Planning and Writing a Literature Review
Matthew Cook
Session Aims
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To Explore the Purposes of a ‘Literature’ Review
To Identify Sources to be used in a review
Ensuring Internet searching is done well
To look at ways of Structuring your Review
Based upon Ch7 of Doing Postgraduate Research
Purposes of a Literature Review
– You know about subject
– You can review your area critically
– You have used existing knowledge
to focus your research question
– You have used existing knowledge to chose your
research method/approach
– You have something to compare with you own results
• Look at Woodley review
– What purposes does this fulfil?
– Other impressions.
Sources
• Journals
• Conference Papers and
Proceedings
• Books
• Practitioner documents &
reports
• Other students’
dissertations and theses
• Government documents
• Dictionaries
• Newspapers, TV and
Radio
• Websites
• Visual materials
– Plans
– Designs
• Grey literature:
– Company reports
Trade literature
Unpublished research
documents
• Exhibitions and
performances
• Statistics and market data
See DPGR Ch 7.3
Internet Searching
• Use the internet properly Library provides advice
• Check Sources:
– Does the information seem
– Use to identify primary source
reasonably objective? Is there
– 5 Ws: who, why, where, what
an underlying marketing or
and when?
propaganda motive?
– Is the author (or their institution) – How current is the information?
known and respected in this
Is it properly dated?
field?
– Rather than a general web
– Is reference made to other work
search, look for related links
in this field and in a proper way?
from websites or blogs you
already trust
Further advice
– Library (and MRes course) will advise
– BBC website has useful Webwise site on reliability. This is at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce/articles/browse/goodsites_1.shtml
(accessed 28.10.13)
– There is also the OU safe computing website for more general issues at:
http://safecomputing.open.ac.uk/
(accessed 28.10.13)
People and Networks
DPGR Ch 7.5
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Authors
Practitioners
Journalists
Media Researchers
‘Stakeholders’
• Contacting People
– Conferences
– Interviewing
– Run a Workshop
– Give a Seminar
– Start a blog/tweets or join
a discussion list
– Other ideas??
Activity
• Make a list of the people and organisations who
might be interested in the results of your research
Keeping Organised
DPGR Ch 7.5
• Vital – can be immense
timewaster if not
• Fully record sources
• May use same source for
different purposes
• Bibliographic packages available
(Endnote etc)
• See DPGR Ch 7.5
Research Journal
• Endnote allows you to keep
notes of references, but you
also need to keep a record of
how your research and thinking
develops
• Make it reflective
• Key resource in writing up to
explain rationale for research
and your learning processes
Structure for a Review
• Often structured by your research
process stages:
– 1: Project aims
– 2: General subject background
(‘wide and thin’)
– 3: Focus on work in specific subject area – major
part (subdivided by categories – ‘deep and narrow’ or
‘drilling down’)
– 4: Key issues identified from the literature that
needs researching
– You may split this up in your thesis (e.g. by stages in
your project (policy review, practice review, theory review)
or a detailed methodology review may be in methods
chapter)
Review Structure
• Structuring more focussed
section can take a number of
approaches:
• (a) Chronological
• (c) Ways of understanding
– 1 Networks
– 1 Early history
– 2 Movements
– 2 1960s and 1970s
– 3 Practice
– 3 Recent developments
– 4 Organisations
• (b) Sequential stages
– 1 Market research
– 2 Market planning
– 3 Market decisions
Woodley’s review is chronological
but structured by emerging
understanding – a mix of (a) and
(c).
Create a ‘storyboard’
• Treat you literature review like a Powerpoint
presentation
• Make up 15 slides that structure what you need to say
• Alternatively draw a diagram with bubbles containing the
main points and then work out a sequence from that
Writing Style
• What makes an article/chapter hard to read?
• Create a flow or ‘storyline’ (sequence)
• Provide ‘signposts’
• “Pulling together” summary points where your writing takes any
new direction. Say ‘this is what I have discovered, the implications
are these and so we need to explore this, this and this to develop
our understanding further’.
• A good structure should set you up for a good
writing style
• Peer review
• Try doing a mini-review ASAP (e.g. a position or
discussion paper on an aspect of your research)
And Finally…..
• Start structuring some sort of review paper ASAP
• Don’t just list literature – learn to tell a story with it
• Be clear about why you are reviewing literature
– and keep that in focus
• Think about your reader
• ….particularly if they will be your examiner!!