Wednesday 18th April 2018

Mentor: Prof Antoinette Tordesillas, School of Mathematics and Statistics

This week Antoinette gave us an introduction to reviewing literature, here are some key points:

 

1.     What is a literature review?

It is the discussion of published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. It can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis.

2.     How is a literature review different from an academic research paper?

The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a literature review, however, the aim is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

3.     Some strategies for writing a literature review:

  • Cover the basic categories

  • The content of a literature review can be separated into following sections:

    • Introduction
    • Body
    • Conclusions/Recommendations
    • Organizing the body
  • Typical ways of organizing the sources:

    • Chronological
    • By publication
    • By trend
    • Thematic
    • Methodological

4.     In order to begin composing:

  • Use evidence
  • Be selective
  • Summarize and synthesize
  • Keep your own voice

5.     Finally, REVISE … !!!