In this video on writing the literature review
we're going to look at what a literature review is
we'll look at some of the language you can use to write your literature review
and we'll look at some example text
In the video, I'm going to ask you to do some reading
and do some considering of examples
so at times I'll ask you to pause the video
to think about some questions
or do some reading and to reflect
on some of the issues around
writing the literature review
First, some questions.
What is a literature review?
What is the purpose of a literature review?
and what does one consist of?
Stop the video now, write some notes
in answer to those questions
and reflect on some of the answers
as we go through some of the ideas in this video
First of all defining a literature review
Pause the video and read this definition from Ridley
There are three key things
I want you to take from this definition
One, there's extensive reference to related research
in your field
Two, connections are made between those source texts
that you draw on
And three, you position yourself
in relation to those works that you read
So, the literature review starts with the reading
and the person who needs to evaluate the sources is you
How do you do this?
One way is to consider the authorship
Who authored the research?
Are we talking about someone who's expert?
Is it relevant? Is it academic?
Does this person have standing in the field?
The other way you can judge
the type of sources you're looking at
is where they come from
and what we're looking for
are sources which are peer-reviewed
academic, expert, trusted, published and written
Here's a question, journal articles are often preferred
for literature review in an academic context ...
Why is this?
Think about that
The answer's in front of you.
It's because journal articles are peer reviewed
They're academic, they're written by experts,
they're reviewed by peers
of the people who have written them
that's why they're preferred
So, you've started the reading
now, there are some larger questions
you need to ask yourself as you're reading
and I'm not just talking about who wrote it
what they found, what they did,
I'm thinking about some of the larger critical questions
that you can ask yourself as you read
and here are some of them
Who are the researchers?
What's their reputation?
Do the findings support the research?
Are there any biases evident?
And perhaps the biggest one,
the biggest question ...
Is it applicable, is it relevant to your work?
The key thing is that the research
the critique, starts with the reading
So ... you've started reading
now you've got to think about how you can group your notes
how you can organise your notes
there are a number of different ways
it depends on your questions
You might organise them chronologically, by time
You might organise them by the perspectives of different authors
the positions taken, the schools of thought
the method, how they did the research
or, most commonly, you might organise it topically or thematically like an essay
So, it's really important to note that
whatever organisation you choose
it depends on your research question
and the aims of your study.
Ultimately, you have to synthesise the ideas
and respond to the text
So, a tip, create a plan
a sectioned plan
as a document and,
as you read,
take notes and import them
directly into the plan
so that you have a sense of organisation
and section as it happens.
On to the writing component of the review
There are two key elements
One is a descriptive or reporting element
where you talk about what happened
you describe what the author has found
what they discussed, what they did
It's an account
The second crucial aspect of the literature review
is an interpretive or critical element
the dialogue
where you ask and answer questions of the text
you analyse, you interpret, you synthesise
you bring together information
The second part is super important
because if we just stay at the first part
the descriptive reporting element
we run the risk of having our writing
grounded in a shopping list style of writing
where we're saying
'He noted', 'He found',
'She did this', 'She discovered'
It becomes a list of ideas
rather than an interpretation or a treatment of ideas
which is what a review is
So, how do we do this?
How do we move our writing
from the descriptive to the interpretive?
Look at this example
take 30 seconds to read it
and look at what's going on
What you can probably see
as suggested by the color we're using
is that the first part of this is descriptive
It's what Evans showed
The second part is interpretive
because we're saying here
Evans showed this ...
the method was successful
and this was significant because ...
Let's look at another example
Take 30 seconds to read this again
You'll see a similar thing going on
we have a descriptive element
Weng et al. out found something
and then an interpretive element
where Bruce argues why these findings were crucial
why they were important
So when we're using this language
'this was significant' 'this was crucial'
we're flipping the writing
we're moving it from descriptive to interpretation
the critical component
And there's language we can use to do this
language we can use to highlight importance
to interpret, to give us a voice
'This shows that,'
'This is important'
'This is vital'
'This points to'
And this language is important for two key reasons
One, it moves your writing from the descriptive to the interpretive
And two, it gives you a stronger writer's voice
it's you talking,
it's you giving interpretation
Another element of the lit review is responding with critique
So, let's look at another example
As I give you these parts of the paragraph
read through them and look at what's going on
it's a layered approach to writing
The first layer, again, shows us description
it's what Brent found
A second layer reveals some critique going on
and, again, we have
'was limited in its application'
this is some sort of deficit critique
showing a limitation of Brent's work
Then we have a third element
and what you can see here
is now we're offering a solution
'It may have been more illustrative to do X Y and Z'
And in a final bit to that
we have another critical part,
but this time it's a positive critique
'pivotal', 'longitudinal'
'multi facility broad scope study'
So we have layers to this paragraph
Description
Critique
Solution
Let's look at some of the language of critiquing
We can have deficit critique
where we're pointing out limitations to the research
asking questions or pointing out limitations
It's fantastic, once pointing out limitations,
if we can then move the writing into offering solutions
that's being critical
We also have strengths-based critique
where we're looking at a milestone study
or things which are significant or groundbreaking
or detailed or useful
this is the type of language which we can use
Let's look at another example
now pause the video
take 30 seconds to a minute to read through this
and develop some impressions
around this paragraph based upon that topic
'Resilience at the micro level'
okay
having read it
can we say that this paragraph is on topic?
Is it relevant?
It is.
Can we say that it's critical and interpretive?
It isn't
So what we have here
is a shopping list of descriptive ideas around the topic
Let's look at the same paragraph again
with some key differences
take 30 seconds to a minute
to look at the paragraph and look at the language
and see what's going on here
Let's have a look at this
now, we'll highlight some of the language
which looks at the interpreting and connecting
and you getting a voice
'she suggests that'
'this understanding is crucial because'
and we also have some positive critique going on here
it can be single words like 'pivotal'
or it might be things like 'successful and widely used'
'her research makes it clear'
'a key implication drawn from this'
What do you see that this language does?
It interprets, but it also gives a sense of connectivity
between ideas
This gives you the narrative thread in your review
So, again, what we want
is not just description
of what researchers found
or what researchers argue
what we want is review
and that is interpreting
connecting
and critiquing
To finish up with I'll offer you a checklist
Have I done these things?
Analyse your work, have you interpreted? Have you critiqued along with reporting and describing?
Have you written on topic?
Have you used your voice?
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