Presentation that accompanies class on how to prepare a literature review for those writing a dissertation

1. PREPARING A
LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Why do a Literature Review?
 A literature review demonstrates to your reader
that you are able to:
 Understand and critically analyse the background
research
 Select and source the information that is
necessary to develop a context for your research

3. Furthermore…the Literature
Review:
 Shows how your investigation relates to previous
research.
 Reveals the contribution that your investigation
makes to this field (fills a gap, or builds on existing
research, for instance).
 Provides evidence that may help explain your
findings later.
 Provides wider knowledge of the field / subject area.
 Confirms or discounts any conceptions you have about
the topic.
 Ensures duplication of research is avoided.

4. What is a Literature Review?
“…a select analysis of existing research which is
relevant to your topic, showing how it relates to your
investigation. It explains and justifies how your
investigation may help answer some of the questions
or gaps in this area of research”
What it is not:
“a summary of everything you have read on the topic
and it is not a chronological description of what was
discovered in your field”

5. Literature Review Outline
 A longer literature review may have headings
this:
 Groups the relevant research into themes or
topics
 Gives focus to your analysis, by grouping
 (compare & contrast)
 Compare & contrast approaches,
methodology and findings

6. The Broad Specific Approach
Articles that discuss the
BROAD ISSUE(S)
Articles addressing issues
that overlap with your
specific topic
Articles directly
related to your topic.

7. The Broad Specific Approach
Briefly explain the broad issues related to your
investigation; you don't need to write much about
this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the
breadth of your subject.
Articles that discuss the
BROAD ISSUE(S)

8. The Broad Specific approach
Then narrow your focus to deal with the studies
that overlap with your research.
Articles addressing issues
that overlap with your
specific topic

9. The Broad Specific approach
Hone in on any research which is directly related
to your specific investigation. Proportionally you
spend most time discussing those studies which
have most direct relevance to your research.
Articles directly
related to your
topic.

10. How to get started
 Identify what you will need to know to inform
your research:
 What research has already been done on this
topic?
 What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to
explore?
 What other research (perhaps not directly on the
topic) might be relevant to your investigation?
 How do these sub-topics and other research
overlap with your investigation?

11. Note your own thoughts
 Jot down your initial thoughts on the topic: use a list
or a Spider Diagram to explore areas you wish to
explore further
 This is important, it prevents
 Unfocussed reading
 Irrelevant reading

12. Different Types of Literature

13. Which types of Sources to
read?
This is subject specific
 Human Sciences (Psychology, Social Science,
etc.)
 Primarily Academic Journal Articles - Preferable Peer
reviewed academic journal articles.
 Journalism
 Periodicals, reviews, articles,
newspapers, books
 Business
 Articles, case studies, reports,
Primary sources, books
Peer Review
process by which a
scholarly work (such
as a paper or a
research proposal) is
checked by a group of
experts in the same
field to make sure it
meets the necessary
standards before it is
published or accepted

14. How far back to go?
 Take direction from your lecturer/supervisor but
normally don’t do back further than 5 years
(unless it is a seminal piece of work)
 Due to the nature of the humanities (esp.
psychology) students can go back a little further
(+10 years).
 Business students should try and find the most up
to date information about their topic (+ 3 years)Seminal Work
Central importance to a research topic,
often because they report a major
breakthrough, insight, or a new and
generative synthesis of ideas.

15. Search Terms
 These are words/phrases that you will input into
either a free academic database “Google Scholar”, a
subscribed database “Academic Search Complete”
or a federated search tool “Discovery”.
 When reading books use search terms to locate
specific information by using the index at the back.
 You will primarily be consulting Academic Sources,
you need to use the most academic term to describe
your topic. Effect of Marijuana Smoking on Teenagers
Don’t
Use!
Teenagers
Do
Use!
Adolescents
And And
Weed Marijuana

16. What is an Academic
Source?
A source of information that is:
 Reliable
 Accurate
 Credible
 Recognised
 Based on research!

17. Where to Find Academic Sources?
 Many journal articles are now free because of open
access journals or institutional repositories.
 These will be displayed via a Google/Google Scholar
search
 In order to find good quality resources from Google try
doing a filetype:pdf search
“Marketing to Adolescents” filetype:pdf

18. Databases are preferred
 Subscribed databases via your library give you
access to 1000s for journal articles, case
studies, reports and more.
 Your lecturer/supervisor will expect you to
exploit the databases that your institution
subscribes to.
 You can access the college databases though
the “search all resources” or subject portal.

19. Read the Abstracts
 Abstract:
 Summary of journal article
 Contains the objective / purpose / context of the article
 Lets you know if the article is relevant to your topic.

20. Mind Map – Develop Your Understanding

21. What Articles do you use?
 Be selective – Only literature that is relevant to
your specific topic should be included.
 Review the abstracts to decide what should be
included.
 Ask yourself:
 Is this really relevant to my topic?
 Is it recent?
 Does it inform me about my topic?

22. Critical & Active reading
Description:
 Who is the author? – Credibility?
 What argument(s), findings, conclusions?
Evaluation – TAKE NOTES!
 What are the findings or main concepts of the article?
 What evidence is given to support the findings of the
article?
 Do many articles agree/say the same thing?
 Do some articles have difference findings /
conclusions?

23. How much to Read?
 You should be guided by how long your literature review
needs to be - it is no good reading hundreds of texts if you
only have 1,000 words to fill
 Try to set limits on how long you will spend reading. Then
plan backwards from your deadline and decide when you
need to move on to other parts of your investigation e.g.
gathering the data.
 If you keep coming across very similar viewpoints and your
reading is no longer providing new information – Stop

24. Writing the Literature Review
 Include Introduction and Conclusion.
 Use relevant themes or sub-topics to create a structure:
 Causes of Homelessness:
 Addiction
 Mental Health
 Lack of Affordable Housing.
 You can reference many articles at once:
 E.g. Research has shown that the causes of homelessness are
manifold, including addiction and mental health issues (Murphy and
Jones, 2013; Smith, 2010; Grogan, 2011; Taylor and Canning, 2011).
 Be concise and to the point!

25. Developing the Literature
Review
Analysis not description
 Critical analysis means asking yourself whether you agree
with a viewpoint and if so, why? What is it that makes you
agree or disagree?
 Test out your own views against those you are reading
about: What do you think about the topic?
 Does the evidence presented confirm your view, or does it
provide a counter-argument that causes you to question
your view?
 think about the methods used to gather the evidence - are
they reliable or do they have gaps or weaknesses?

26. Developing the Literature
Review
 Use each of your headings or themes to compare
and contrast the differing views put forward in the
relevant studies and explain how they relate to
your investigation.
 Your literature review needs to tell an interesting
"story" which leads up to how and why you are
doing your investigation.
 If you are writing a story which reads like one
thing after another, this is likely to be descriptive.
 If your story is comparing, contrasting and
evaluating the previous literature, you are on the
right track.

27. Analysis vs. Description
Descriptive
Summarises what other people have found
without saying what these findings mean for
your investigation.
Usually a chronological list of who
discovered what, and when.
Analytical
Synthesises the work and succinctly
passes judgement on the relative merits of
research conducted in your field.
Reveals limitations or recognises the
possibility of taking research further,
allowing you to formulate and justify your
aims for your own investigation.
Descriptive Example
“Green (1975) discovered …..”
“In 1978 Black conducted experiments and
discovered that….”
“Later Brown (1980) illustrated this in……”
Analytical Example
There seems to be general agreement on x
(White 1982, Brown 1980, Black 1978,
Green 1975). However Green (1975) sees x
as a consequence of y, while Black (1978)
puts x and y as….While Green’ s work has
some limitations in that it…., its main value
lies in….”

28. Literature Review and Your
Discussion
 Your literature review has two main purposes:
 To place your investigation in the context of previous
research and justify how you have approached your
investigation.
 To provide evidence to help explain the findings of
your investigation.
IT HAS A SECOND PURPOSE
 When you are writing the discussion of your findings, you
need to relate these back to the background literature. Do
your results confirm what was found before, or challenge it?
Why might this be?

29. Literature Review and Your
Discussion

30. Literature Review and Your
Discussion
 Your literature review starts broad, then narrows down to
explain how previous research has influenced your specific
investigation. The discussion starts by analysing your results,
explaining what they mean for the outcome of your study, and
ends by widening out to assess how these results might
contribute to your field of research as a whole

31. Tips for Writing an Abstract
 Think about:
 the most important info – put that first
 the type & style of language – should be same as the
original work
 the types of keywords that a research may use when
looking for an article on this topic.
DO DON’T
Put it in context Define terms
Be concise Include info not in your
actual assignment.
Use the same structure as
the original
Reference other works

32. References
 Ridley, D. (2008) The literature review : a step-by-step guide for
students. London: Sage. (Sage study skills).
 University of North Carolina (UNC) – The Writing Center (no date)
‘Abstracts’. Available at:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/abstracts/