Planning and Writing a Literature Review
Stephen Potter
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
These slides are on the Workshops’ website linked from VRE at
http://www.open.ac.uk/students/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
• Webites
• 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Unpublished research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
• 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!!
• Nov 5th - Fireworks?
• Nov 12th Research Design and Focus