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Title: Mastering Basic Skills in Reviewing Literature

Welcome to our guide on mastering basic skills in reviewing literature. Crafting a comprehensive
literature review is an essential aspect of academic research across various disciplines. However, it's
not without its challenges. Understanding how to navigate the vast sea of scholarly articles,
synthesize information effectively, and present your findings coherently can be daunting. In this
guide, we'll explore the fundamental skills required to excel in literature review writing.

Understanding the Purpose


Before delving into the intricacies of literature review writing, it's crucial to grasp its purpose. A
literature review serves several functions:

1. Contextualization: Providing background information on the topic under study.


2. Identification of Gaps: Identifying gaps in existing literature that your research aims to
address.
3. Synthesis: Synthesizing and analyzing previous research to develop a coherent argument or
framework for your study.
4. Critical Evaluation: Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of existing literature to inform
your own research.

Skill Development
1. Research Skills

Mastering research skills is the foundation of effective literature review writing. This includes:

Information Retrieval: Utilizing academic databases, libraries, and search engines to locate
relevant literature.
Keyword Selection: Employing appropriate keywords and search strings to narrow down
search results.
Filtering and Sorting: Refining search results based on criteria such as publication date,
relevance, and methodology.

2. Critical Analysis

Critical analysis involves evaluating the quality and relevance of existing literature. Key skills include:

Critical Reading: Scrutinizing the content of scholarly articles to identify key arguments,
methodologies, and findings.
Evaluation: Assessing the credibility, reliability, and validity of sources.
Identifying Themes: Recognizing recurring themes or patterns across different sources.

3. Synthesis and Organization

Synthesizing information from diverse sources and organizing it coherently is essential. This includes:

Note-taking: Systematically recording key points, quotes, and references from literature.
Categorization: Grouping related studies based on thematic similarities or methodological
approaches.
Developing a Structure: Outlining the literature review to ensure logical flow and coherence.
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Conclusion
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Similarly, there might be a lack of research regarding the impact of a specific new technology on
people’s mental health. Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 2005; 16:1.
Kirkevold M. Integrative nursing research — an important strategy to further the development of
nursing science and nursing practice. For more description of systematic reviews, including links to
protocols, checklists, workflow processes, and structure see “ A Young Researcher’s Guide to a
Systematic Review “. Oedipus Encountering the Sphinx Gustave Moreau - 1864. It’s important to
note that not every systematic review includes a meta-analysis but a meta-analysis can’t exist without
a systematic review of the literature. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and
conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and
conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself. Rather, the purpose here is to
reflect upon gaps in the current body of literature and to describe how and in what ways you
anticipate your research will begin to fill in some or all of those gaps. In the present context, the
notion of rigour refers to the reliability and validity of the review process described in section 9.2.
For one thing, reliability is related to the reproducibility of the review process and steps, which is
facilitated by a comprehensive documentation of the literature search process, extraction, coding and
analysis performed in the review. You can do the above without creating a specific table, through
annotating PDFs, or through creating different folders with notes. More importantly, though, you
need to explain how this impacts your expectations about what you will find in your own study.
Were the results effectively interpreted and reported. This chapter provides an overview to help
prepare you for this process. For the sperm whale project, one methodological approach would be to
look at cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in American, British, and French art
work. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate
the following discussion: However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents
are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (Gastil, 1990). There’s a lot of
ground to cover and it can be challenging to figure out what’s important and what’s not. Read ahead
to check to see if your predictions are correct. It is due in labs next week, but I strongly suggest that
you do the assignment as soon as you can while the info is still fresh in your mind. Like any other
academic text, your literature review should have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. A
literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related
to a specific topic or research question. The right structure will vary from study to study, depending
on various factors. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time
period. Three Types of Noun Clauses:. ? That -clauses: made from statements and introduced by the.
You Might Also Like: very good, as the first writer of the thesis i will need ur advise. This approach
should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified
and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. Some famous places of
interest in London. 3. Education in U. K. 4. Questions and Answers. A literature review can be just
a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both
summary and synthesis. Materials’. Check also Appendix 2 entitled “Systems of referencing”. For
example, certain countries, cities, cultures, etc. That is because the survey nature of the literature
review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. What are some
strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review.
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area. Importance of a
Good Literature Review A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in
the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both
summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. Even if we cannot remember
how we learned, as parents and educators we can do a lot to help children learn to read and enjoy
reading. If you are in doubt about how to approach a literature review, always follow up with your
rubric, syllabus, professor or teaching assistant. Galvan, J. L. (2009). Writing Literature Reviews: A
Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. What sources have they cited to support
their conclusions. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to a short text and selecting relevant
information. When you reach the point of having written all your paragraphs, you can revisit the
whole section and make the words tie in together more. Unleashing the Power of AI Tools for
Enhancing Research, International FDP on. For example, if you are reviewing literature about
inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language
barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access. These are just random examples, but as
you can see, research gaps can emerge from many different places. Analyze its literature review, the
samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions. Specify the research operations you will
undertake and he way you will interpret the results of those operations in relation to the research
problem. Find models Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline
and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research
or ways to organize your final review. This link opens in a new window Contact a Librarian Ask a
Librarian Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing
scholarly research on a specific topic or subject. Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the
repository for your citations. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on
a particular political party. Review the literature Some questions to help you analyze the research:
What was the research question of the study you are reviewing. This process can help you to develop
your own research skills, including your ability to find and use relevant sources of information.
Mollel Illustrator: E.B. Lewis. Skill: Character and Setting Genre: Realistic Fiction Author’s
Purpose. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the
topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A
research question is intended to accomplish one of the following purposes. University of Toronto
Health Sciences Writing Centre. To this end, the authors resorted to using narrative analysis and
synthesis to describe the effectiveness of handheld computers on accessing information for clinical
knowledge, adherence to safety and clinical quality guidelines, and diagnostic decision-making.
Download Word doc Download Google doc Before you begin searching for literature, you need a
clearly defined topic. For example, in the case of narrative reviews, there is greater flexibility in
searching and synthesizing articles ( Green et al., 2006 ). Researchers are often relatively free to use
a diversity of approaches to search, identify, and select relevant scientific articles, describe their
operational characteristics, present how the individual studies fit together, and formulate conclusions.
Opinions suggest bias currency Coverage Is good when you can view the information on the web
page without paying fees or having additional software applications. Essentially, this section of the
research proposal should be clearly tied to the specific objectives of your study; however, it is also
important to draw upon and include examples from the literature review that relate to your design
and intended methods. Play in children is so important because there are three ways children benefit
from it. They provide detailed and very helpful instructions on how to conduct each step of the
review process. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the
issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research
methodology.
The following sections present these components in a suggested template for you to follow in the
preparation of your research proposal. The tempo of background music influenced the pace at.
Regardless of which structure you opt for, each of the three components will make an appearance in
some shape or form. The relevance of systematic reviews to educational policy and practice. As
somebody who has knowledge in that field, they are able to guide you to where the gaps are for
investigation. This may include empirical studies or conceptual papers that initiated a line of
investigation, changed how problems or questions were framed, introduced new methods or
concepts, or engendered important debate ( Cooper, 1988 ). Finally, you can write your literature
review, drawing on what you have learned from the relevant literature. Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise
Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology
Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. The literature review usually comes
near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation. In a pictograph system, it means associating the
meaning of the words with written symbols. This is a serious academic offense that can result in a
failing grade or even expulsion from school. It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography,
where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each
source. The body paragraphs should each focus on a specific point or idea, and they should be
organized in a logical manner. History: The chronological progression of the field, the research
literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature
review is not already a chronology. How well do they present the material and do they portray it
according to an appropriate theory. Reviewing Literary Genres-with an eye for creative writing. For
each publication, ask yourself: What question or problem is the author addressing. The theoretical
literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to
what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be
tested. Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component
issues? 2. Read the following article prepared by our custom writing specialists and learn about:
process analysis and its typesa process analysis outline tipsfree examples and other tips that might be
helpful for your college assignment So. Dr. NN Chavan Keynote address on ADNEXAL MASS-
APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT in the. Therefore, the literature review will discuss only that
research which leads directly to your own project. Abstract The cognitive abilities and development
of academic skills are very crucial for the intellectual development process of a child. Literature
search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3. Data evaluation -- determining
which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4. Analysis and
interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature. Or the review might
focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. Teachers who are aware
of these reading approaches can tailor reading instruction to meet the needs and goals of English
language learners. Something to be conducted at the end of your research. This is important because
it allows you to focus your own research on filling these gaps. For example, a review that examines
literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the
research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of
these arguments in the literature. Here are some suggestions on how to approach the writing of your
literature review: Think about what questions other researchers have asked, what methods they used,
what they found, and what they recommended based upon their findings.
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. Be Selective Select only the most
important points in each source to highlight in the review. Typically you’ll cover a few things within
the theoretical framework: Firstly, you’ll need to clearly define the key constructs and variables that
will feature within your study. By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of
service and privacy policy. Materials’. Check also Appendix 2 entitled “Systems of referencing”.
Methodological If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of
research methods, you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different
approaches. We will explore these topics more in the next chapters. Sometimes in middle school, or
even high school, a child will have difficulty reading new words, and he will benefit from some
instruction in how to break words apart into their syllable parts for reading or spelling. Many student
writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they
are citing; here are some strategies to help you: It often helps to remember that the point of these
kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the
rest of your paper. The right structure will vary from study to study, depending on various factors.
The investigation found that brighter in-store lighting. A literature review is important because it:
Explains the background of research on a topic. Dr. Mark Matthews Student Learning Development
Finding your way in the woods. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate
the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant. Ten Simple Rules for Writing a
Literature Review Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience How to choose which topic to review. The
specific goals were to investigate how outcomes are produced and, most importantly, how variations
in outcomes can be explained. Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to
locate others. Complied by Susan Mumper 3 rd grade at HES. Home Page. Vocabulary
Comprehension Skill Daily task 1 2 3 4 5 Phonics Review questions. The Writing Center. University
of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. By statistically combining data from multiple studies,
meta-analyses can create more precise and reliable estimates of intervention effects than those
derived from individual studies alone, when these are examined independently as discrete sources of
information. After the introduction, it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to
your theoretical framework or methodology. A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a
summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research
question. What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus
popular sources)? 3. For the sperm whale project, one methodological approach would be to look at
cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in American, British, and French art work. In a
research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you
contribute. Writing Prompt: What distinguishes the writing in your discipline from other kinds of
writing. Importantly, narrative reviews can also be used as educational articles to bring practitioners
up to date with certain topics of issues ( Green et al., 2006 ). Recently, there have been several
efforts to introduce more rigour in narrative reviews that will elucidate common pitfalls and bring
changes into their publication standards. In the university, critical does not mean to criticise
negatively, but it needs you to question the data and the opinions in the text provided. Give your
interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred. In other words, your theoretical
framework should reveal some insights about what answers you might expect to find to your
research questions.
Be sure to read your assignment thoroughly before you read the article or book. Complied by Susan
Mumper 3 rd grade at HES. Home Page. Vocabulary Comprehension Skill Daily task 1 2 3 4 5
Phonics Review questions. Our Agenda:. Understand the tiering of words Distinguish between Tier 2
and 3 words Explore Tier 2 words in greater depth Activity. How does the publication relate to other
literature in the field. What might your study mean for future practitioners working in the field. Keep
in mind that UNC Libraries have research guides and to databases relevant to many fields of study.
A literature review has three main purposes: -To find out what is already known about a particular
topic or question -To identify gaps in knowledge -To inform the reader about the current state of
research on a topic In order to write a good literature review, you must first decide on your topic,
then find and read the relevant literature. The library runs workshops for introducing you to using
Mendeley, including how to import references and manage them. Reading can help build vocabulary
that helps listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly. Then, just as you would for most
other academic forms of writing, rewrite or rework the language of your review so that you’ve
presented your information in the most concise manner possible. Include only that material which
has relevance for your review and use direct quotations sparingly. It is important for teachers to
understand that reading has several parts and requires many different skills. Heterogeneity between
the included studies in terms of reported outcomes and measures precluded the use of meta-analytic
methods. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order
demonstrates a more important trend. We read to gain knowledge and understanding, and we read
for pleasure. The authors here recapitulate important features of Hamilton’s study, but then synthesize
it by rephrasing the study’s significance and relating it to their own work. The purpose is to place
research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify
the likely directions for future research. Analyzing and synthesizing data: As a final step, members
of the review team must collate, summarize, aggregate, organize, and compare the evidence extracted
from the included studies. This chapter provides an overview to help prepare you for this process.
Formalists emphasize the form of a literary work to determine its meaning, focusing on literary
elements such as plot, character, setting, diction, imagery, structure, and point of view. Andrew
Schaffner, ASCC Chair Susan Olivas, Associate Registrar. Having said that, we realize that the
methodological rigour of any review — be it qualitative, quantitative or mixed — is a critical aspect
that should be considered seriously by prospective authors. Hoboken, nj: Wiley-Blackwell; 2008.
Jesson J., Matheson L., Lacey F.M. Doing your literature review: traditional and systematic
techniques. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
without permission. An interesting approach for when we have a large amount of primary studies is
to have a researcher to extract data and another to check the data that has already been extracted.
Download Word doc Download Google doc Before you begin searching for literature, you need a
clearly defined topic. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below. In the course,
we walk you through the full process of developing a literature review, step by step. A literature
review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a
particular subject area within a certain time period. Sometimes in middle school, or even high school,
a child will have difficulty reading new words, and he will benefit from some instruction in how to
break words apart into their syllable parts for reading or spelling.
For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or
philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by
sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature. While this can be time
consuming, it is the proper way to undertake a literature review. The literature review gives you a
chance to: Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context Develop a
theoretical framework and methodology for your research Position your work in relation to other
researchers and theorists Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates
around your topic. What are the key concepts and how are they defined. Amnesty, Extricate,
Transient, Scathing,. Amnesty. Amnesty. Rate It! 1-4. Amnesty. Noun. Amnesty. Noun Many
political prisoners were freed under the amnesty granted by the new regime. Amnesty. Description.
Amnesty. Description. For instance, Levy and Ellis (2006) proposed a generic framework for
conducting such reviews. Because it seems to me that a mightily complex command-chain is
involved here. A reference list does what the name suggests, it lists the literature you referenced in
the body of your research proposal. Darlow and Wen (2015) provide a good example of a highly
structured narrative review in the eHealth field. For instance, in the humanities, authors might
include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews,
whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature
reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. The
author-conducted research is empirical, qualitative and phenomenologically designed, uniquely
enabling children to describe their play therapy experiences and identify factors that influence these
experiences. Must include a team of at least 2-3 and includes the critical appraisal of the literature.
Works consulted We consulted these works while writing this handout. They determine what
information will be extracted from the articles that will be analyzed, which we call primary studies.
Key Takeaways To recap, the three ingredients that need to be mixed into your literature review are:
The foundation of theory or theoretical framework The empirical or evidence-based research As we
mentioned earlier, these are components of a literature review and not (necessarily) a structure for
your literature review chapter. Authentic reading material can often be found by the learners
themselves, who have written pieces to share with each other. 7. Extensive reading for a sustained,
uninterrupted period of time is not only valuable for developing vocabulary but is also an important
way to develop reading proficiency and language acquisition in general (Grabe, 1991; Krashen,
1993). Methodological If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a
variety of research methods, you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge
from different approaches. Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your
sources. What is changing over time or over different situations? 2. But if you find yourself wanting
to put in more quotes, check with your instructor. A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not
just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research
question. Literature search. Retrieve other articles based on data from your dataset Check the lists of
references in those articles. While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you
devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for
and evaluating. In other words, your theoretical framework should reveal some insights about what
answers you might expect to find to your research questions. Give your interpretation of how and
why certain developments occurred. What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites). Lit
reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. The most
respectful and adorable person on this earth is “Mother”. A literature review surveys academic
knowledge on a topic. Having said that, we realize that the methodological rigour of any review —
be it qualitative, quantitative or mixed — is a critical aspect that should be considered seriously by
prospective authors.

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