The presentations in this week’s videos elaborate on what literature review is and what it is not. One of the highlight points posit that literature review is not an essay or a research paper but rather a standalone product or a segment of a research paper. According to EnglishforUniversity (n.d), literature review does not prove, illustrate, state, or develop a dissertation’s main points neither can it be used to provide the development section of a research paper. Literature review is a piece of work that discusses what authors’ think about a topic and gives a foundation of one’s research. Literature review lays emphasis on major works published on a narrow research topic. The piece examines, peer reviewed and published sources for example journal articles on a researcher’s area of study ( EnglishforUniversity , n.d). It a prerequisite that the sources selected should be congruent with the narrow topic. The researcher engages in a review of materials selected with an intent of developing a cogent literature review. Review involves examination of the selected sources and taking a snapshot of them to capture major concepts, points and outcomes. The researcher has to show the relationship between the concepts identified by extracting major elements and indicating the correlation among them.
Formulation of literature review is meant to serve several purposes. First, literature review improves understanding of the area of study. Machi and McEvoy (2016) explain that the review enhances comprehension of the narrow topic selected by the undergraduate, master or doctoral researcher. Internalizing the research area builds a person’s expertise and background in a particular discipline. Second, a compelling literature review enables demonstration of knowledge in a particular subject. Through literature review, a researcher can give practical explanation of knowledge to a professor or instructor. Third, a researcher uses the review to bring readers up to date with current literature ( Ridley, 2012) . Literature review is a reader’s service that uses a timeline of past events to let the instructor know the key elements and major concepts.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Literature review is a piece of work that discusses what authors think about a topic. Review of literature is essential in giving foundation for one’s research study. A researcher uses the review to show readers (professor or supervisor), that he or she has undertaken background study about a topic. The piece serves as evidence of understanding of the most important issues around an area of study. The literature review ought to be centered on beliefs and tenets that a researcher has read about.
Conducting literature review requires adoption of a series of steps. The researcher should first find useful sources such as electronic journals or books. The second step involves evaluating the sources to determine the most relevant materials. The next stage entails making notes, circling and highlighting the parts which will be paraphrased. As Boote and Beile (2005) assert, the researcher ought to collate the authors who have complied similar information and contrast them with those who have articulated dissimilar literature. The eventual step entails using ones discretion to make a decision on the authors whose ideas align with the researcher’s findings and the one’s whose literature review lacks a solid foundation.
The format of literature review varies depending on the specific discipline and assignment. The review can be an end in itself, a preface to or a self-contained unit for undertaking primary research. As Taylor (2010) explains, it is a requirement in research proposals, grant and a chapter in dissertations and thesis in undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. The review is not a summary but a critical analysis undertaken on a segment of published scholarly work accomplished through comparison and classification of previous research studies or theoretical articles. The review is an extraction of the main ideas from authors.
Literature review has three subdivisions; introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction identifies and defines an area of concern or general topic thereby offering a vivid picture of the literature review context. The researcher identifies the published overall trends about a methodology, topic, evidence, gaps in research or conflicts in theory in the introductory segment. The introduction ought to explain the criteria used in comparing and analyzing literature and should establish the researcher’s point of view and scope of the study. According to Torraco (2005), the body categorizes types of literature depending on common dimensions such as qualitative versus quantitative methods, author’s conclusions, chronology, objective or purpose of the study. The segment provides summarization or articles of individual studies according to the importance of literature. The body provides readers with signposts and sentence summaries to improve analysis and comparisons. In the conclusion a researcher summarizes major contributions of articles and other significant studies to the subject of study under review ( Randolph, 2009) . The final segment ought to exhibit consistency with the focus established in the introductory segment. The researcher should point the inconsistencies, methodological flaws, research gaps and relevant areas for future studies ( The Writing Center University of Wisconsin – Madison, n.d). The concluding statement provides an understanding of the correlation existing between central areas in literature review and a larger subject, discipline, profession or scientific endeavour.
Reflection/Observation
I have acquired insights that direct quotes ought to be accompanied with the year of publication and page number. A researcher should make use of reporting verbs in literature review such as found that, reported that, and highlighted that to connect ideas. The review uses conceptual categories to recap, synthesize and reshuffle important information about sources. I have learned that a complete literature review has three segments; introduction, body and conclusion founded on the specific area of study. The literature review contributes to the understanding of the research problem under study. The review reveals the relationship, research gaps and points prior scholarship to avert likely duplication of efforts. Literature review follows several stages; problem formulation, literature research, data evaluation, analysis and interpretation ( Hart, 2018) . A researcher ought to use evidence, utilize quotes sparingly and be selective by selecting only the most important points. Synthesis and summarization should be confined within each thematic paragraph coupled with recapitulation of critical features of a research study.
Caution should be exercised when paraphrasing to ensure that the author’s opinions or information is represented accurately in a researcher’s own words. Writing literature review lets a researcher demonstrate skills in critical appraisal and information seeking. The review is usually organized around a research question and identifies areas of controversy in the literature. A researcher ought to consider review as a discursive prose organized into sections that present relevant theory, themes and trends. The most relevant and significant publications acts as the foundation of literature review by providing a comprehensive overview of a particular area of study ( Cronin, Ryan & Coughlan, 2008) . I have acquired new knowledge that literature review centers itself on explanation of how publications differ and an examination of how the scholarly sources contribute to the understanding of the specific area of study. An exemplary literature review ought to conduct a systematic examination of prior scholarly works and present an analytical summary relating to the particular research topic.
References
Boote, D. N., & Beile, P. (2005). Scholars before researchers: On the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. Educational researcher , 34 (6), 3-15.
Cronin, P., Ryan, F., & Coughlan, M. (2008). Undertaking a literature review: a step-by-step approach. British journal of nursing , 17 (1), 38-43.
EnglishforUniversity (n.d). How to write a literature review Part 1 and 2, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuJr0TVXy0o&feature=fvwrel
Hart, C. (2018). Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination . Sage.
Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2016). The literature review: Six steps to success . Corwin Press.
Randolph, J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation , 14 (1), 13.
Ridley, D. (2012). The literature review: A step-by-step guide for students . Sage.
Taylor , D (2010). Writing the Literature Review (Part One): Step-by-Step Tutorial for Graduate Students, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IUZWZX4OGI&feature=related
Torraco, R. J. (2005). Writing integrative literature reviews: Guidelines and examples. Human resource development review , 4 (3), 356-367.
The Writing Center University of Wisconsin – Madison (n.d). Learn how to write a review of literature, https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/reviewofliterature/ .
