Writing the Literature Review Once You’ve Done the Research A ScholarStudio Production Dr. Daveena Tauber Personalprofessorpdx.com Core skills required by the literature review: Discern Synthesize Evaluate Narrate Most common literature review problem: Summary Summary Summary A literature review should be structured as: Narrative Summary Narrative Summary Role of summary in the lit review: necessary ingredient, but not an organizing principle When summarizing a scholarly work, give Who did the study? What was the research question /objective? Where / When was the study conducted? Who or what was studied? What was the sample size? What was the methodology? What were the findings? Process Define your research question. Makes sure it is a researchable question or area. Understand your methodology and general research design before you start. Dr. Daveena Tauber Personalprofessorpdx.com 2. Find the literature. When you are writing a dissertation, you will need to do exhaustive research, meaning that you cover nearly everything in the field. It does not mean that you have to write about everything. Evaluate and select literature. You should go through a selection process and decide which are key texts that you need to address. The literature review should be the product of active deliberation, not simply “finding enough texts.” Identify the rock stars. These are the foundational thinkers who laid the groundwork for your field. Identify the primary camps or schools of thought. Different schools of thought will have different followers. As you read, identify and mark your sources to identify which group they belong to. Decide on an organizing principle (could be different variables in your study, different theories that inform your work, etc). Write a chronological history of the evolution of ideas in your field. You will not usually present material in strictly chronologically in the lit review, but you may present pieces of this chronology. When the literature is not a perfect fit with your research. Use phrases like: What we know from the larger body of literature is that____. Although the literature deals only with the adult population, it is safe / not safe to assume that _____would be applicable to the juvenile population. The literature on ____ has limited applicability to my study because____. The literature on ____is useful to my study even though ___ because_____. We can apply current research on ____ to ___ by accounting for ____. “Voice Marker” options (verify preferences with dissertation director) I find that___ We notice that___ / One notices that___ The researcher finds that___ This project finds that___ Note that some science fields prefer the use of passive voice. Ex: The literature was found to contain__ Dr. Daveena Tauber Personalprofessorpdx.com 3. Tense Present tense is often used to describe ideas or findings in general, even when the work was done in the past. Foundational work is often referred to in present tense. Verify with dissertation director. Vygotsky argues that students build knowledge. Use past tense when describing specific research projects. Smith found that 50% of students___ Naming groups of people in your literature review General: Critics, scholars, researchers, plant geneticists By position: Proponents, supporters, skeptics, opponents By methodology: constructivists, historicists, empiricists Generalize responsibly Use the words always, never, and all only when you can substantiate that there are no exceptions. It’s safest to use qualified assertions that indicate the strength or general percentage of something. Use: Most, many, some, the majority, the minority, almost without exception, a few Transitions While the previous section of this project looks at___, this section will examine_____. In the previous section, I showed how the literature on _____applies to my work. In this section, I look at _____. While similar to [refer back to previous section] in some ways, ___ is different in that_____. Dr. Daveena Tauber Personalprofessorpdx.com 4. Words that indicate relationships Contrast
In contrast
Despite / In spite of
However
Though
Still
Nevertheless
Nonetheless
Conversely
In contrast to
On the other hand Whereas Not only Yet
Similarity
In addition
Similarly,
As in___, ____also___
Also
Moreover
Analogously
Parallel
Comparable
Like Including Equally Likewise Narrating the relationship between your work and the literature My results exemplify the idea that [insert theory or idea] because____. The results of this project illustrate X’s concept that___ in the sense that___. My project asks whether X’s theory of ____ is applicable to ___. X’s theory of ____ speaks to my hypothesis that___. X’s idea that ___cannot explain____. My finding that _____ suggests that X is right in claiming ___. When doing evaluation in the lit review, look at: Applicability / applicability of the literature to your project Methodology Strength of argument Strength / persuasiveness of data and analysis. Overall influence of the work in the field. Dr. Daveena Tauber Personalprofessorpdx.com 5. Appropriate Evaluation Language Opinion (Avoid)
Like / Dislike
Great, Cool, Wonderful Awful, Bad, Terrible
Useless
Forgettable
Insignificant
Pitch-­‐perfect
Perfect
Trivial
Nice
Should
Must
Ought to
Evaluation Useful
Applicable
Impressive / Unimpressive
Lacking in ___
Significant
Important Seminal
Sound / Unsound
Persuasive
Suspect
Definitive, Foundational
Elegant
Valuable
Credible
Flawed Narrative Sentences Signposting This chapter looks review the relevant literature on_____, beginning with _____, moving on to _____, and concluding with _____. In the first section, I look at the literature on ____; the second section examines ___; and the literature review concludes with a look at _____. In the next section I look at____ / The next section looks at ____ Topic / Synthesis statements While most of the studies on [topic] _____, a few of them ____. While it’s generally true that _____, there are exceptions such as _____ Conclusion / Implication statement What this review of the literature suggests is that_____. One implication of this literature review is ______. There are several possible conclusions to draw from this literature review.