how to write a literature review in 3 days
Post on 20-Oct-2014
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Guide for students who need to write a first class literature review but are short on timeTRANSCRIPT
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How to write a 3000 word literature review in 3 daysMark Reed
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What is a literature review?
• A literature review is a type of essay• Summarises the key literature written on
a subject (rarely exhaustive)• A story that summarises material in a
logical order, composed of critical arguments, concluding with your own reflections on the most important insights that emerge
• Mainly based on peer-reviewed material (>50%)
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Literature reviews are easy
• Learn how to speed read – you don’t need to read every word of every paper you cite
• Stay focused on your question(s) so you can extract the key points
• Organise what you’ve read efficiently• Find a system to link key points together
into critical arguments as part of an overall story
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Day 1
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Day 1, 9.00-10.00: Scoping
• Google to expand list of search terms• Search via Scopus/Web of
Science/ScienceDirect• Sort by relevance
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Day 1, 10.00-17.00: Reading
• Screen your reading:• Read titles only, skipping less relevant ones• Scan read relevant abstracts• Download relevant papers, speed read intro,
results, discussion and conclusion, read slowly around key points
• Only read methods in detail for papers that are key to your argument or controversial (e.g. contradict mainstream view)
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Day 1, 10.00-17.00: Reading
• Create a database in Excel• Column A: topic/theme• Column B: author/year
• Copy and paste relevant sentences/paragraphs to cells in Column A• Use speech marks to ensure you don’t
confuse quotes with material you paraphrase
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Day 1, 10.00-17.00: Reading
• Create themes and sub-themes as you read• Sub-divide and combine themes as
necessary• Sort themes/sub-themes into a coherent
structure• Visual learners: mind-map• Kinesthetic learners: post-it note spider
diagram• Read-write/auditory: copy and paste themes
onto a single page in Word and sort (reading
them aloud for auditory learners)
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Day 2
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Day 2, 9.00-11.00: Create a map• Take a step back from your mindmap
branches, spider legs or list of themes:• Group into as few as possible major themes
(3-6), think what story you could tell to link these themes coherently (these become sub-headings in review)
• Think about what sub-themes fit under each of these major themes, and their order
• Number themes and sub-themes 1, 1a, 1b etc.
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Day 2, 11.00-13.00: Walk & lunch• Go for a walk, forget about work and let
your review gradually structure settle in your mind
• Try and get some distance from your work, so you can come back and see a bird’s eye view of your whole story in your mind, to check if it really holds together coherently
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Day 2, 13.00-14.00: Revisit structure• Revisit your structure (mindmap, post-its,
Word file) and make any changes based on insights from your morning’s reflections
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Day 2, 14.00-17.00: Plug gaps
• Identify gaps in your story and arguments and target additional reading to fill gaps
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Day 3
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Day 3: Write your review
• You now have a map you can follow to write your literature review
• Create sub-headings, go to relevant section of Excel file, re-read the material under that section and put into your own words, citing the literature it came from
• Add your own reflections to each section
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Day 3: Write your review
• Conclude: • Summarise your story, including key
arguments• Draw out your main personal reflections re:
what it all means and why it is important
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More information
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Contact me:
www.markreed.webeden.ac.uk