
• Skimming
• Looking quickly through the book
• Reading only contents, heading, intro and conclusions
• Useful to check relevancy to our topic, or wish to find particular info or ideas quickly
• Scanning
• A very rapid search for some important point (eg. Page number, a title or a key word)
• Reading to understand
• Detailed study to absorb major facts or ideas
• May read more than once, and take notes to summarize
• Word-by-word reading
• Reading for pleasure

• Note-taking,reasons for taking notes:
• To help remember something
• To keep a permanent record of something
• To help in planning
• To reorder material
• To help understand what we are learning
• To help to concentrate
• To show other people

• Note-taking techniques,golden rules for taking notes
• Clarify your purpose
• Write all notes on the same size of paper or cards
• Set out notes properly at the beginning
• Use of the title of chapter or lecture to anticipate the main ideas
• Keep your own ideas, comment and criticism separate from those in the text
• Sum up what have been written when finish

•  Essential information to record 
• The author(s) of the text – surname and first name
• The title of the book – including subtitle
• For journal or newspaper, record the full name of journal or newspaper
• For articles or paper in en edited books, then the title for the relevant chapter or paper
• For website, the URL
• The date of publication
• The place it was published
• The name of the publisher
• The page number or numbers where the information you have made notes from appears
• Reference where the information is found (e.g. library and the book code number)
• For materials from lectures or conferences:
• The speaker, title of talk, conference title, venue and date

• Organizing the information,
• An organized system to keep track of your references.
• Methods include:
• Endnote or another computerized referencing program
• A computer application such as an electronic card file or spread-sheet or database program
•  A paper-based file of bibliographic information, with cross-referencing 
• When you find an article, put the publication details straight into your referencing system, listing the material by content area, call number or web site, and source. 
•  If you photocopied the material, make a note of where it was copied from and where you filed it. 

 

•  Asking questions. Have specific questions before you begin to focus your reading, which will help you read the material in an active manner and sharpen your analytical skills, such as:
• The author: 
• Who wrote the information and where and when was this work published? 
• The purpose: 
• Why and for whom was the information written? 
• What was the author trying to discover and why is this information / research important 
• The approach 
• What is the theoretical perspective of the author and does it differ from current belief about the topic area? 
•  What issue, paradigm or philosophy influenced the writer’s perspective and how does s/he develop their ideas? 
•  Are underlying assumptions and/or knowledge explicitly stated?  
• Is there any bias or inconsistencies in information presented? 
•  The content 
•  What is the controlling focus in the material? 
•  Does this author focus on breadth or depth of information? 
• Is supporting information well researched and accurate and does it support or link to discussion? 
•  What aspects are included / omitted, both from literature examinations and research projects? 
• Can you accept the findings as true and do the authors conclude as to what do they attribute their findings? 
•  Are findings/discussion and conclusions logical? 
•  How does this perspective / results differ from others and how do these findings apply to your own work? 
•  The structure: 
•  Does the introduction indicate aims, thesis and main points of information? 
•  Is the framework used to organize the material clearly explained and logical? 
•  Is the argument or focus balanced and does the content link well? 
•  Style and format: 
• Is the presentation style simple, complex, narrative, analytical, persuasive, or didactic and how does this style influence the reaction to the material

Beginning to write  

• Begin writing as soon as you have a basic understanding of your topic area. This will then inform you of the need for and areas of further reading.  Continually review your drafts and add comments, questions and ideas. This is a good way to make connections and comparisons between different articles, particularly if your reading is spread out over a long period of time. 
• Structuring your review  
•  You need a plan and an overall structure.
• The concepts must be presented in an order that makes sense with clear divisions in the sets of ideas to be discussed.
• There are many different ways to organize information in a literature review. For example:
• Chronologically
• By theoretical perspective
• In order of importance
• By methodological type
• Using any structure that is logical
• and fits the content
• A common error in literature reviews is for writers to present material from one author, followed by information from another, then another ...eg. Brown (1995) found this, Smith (1997) found that, Jones (2000) found the other and Green, Sanders and Jackson (1999) found something else.
• Attempt to synthesize the material in a way that allows you to not only report what has been said about a particular subject but also to compare and contrast and critically review and comment on the relative merits of the presented literature.
• Constructing an argument
• Need to present a clear line of argument.
• That means taking all those critical comments you made in your reading notes, and using them to express an academic opinion. Facts and theory in the literature substantiate these opinions. Examples, citation and quotations are used where appropriate.
• Each section of the review is clearly connected. The outline statement in the introduction makes the order of the arguments clear, and gives some reason for the author’s choice in ordering the material.
• The literature review is written in academic prose that is clear, concise, unambiguous, objective and accurate. It should not be pompous or difficult to read.
• Plagiarism
• Occurs when you paraphrase or directly quote ideas, facts or arguments without citation.
• Because a literature review is based on the work of other authors, you must be very careful to separate an author’s ideas from your own.
• Organization and scrupulous note taking and referencing are the best ways to ensure that your work is correctly referenced. 
• Make sure that you clearly understand what needs to be referenced:

How is a literature review judged?

• Structure
• Is the review clearly introduced and concluded?
• Does the content flow logically?
• Is the material organized according to issues?
• Does it conform to academic writing requirements?
• Selection of the material
• Is all relevant information included?
• Is the literature from a range of sources?
• Referencing
• Are all bibliographic details (both in-text and reference list) accurate, complete and consistently documented?
• Critical evaluation of the literature
• Has the literature been presented and evaluated clearly and objectively?
• Does the amount of detail included on an issue relate to its importance?
• Is there sufficient evaluation of design and methodological issues?
• Are authors conflicting and complementary ideas presented and discussed?
• Interpretation
• Has this discussion of the current literature contributed to the reader's understanding?
• How?
• Do the conclusions present outcomes or implications of the review?