The document provides guidance on how to structure and write an effective literature review for a research paper. It recommends beginning with an introduction to the main topic and then reviewing major seminal works and the progress made since in a logical order. When referring to other authors, the clearest styles depend on the journal but may mention the author and year or focus on the findings. Limitations of previous work should be discussed constructively without negative language. Tenses should be used appropriately with the past for specific years and present perfect for general timeframes. The amount of writing when reporting literature can be reduced by focusing on the most essential details in concise sentences. The quality of the review can be assessed by ensuring familiarity with the state of the art

1. English for Writing
Research Papers
Presented By GROUP 15
NAME : MD. JAHEDUL KARIM
ID: C171070
5CM
1

2. 2

3. How should I structure my Review of the Literature?
Do I need to cover all the literature?
How should I begin my literature review? How can I
structure it to show the progress through the years?
What is the clearest way to refer to other authors?
3

4. How can I talk about the limitations of previous work
and the novelty of my work in a constructive way?
What tenses should I use?
How can I reduce the amount I write when reporting the
literature?
How can I assess the quality of my Literature Review?
4

5. We can use the answers to these questions to structure
our Literature Review
How should I structure my Review of the Literature?
What are
the
seminal
works on
my topic
?Do I need
to mention
these ?
What
progress
has been
made
since
these
seminal
works?
What
are the
most
relevant
recent
works?
What are
the
achieveme
nts and
limitations
of these
recent
works?
What gap
do these
limitation
s reveal?
5

6. You do not
need to cover
absolutely all
the literature
You need to
cover the
literature that
justifies your
research and
relates to it
As a researcher
,you need not to
blindly follow just
one path to reach
your specific
objective.
You have to be
open to other
possibilities
too
Do I need to cover all the literature?
6

7. How should I begin my literature review?
Structure of literature review should be these following
Introduction
to the main
topic
Briefly
reviews a
major
study on
this topic
Moves on
to the next
major
study
Mini
summary
and
Summarize
s the
findings
7

8. What is the clearest way to refer to other authors?
This will depend on your journal’s “Style Rules”, but is likely to
contain an element of flexibility. You can follow two style :
Change the
focus from
author to
findings
• style 2 :
In [ 5 ] Blinco found that Japanese
elementary school children showed …
• style 1 :
Blinco [ 1992 ] found that Japanese
elementary school children showed …
8

9. What is the clearest way to refer to other authors?
This will depend on your journal’s “Style Rules”, but is likely to
contain an element of flexibility. You can follow two style :
Create
variety
for the
reader
• style 3
A study of the level of persistence in school
children is presented by Blinco [1992].
• style 4:
A greater level of persistence has been
noticed in Japan [ 5 ].
9

10. How can I talk about the limitations of previous work and
the novelty of my work in a constructive way?
Should not
be present
in negative
language
Avoid the
adverbs such as
regrettably and
unfortunately
and the link
word moreover
Use in
addition ,
further,
furthermore
,also etc 10

11. What tenses should I use?
Use the present perfect to refer to ongoing situations.
• Many different approaches have been proposed to
solve this issue.
• So far researchers have only found innovative ways to
solve X, but not Y
Use present simple or present perfect to Introduce
the literature review .
11

12. What tenses should I use?
Use present perfect when talking about research that was
carried out at some indefinite time .
Must use the past simple when the year of publication is
stated and when state the exact date when something
was written.
• It has been shown that there is an inverse relation
between the level of bureaucracy in a country and its GDP.
• The year of publication is stated within the main sentence
12

13. How can I reduce the amount I write when reporting
the literature ?
In Original Version:
In the literature the use of
long sentences has also been
reported in languages other
than English
The use of long sentences
has been ascertained in
various regions of Europe
during the Roman period
Long sentences are known
to be characteristic of poor
readability .
13

14. Revised version :
Long
sentences
are a
characteri
stic of
poor
readability
Long
sentences
are not
exclusive
to English
Long
sentences
were used
during the
Roman
Period in
various
regions of
Europe
14

15. How can I assess the quality of my Literature Review?
To make a self-assessment , you can ask yourself the
following questions
Have I shown
that I am
familiar with
the state
of the art ?
Have I avoided
only
mentioning the
literature that
supports my
hypotheses?
Are the
papers I
have
mentioned
in a logical
order?
15

16. Have I selected a
disproportionate
number of
papers
from my own
country?
Have I removed
any
redundancy
when reporting
the
literature?
Have I used
tenses
correctly?
16

17. 17