Literature review: Research

Writing a good Literature review includes the following steps:

• Search for relevant literature

• Develop your research argument

• Identify themes and gaps

• Focussing on one article only

Characteristics of a Good Literature Review are

• simply summarizes sources

• only citing references that agree with your argument.

• define the need for your research problem

• none of the above

Which of the following is not a good reference.

• Google Scholar

• Wikipedia

• JSTOR

• arXiv

Why do you read for your literature review?

• To find out about the field of your research

• To identify a topic for your research

• To find out what has already been done

• To place your research in a context

• To find out about different research methods that you might use

Which are acceptable paraphrases/citations and which are not? Why/why not?

• A recent study (De Fries et al. 2002) has provided evidence that contradicts the Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) statistics. Whereas the FRA figures suggest that the speed of tropical forest destruction is declining, the research by DeFries et al. found that there had been a 10% rise in tropical forest clearing rates during the 1980s and 1990s, in particular in Southeast Asia.

• DeFries, R.S., Houghton, R.A., Hansen, M.C., Field, C.B., Skole, D.,and Townshend, J. (2002) found that, ‘overall, the rates of tropical forest clearing have increased by 10% during the 1980s and the 1990s. This is in contrast to Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) statistics that report declining rates. The increase is largely in southeast Asia, with only slight decreases found in clearing rates in Latin America and Africa’.

Conclusion and summary are the same.

• Yes

• No

What is plagiarism?

• The wholesale copying of another’s work and claiming it as your own

• Using material that is recognised as common knowledge in your field but copying the information word for word from a textbook.

• Rephrasing someone else’s original ideas and acknowledging the source.

• cited author’s exact words if making a direct quotation

Which of the characteristics below are appropriate for an effective summary?

• The same order of words as the source

• Simpler vocabulary than the original

• Different sentence patterns to the original

• Similar wording with some phrases exactly the same

In your literature review, you should NOT cite a

• book

• movie

• research-article

• website link

Why do we refer to sources in academic writing?

• To demonstrate your allegiance to a particular research community

• To provide justification and support for your assertions and arguments

• To give an illustration of how you have developed your argument

• To acknowledge and show respect for other researchers’ contributions to the field