Chapter 3 Flashcards
Two kinds of literature review
First
Goes along with the initial search for research ideas, because thats when you browse through piece if work and judge which ones are relevant and which ones are not
Second, known as critical review
Able to show the significance of a research project it is necessary to understand the subject field and it concept, ideas and key theories,
‘Critically reviewing literature’ if they choose pieces of literature that are relevant for research
Critical review
-be a constructively analysis that critically develops a transparent argument about what the chosen literature tells you about a research question
Not simply summarize, what the piece is about
Necessary to evaluate what is significant to the research project and what is not
Goal of critical review
-enables you to generate the foundation on which a research is based
Deductive approach, develop a theoretical or conceptual framework and you test afterwards using data
Inductive approach, analyses the collected data to subsequently develop theories from them and relate them to the literature
Difference, inductive, you dont start with predetermined theories and conceptual framework
Three ways of using literature
1 using literature in the initial stages of a research, when making research proposal
2 using literature to provide the theoretical framework and context
3 to help place research findings within the wider body of knowledge
Purpose of your review
- refine research questions further
- highlight research possibilities
- discover recommendation for further
- avoid repeating work
- sample current opinions in eg paper
- discover/provide insight
Literature review
Review in which one makes reasoned judgement about the value of pieces of literature
Necessary to:
-organize valuable ideas and findings
Critical review is succesful
If
It will provide new insights about subject area that no one has ever thought about
Necessary to show, how new findings and developed theories relate to literature about your subject to demonstrate that you are familiar with what has already been said about the subject
Critical view of your reading
-Previewing
Browsing the text to found out whats its purpose
-Annotating
Conducting a analogue with yourself, the author and the issues at stake
-Summarizing
Able to explain/state the text in your own word
-Comparing and contrasting
How has your thinking been altered by this reading
-Use your research question
Qs which you asked yourself during reading which are linked to your research questions
Content of critical review
Eventually have to appear in a project report,
Has to include an evaluation of the research that has already been done in the subject area, demonstrate and discuss the relationship between published research finding and refer yo the literature in which they were reported
Present the keypoints and trends in a structured way and show relationship with the research, by doing this the readers will have background knowledge to the research qs
Content of a critical review one needs to:
- include key academic theories within the chosen research area
- demonstrate that your knowledge of chosen area is up to date
- through clear referencing, so they can find the original publication which you cite
Four aspects of a critical approch
Critique of rhetoric
Critique of tradition
Critique of authority
Critique of objectivity
Critique of rhetoric
Means appraising or evaluating a problem with good and effective use of language.
Being critical also means making a clear and justified analysis of the key literature or a research project.
For your review to be critical, you will need to have shown critical judgement
Literature review
A literature review is a critical analysis and description of what other have written.
Helpful to address to literature review as a discussion of how far existing literature goes in answering the chosen research questions.
-should point out the limitations of the existing literature
Three common review structures
One single chapter
A series of chapters
Throughout the project report while tackling various issues
Review should be a funnel in which you
1 start at a general level and narrow it down to research questions and objectives
2 provide a brief overview of key ideas and themes
3 summarise, compare and contrast research of the key writers
4 narrow down to highlight research most relevant to the research
5 provide detailed findings and show how they are related to the literature
6 highlight aspects, where your research is providing new insights
7 lead the reader to subsequent sections of your project
Information flow
Information flow become less detailed and authoritative but more easily accessible
Recognizing this flow will help identify appropriate sources you need
Three categories available literature sources
- primary
- secondary
- tertiary sources
Primary literature
First occurrence of piece if work
Include public sources as reports and documents, but also unpublished work such as letters and memo’s
- very detailed
- difficult to trace not easy to access
- referred to as grey literature
Secondary literature
Subsequent publication of primary literature
Aimed at wider audience
Easier to locate than primary literature
Better covered by tertiary literature
Books, journals and newspaper
Tertiary literature
Also called search tools
To locate or introduce primary and secondary literature.
Online search tools, databases, and dictionaries. Major use is in conducting a literature search
Refereed academic journals
They only publish articles which are evaluated by academics before publication. These articles are therefore characterised by their quality and suitability.
Professional journals
Professional journals are made for their members by various organisations.
Their articles are usually more of practical nature than those of refereed academic journals.
Secondary literature sources
Journals
Refereed academic journals
Professional journals
Books and monograph
Newspaper
Journals
Essential literature source for virtually any research, since they provide a researcher with information which focussed on his subject area
Nowadays it is easy to access journals via online databases
Books and monographs
Written for specific audience, use of intro source to help clarify your research question and objectives or research methods, out of date
Newspaper
Statistic info, may contain bias in their coverage
Primary literature sources
Reports
Conference proceedings
Theses
Reports
Difficult to gain access, try asses the authority of author, and beware of personal bias
Not well indext by 3
Conference proceedings
Also called Synposia
Unique titles, not well indext by 3
Theses
Are unique
Detailed information
Only for research degrees
Difficult to locate when found to access
Prevents information overload
Important to have clearly defined research questions, objectives and outline proposal.
Search strategy which include
- the parameters of the search
- key word and search terms
- the database and search engines you’re going to use
- the criteria to select relevant and useful studies
Defining parameters
Search for parameters
-browse lecture noted and course textbook and make noted for research questions
If students say ‘there is nothing written on my research topic’, the parameters are too narrow
Generating search term/keywords
Important to read articles from;
- key authors as well as
- recent review articles in the area of research. They are sometimes helpful to refine search terms, plus they will sometime refer to other work which may be relevant to your project
This will help generating key words.
Definition of search terms
Definition: basic terms that describe research questions and objectives and shall be used to search the tertiary literature
The identification of search terms is an essential part of planning a search for relevant literature
Different techniques for generating search terms are
1 discussion, will help you to refine and clarify your topic
2 Initial reading, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and thesauruses
3 search on Google with ‘define: (enter term)’
4 brainstorming
5 relevance trees: constructed after brainstorming
Relevance tree
Enables you decide
- which keyword directly relevant
- which areas search first, and which later
- which are more important (more branches)
To construct
1 research qs/objectives on top level
2 identify subject areas that are important
3 subdivide each subject area into subareas
4 divide subareas into more precise ones
5 see which ones need the focus and search
6 while reading/processing add new areas
Conducting literature search can be done by:
1 using tertiary sources
-citation index
-abstract, same info as index
but + summary of article
2 obtaining literature referenced in book and journal you already read
3 using the internet
4 scanning and browsing secondary literature in the library, important to keep full details of the literature you have scanned and browsed
5 searching the internetWhen making noes, there are three sets of info one needs to record:
- bibliographic details
- brief summary
- supplementary info
