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:
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Cover the basic categories
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The content of a literature review can be separated into following sections:
- Introduction
- Body
- Conclusions/Recommendations
- Organizing the body
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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 … !!!