2. Doing a literature review

3. Why do we read the literature?
Reasons for reading
Why do we read the literature?
How many good reasons can you come up with?

4. Why do we read the literature?
Many reasons, for example:
To stimulate our own
Ideas
Research
Theories
Experiences
Reflections
Questions
To find out about other people’s
To find:
problem areas,
unanswered questions,
potential solutions
To find:
factual information,
guidelines,
legal requirements,
procedures
To understand our field:
important issues,
controversies,
challenges,
relationship of theory and practice
links between ideas
research methodologies

5. Literature reviews: 3 main kinds
Leading to your original research project
Your review will prepare the ground for your own research project, which will answer the question
Review to answer research question
You will examine existing literature to find your answer
Review to provide overview of specific topic/area
This kind of review does not answer a specific research question, so much as address one like:
What are the different approaches/theories?
What is the current thinking/state of knowledge about _____?
How did we come to be where we are now?

6. Purposes
In all types of review you are proving your credentials, which means showing that you:
Know your field
Are able to critically evaluate the work in your field
Understand the issues and complexities
Can select, organise and present your material in a way that will enlighten your readers

7. Purpose: research project
The Literature Review puts your research project in context:
Shows why your research is important
Gives a state-of-the-art analysis to explain why this question needs to be answered
Highlights key issues, themes, debates
Positioning your research
Explain the foundations for your research
What theories and previous work are you building on? Why?
What are you rejecting? Why?

8. Purpose: research project
The Literature Review provides the background:
Make sure that readers know what is necessary to understand and appreciate
Your research
Your results
Your conclusions

9. Purpose: answering question
Show the importance of the research question and the need to answer it.
Pull together what is known/has been found in previous work
Strong emphasis on evidence base
Rigorous criteria for inclusion
Evaluate what is known/has been done
Rigorous criteria for evaluation
Provide an answer based on existing work
Indicate gaps if relevant

10. Purpose: ‘overview’ review
The literature Review allows your readers to make sense of this particular area. This is more than just reporting, you must shape the field:
Show what is important
Explain, highlight, subordinate, evaluate

11. Writing systematic reviews
These are often used in health, social care and related areas
A lot of useful information can be obtained from the website of the Social Care Institute for Excellence:

12. Mastering the literature
What are your concerns?

13. Critical Thinking is the ‘Key’
Question, Analyse,
Evaluate, Compare,
Prioritise, Select…
Critical analysis is important in a literature review, just as much as in an assignment.

14. Triple perspective
Look critically at each source from three points of view:
Evaluate each piece individually
Relate each one to the review as a whole:
Your research project
Your research question
The issues you are addressing
Compare each source to others you have read

15. Your job is to select and shape
Literature
Your ‘commentary’
1. Gather, analyse and evaluate all your source material
2. Select material, identify key themes/issues, and organise it for your reader: connect, highlight, subordinate.
3. Write it up, using language that makes clear:
your argument/analysis
your review structure (guide your reader)
the significance/importance of the material
links, similarities, contrasts between sources

16. Finding stuff The trick is to research widely but usefully
Follow up useful leads
Bibliographic search engines – read abstracts
Lists of references from articles you’ve read
Don’t get side-tracked
Keep checking that everything is relevant
Apply inclusion criteria (if appropriate)

17. Keeping records Database: e.g. Excel Manual: e.g. index cards.
Keep all your cards in an alphabetised box.

18. Step 1: Focus on the literature
Find out what is out there
Think about it critically. For example:
Explore ideas, find relationships
Identify the strengths of certain (key) studies, and assess the contributions made by researchers
Identify the limitations and weaknesses of particular studies or whole lines of theory/enquiry/practice
Identify key issues/themes/problems/gaps
Use it to refine your thinking

19. Evaluating individual studies
Looking at theoretical arguments: rough guide
Starting point = problem or issue
1. Someone else/existing theory or practice is ‘wrong’
Why it is wrong
Writer’s alternative + justification
2. Here is a problem we don’t have an answer to
Why we don’t have an (adequate) answer
Writer’s proposed answer + justification

20. Presentation of argument
Start with theory and justify:
I propose this theory/solution
These are the steps by which I get there
A) is the case
This leads to B)
which leads to C)
and so on...
Sum up: this is how I’ve shown that my theory is plausible
Lead step by step towards the theory:
Here’s the situation we’re starting from
Logical analysis leads us step by step
A) is the case
This leads to B)
which leads to C)
and so on...
Therefore this, my theory must be the case

21. Evaluating empirical studies
What kinds of issues will you explore? Talk to other people, explaining what you would need to evaluate and why (there may be subject differences).
Scope of the study
Theoretical underpinnings/tradition/approach
Methodology and type of data gathered
Analysis of data
Conclusions and supporting evidence
Limitations

22. Step 2: Take ownership What do YOU want to say?
What themes/issues/problems gaps do you intend to write about? Why?
What do you want to say about what you’ve read?
What message do I want to present?
What is my perspective on the issues?
What new light can I shed on the topic?
What do I see as most important?
What conclusions do I want people to draw from my study?

23. Research questions and projects
What answer did the literature give me?
What conclusions can I draw?
What led me to them?
What is the most convincing evidence?
Do I have any reservations?
What other relevant literature is there, e.g.
Weaker, less convincing evidence
Literature that takes a different/ opposing viewpoint.
Are there any gaps?
Research project:
How does the literature affect my work?
Things I agree with
Things I’m building on
Things I’m rejecting
Things we don’t know
Problems that need to be solved
How could my work affect the literature?
Why am I doing this research?
What will change because of it?

24. Step 3: Bring it all together
Organise your subject into different topics
These will make different sections of your review
Order them logically from the point of view of your reader
Everything should lead to your answer/conclusion
What fits in where?
How do your sources relate to each other?
What do you want to do with each source:
Discuss one source in depth?
Compare what several sources say?
Use the source/s briefly as support for a point?

25. Structuring your review
This is for your reader!
1. Have a clear idea of the information and message you want them to have at the end of your whole review
2. Have a clear idea of the information and message you want them to have at the end of each section and how that will build towards 1) above
3. Think logically about what they need to know before you go on to tell them something else
Remember: Everything should lead your reader logically to your research project/answer/conclusion

26. Within each section
You will probably need to present information/evidence in different ways depending on the nature of your material and the views of the relevant studies.
These two basic underlying patterns may be helpful:
Cumulative: when information from different sources fits together to build a coherent picture. Focus on helping people to understand the complete picture (or as complete as we have)
Distinguishing: when there are differing views/theories/ results/approaches. Distinguish between them clearly. Also distinguish your own work/comments from those of others

27. Cumulative writing Cumulative 1
Points fit together like building blocks
You are ‘telling the story’ of the subject-matter
The references tend to be ‘supporting cast’

28. Another cumulative pattern
A variety of different findings lead towards the same conclusion
Here, each source needs to be clearly identified, then synthesised by your commentary to make your concluding point
Relevance to your research project/your conclusion

29. Differing perspectives
Distinguishing
Text is structured to aid distinction
Who did what receives often more emphasis
Writer’s evaluations/comments are often more prominent
The writer’s viewpoint is clearly distinguished from those of others
Relevance to your research project/ your conclusion

30. Alternative comparison pattern
Where you want to make point by point comparisons/discussion between two (or more) ideas/approaches etc.
Relevance to your research project/ your conclusion

31. Putting references into your text
There are three basic ways to use other people’s work in your essay:
To quote it
To paraphrase what they said
To summarise or mention it briefly
Which one will you use least often?

32. Don’t quote too often So when should you quote?
When you are using someone’s definition
When you want to discuss exactly what someone said
When the precise detail of what someone/thing says is important – e.g. a law, policy document etc.
When someone has phrased something effectively and succinctly

33. Why paraphrase?
So that we show we understand what the author is saying
Because it is often easier to tailor the information so that it fits into our own writing – for example:
We use only what is relevant to what we want to say
We can highlight a particular aspect of a longer piece
It is easier to pull together data from different people
We can shape the material so that it fits into the flow of our own writing

34. Why summarise?
When the amount of detail the author gives is not relevant for your work you can sum up a few paragraphs in one or two sentences that give the central idea or opinion. This allows you to expand the point in your own way and include other viewpoints.
Remember: You don’t want to use up whole chunks of your review just repeating what other people said.