This document provides an overview of academic writing workshops focusing on literature reviews and methodology. It discusses what a literature review is, why it is important, and when to start. It also addresses potential challenges in conducting a literature review like time constraints and accessing resources. The document reviews developing a research question, types of literature reviews, and how to structure a literature review. It provides tips for reading literature, citing sources, and searching for sources. The document also touches on grounded theory, mixed methods approaches, triangulation, and ethical approval.

1. Academic Writing Workshop
(Literature Review & Methodology)
© Bhanu Bhakta Acharya
University of Ottawa
June 2, 2018

2. 5W1H questions
• What is a lit review?
– It demonstrates how the present study advances, refines
and revises what is already known.
• Why lit review?
– To determine what has already been done related to your
topic
– To analyze strengths and weaknesses of existing studies
• When should I start?
• From where should I start?
• Who should I depend on?
• How should I make it possible?

3. Possible challenges
• Time constraints
• Resource limitations
– Human vs budget
– Access to digital resources
• Intellectual scope
– Undergrad paper
– Journal papers
– Dissertation
– Credit score/marks
• Research population/samples.
• Other factors:
– Technical difficulty
– Political circumstances
– Socio-cultural practices
– Lack of inspiration

4. Research Question
• Impact of social media
– Which social media? Twitter
– What? Politician’s tweets
– Of where? Nepal
– When? During the general
election 2074
– IMPACT on what? News-
making in print media
• Now your thesis topic is:
– IMPACT OF POLITICAL TWITS
IN THE NEWS MAKING BY
NEPALESE POLITICIANS
DURING THE GENERAL
ELECTION 2074: A CASE OF
PRINT MEDIA
• Specific question
– Not too broad, not
too narrow
• Only one question,
and sub-question(s)

6. RQ is dynamic
• You may have an idea in mind,
based on which you formulate an
RQ.
• But your literature review shapes
up your RQ
• The more you study, the better you
formulate your RQ with a sharp
focus.
• When you identify a clear research
gap, and formulate your RQ, you
proceed to methodology and data
collection.

7. Type of Lit Review
• Theoretical foundations
– Mostly used in journal articles.
– To explore the significance of previous works
– To familiarize researcher about the scope of the research
– To offer a scholarly critique/argument
• Thesis review (Grad/undergrad)
– Organize and synthesize understanding of student
– Works as an evidence of student’s rigorous research
– It welcomes students into scholarly tradition
• Stand-alone Literature
– Presents an overview of the research scenario in a given field
– Analyzes the trends of current research
– Identifies gaps in a current research
– Provides a framework for research angle/position
– (Okoli & Scharamm, 2011)

8. Systematic Lit Review

10. ProQuest Database

11. Literature review
• It is not a summary of other’s articles/thesis that
you are looking for. It is an argument.
• What to mention?
– Author, his/her research articles, when, what context?
what is the research population, what is the main
argument? Is this his argument? Or the summary of
someone’s argument? (if other’s, see original work)
• Literature must be recent, authentic, and relevant
to your study.
• It should be manageable within a given time.

12. Example
• Bentham’s Utilitarian theory
– (a) any action is morally right
if it maximizes happiness (i.e.,
act consequentialism);
– (b) any action relating to the
wellbeing of individuals
should be evaluated based on
its consequences (i.e.,
welfarism); and
– (c) regardless of how a
resource is distributed to
concerned individuals, it is
morally good if it maximizes
welfare [goodness over
badness] (i.e., sum ranking)
(Bentham, 1772)
• Rawl’s Justice theory
– each individual, regardless of
physical or socio-economic
disparities, should have the
same rights, the same basic
freedoms, and the same
opportunities (Rawl, 1971).
• Sen’s Capability approach
– Rawlsian theory of justice fails
to properly acknowledge
crucial differences such as
disparities between
handicapped and non-
handicapped among
individuals (1999).

13. Structure of the Lit review
• Introduction
• Background
• Evolution/development
• Scholarly arguments (thematic units)
– At the end of every unit, don’t forget to explain why this
discussion important for your study
• What is missing?
• Why is the missing part important?
• What are your research question/ sub-questions?
• How can this contribute to originality of knowledge
• Conclusion (no repetition)

14. Chapter writing
• Make a loose plan of sub-chapters
– What goes first
– What next1
– What next2
– What next3
• Begin with any section that you are comfortable
– When all sections filled up, reorganize them
– Lit review conclusion section must identify gaps in the
current research and formulate research question
– Your research question must go further than existing
research
– So, do not forget to assess researches of at least 10 yrs.

15. Theoretical framework
• Which theory to be used to interpret the data
results?
• For example, your research topic is “media
propaganda in Nepal’s election campaigns of
2017.”
• RQ: How were the print media outlets published
from Kathmandu politically manipulated during
the 2017 federal and provincial elections?
– Any of these theories can be a theoretical framework
(a) Agenda setting, (b) Spiral of silence theory, (c)
Magic bullet theory

16. In-text citations
• Short quotes
• Long quotes
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had
difficulty using APA style, especially when it
was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had
difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what
implications does this have for teachers?
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA
style, especially when it was their first
time citing sources. This difficulty could
be attributed to the fact that many
students failed to purchase a style manual
or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

17. Word choice: Author’s arguments
• Neutrality
– Comments
– Describes
– Illustrates
– Notes
– Compares
– Dis-agrees
– Highlights
– Emphasizes
• Argument
– Maintains
– Argues
– Claims
– Contends
– Insists
– Asserts
– Protests
– Affirms
– Alleges
• Suggestion
– Concludes
– Finds
– Infers
– Implies
– Predicts
– Proposes
– Reveals
– Speculates
– Suggests
– Considers

18. A glimpse of past work

19. Connecting similar studies
simultaneously

20. Every sentence must show that it’s not
your own voice, but of author’s

21. Tips for reading
• Identify arguments, not summary of the book.
– Researcher’s name (year of publication), his research title (book,
journal article, etc.) or theme, what he researched? What he found?
Why this important for your research.
• Do not read the whole book
– Identify the right chapter, right section (e.g. conclusion)
• Do not read the whole research article (read abstract, if relevant,
read RQ; if relevant, read methods and conclusion. If relevant, you
can re-read the whole article more than once
• Do not copy other’s use of secondary source. Go to the original
source. You may have different perspectives. (According to McQuail,
2011… means you must have seen the original text.)
• When you introduce new author(s), you must briefly introduce him
with his works, contribution and the relevance of his work to your
study.

22. Tense: Present vs Past
• Past tense: something that author has found in a
given date
• Haight et al., (2014), for example, found that the majority of
people comprising the roughly 20% of Canadians who are
not connected to computers and/or the Internet are recent
immigrants.
• Present tense: something that is author’s
conclusion, or a message that is still effective
• These authors warn that the persistence of such a
pronounced gap, can serve to further marginalize recent
immigrants who continue displaying limited abilities to use,
or a total lack of engagement with, online public services
(Haight et al., 2014).

23. Where & how to search
https://scholar.google.com/scholar
?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=&btnG=
#d=gs_asd&p=&u=
https://scholar.google.com/

26. Referencing App
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-aeSe4gjv0

27. • Original (“Quoted”, and in-text citation)
• Paraphrased (other’s ideas written in your own
words, not copied, and sourced)
• Plagiarism
– Other’s ideas written in your own words, but not
sourced.
– Other’s ideas written in their own words but not
quoted, but cited
– Other’s ideas written in their own words, not quoted,
not cited.

28. Your sources
• Cite as you write
• Make sure your source is authentic, credible
and scholarly
– Avoid personal websites and blogs
– Avoid essays and book summaries
– Wikipedia is fine to begin with but avoid using as a
source of your citation.

29. Common errors
• Writing summary, not arguments
• Narrating a history of the topic, not identifying
issues, and arguments
• Lacking a clear structure, flow and logical order
• Trying to read everything, regardless of quality of
the source, and relevance of your topic
• Reading but not writing/noting with source
• Not recording bibliographic information

30. Resources
• Grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990)
– https://www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapter
s/9780335244492.pdf
• Mixed method approach (Creswell, 2014)
– https://sbsrc.unl.edu/Introduction%20to%20Mixe
d%20Methods.pdf
• A case study research (Yin, 2009)
– http://www.madeira-
edu.pt/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Fgm4GJWVTRs%3
D&tabid=3004

31. Resources
• Prude Online Writing Lab
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
• APA Sample paper
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/200902120
13008_560.pdf
• Literature review
• https://uq.edu.au/student-services/pdf/learning/lit-
reviews-for-rx-students-v7.pdf
• APA Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVlsbN99LIQ

32. Ethical Approval
• Research Ethics
Board
• Informed consent
• How collect info
• How to protect info
• How to destroy info
http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/archives/tcps-eptc/docs/TCPS%20October%202005_E.pdf

33. Mixed methods approach

34. Triangulation

35. Data/Methods

36. Grounded theory