THE CENTRALITY OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Professor Dr Chan Swee Heng

Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication

....is an integrative activity of pre-dissertation master/doctoral education.

Writing a Literature Review

... is a prerequisite for increased methodological sophistication.

... is for improving the researchers usefulness in doing education research.

Literature Review is ...

Is not just an Annotated Bibliography or a summary. It can be a stand alone document but more often than not, it shows how you organize and present your sources in relation to your own project.

Contd Literature Review is ...

Defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis).

Tailoring the topic

You cant put off the selection of a topic until you have finished your courses. A researcher needs to think critically about what is in the field that he is researching. Then he has to embark on a critical reading of the related literature.

Writing the Literature Review

1. Have a clear statement of the research problem that guide your writing What is the purpose of my research? Situate your research to establish your expertise in this area. You do not need to read everything about your topic Read enough to be familiar Make sure you cover the definitive and seminal pieces (primary sources). Be able to name the authors known for their work in the area.

2. Mutual support
The literature review supports the statement of the research problem and vice versa. The statement of the research problem clearly defines the subject area investigated. The literature review shows that the research problem has received prior attention. It shows that further research is needed to resolve a gap.

3.Focus
You do not need to be exhaustive but you need to be thorough. It is wise to lump like-minded people together.

4. Address all possible key questions

Newcomers to your topic may ask many questions. Give enough for people to understand your research problem and the work that you are doing. Not so much more that the information become irrelevant.

5. Synthesize and summarise what is and is not known including relevant theory. You do not list all the material published, but is expected to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations.

6. Identify areas of controversy in the literature.

7. Formulate questions that need further research. James B. Fisher states, "To be EFFECTIVE, a literature review must be a CLEAR, COHERENT, and PERSUASIVE analysis of the current state of the literature."

8. A literature review is not just about enlarging your knowledge about the topic. Writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in: information seeking: to scan the literature efficiently and identify a set of useful articles and books critical appraisal: to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.

Guiding questions to evaluate sources : How did the author formulate his problem/issue? Is the problem clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, relevance) clearly established? Is there another better perspective to solving the problem?

 What is the authors research orientation? (e.g.,his theory, framework, beliefs)? What is the relationship between theory and practice? Is the authors literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature that addresses controversy if it exists

 How good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population, intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?

 Did the author list too much? A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. Its usually a bad sign to begin every paragraph with the name of a researcher. Did the author identify prevailing themes or trends in the LR?

 Hows the authors argument structured? Are you able to follow the flow e.g. in establishing cause-effect relationships? (See Handout 1)

SUMMARY
John Creswell on the literature review: (1) "It shares with the reader the results of other studies that are closely related to the study being reported"; (2) "It relates a study to the larger ongoing dialogue in the literature about a topic, filling in gaps and extending prior studies"; and (3) "It provides a framework for establishing the importance of [your] study as well as a benchmark for comparing the results of a study with other findings" (Creswell 29-30).

Linking literature review to other parts of the thesis

A reference to literature read can appear in any part of the thesis. The important thing is to be able to link information together logically and appropriately.

 In the introduction, you could give evidence to your claim about a situation. For example, if you claim that cancer is on the rise among women, are you able to back up your claim? A claim must be substantiated.

In the chapter on literature review, you begin to be more critical. You show : How you give credit to fellow researchers Membership conventions in the research community How you build on and take advantage of previous work Direct readers to relevant resources Update members on current status of knowledge in the field Steer future direction

 In the discussion section, it helps to link your findings to others that had appeared in the literature review. Show how it is similar and how it is different.

 In the Conclusion, you seek closure. You restate the important findings. You recommend future directions which can be supported by literature.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Writing a thesis is a weighted journey. Your literature review is central as it helps to start, develop, and end the journey. As you get into it, many signposts are needed to guide the reader to follow your thoughts and arguments. You need to make a lot of decisions and many of them are evidence-based to give validity to your study. These evidence inevitably comes from a thorough literature review.