Literature Review Literature Review and and

Research PresentationResearch Presentation

compiled by D. Huicompiled by D. Hui

OutlineOutline

Part I. Elements of an Effective Literature Review Part I. Elements of an Effective Literature Review by D. Grant Allen, Pulp & Paper, University of by D. Grant Allen, Pulp & Paper, University of TorontoToronto

Part II. 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review Part II. 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review by Dr. Marcelo Castroby Dr. Marcelo Castro

Part III. Source of literature Part III. Source of literature by by Bob Brown , University of Ulster / Newry and Bob Brown , University of Ulster / Newry and Mourne HSSTMourne HSST

Part IV. Part IV. How to Give an Effective Presentation How to Give an Effective Presentation by Sue McCormickby Sue McCormick

Part I. Part I. Elements of an Effective Literature Elements of an Effective Literature

ReviewReview

D. Grant Allen

Some of the slides are modified by D. Hui

Literature ReviewsLiterature Reviews

Why?

What?

When?

How? & How Not?

“Researchers almost never conduct a study in an intellectual vacuum: their studies are undertaken within the context of an already existing knowledge base. Researchers generally undertake a literature review to familiarise themselves with that knowledge base”.

(Polit and Hungler, 2000)

Why Conduct a Literature Review?Why Conduct a Literature Review?

• Avoid “reinventing the wheel”– Learn from others in/outside your area– Know the ‘leading edge’

• Help define your objectives & hypotheses– Source for research idea, research approach– Justify significance (science, engineering...)

• Is your work asking/answering the best questions?

• Put your work in context within the field– Link in discussion section of thesis

• Agreement/disagreement..lead to conclusions

What’s In a Literature Review?What’s In a Literature Review?• Critical review of the “State of the Art”

relevant to your objectives

• Synthesis of relevant literature– Organized in appropriate topics– Not a sequence of abstracts!

Literature Review StepsLiterature Review Steps

• First step, on day 1 of thesis (paper)• Define your objectives (broadly) to know what

you are looking for• Collect literature of relevance

– Cast a ‘wide net’…go outside the obvious– Look to supervisor, theses, computer search, library,

main journals in your field– Find good keywords from articles

• Read title, abstract, paper, reread

Literature Review StepsLiterature Review Steps

• Take notes on articles, make a table– Table has columns with paper, main topics

of interest to you (e.g. methods, conditions, organism etc.), main findings, comments

• Update and review regularly!!– Review main journals monthly– Broaden as thesis direction evolves

Writing the ReviewWriting the Review• Start with notes/table• Brainstorm main thoughts/points• Organize points (not papers)

– Logical groupings and order• Points help form the ‘Topic Sentences’ for each

paragraph in the review• Write, Review, Edit, Review….

– Show to others– Review with supervisor

Topic SentencesTopic Sentences

• State the controlling idea of a paragraph– Rest of paragraph supports and develops topic

sentence with related details• Can come anywhere but is normally the first

sentence• Attention to topic sentences is a simple tool

that can improve writing• Remember one topic per paragraph!!

PlagiarismPlagiarism

• “To appropriate of pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own”1

• Growing problem with internet• An academic offence• Citing the reference at the end of a copied

(or mostly copied) phrase/paragraph is still plagiarism

• Use your own words

1The New Penguin English Dictionary, Penguin, 1986

ReferencesReferences

• Cite the original reference, not the reference that cited the original reference

• Go to the source article so you know what it said

• Be current and go back in time!!!– The 90’s..80’s…70’s…….20’s…

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks• Get started on the review and never stop• Cast a wide net• Revise objectives….let them evolve so you will make a

significant contribution• Be critical and synthesize• Remember topic sentences• Spending time on review is essential

– Basis for high quality questions (objectives/hypotheses) & answers

– Saves lab time in the long run

Part II. Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct Part II. Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Reviewa Literature Review

• Step 1: Identify Key Terms or “Descriptors”• Extract key words from your title

(remember, you may decide to change the title later)

• Use some of the words other authors reported in the literature

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review (cont’d)Literature Review (cont’d)

• Step 2: Locate Literature• Use academic libraries, do not limit your search

to an electronic search of articles• Use primary and secondary sources. A

“primary source” is research reported by the researcher that conducted the study. A “secondary source” is research that summarizes or reports findings that come from primary sources

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Step 2: Locate LiteratureStep 2: Locate Literature (cont’d)(cont’d)

• It is “best to report mostly primary sources” (p. 82)

• Search different types of literature: summaries, encyclopedias, dictionaries and glossaries of terms, handbooks, statistical indexes, reviews and syntheses, books, journals, indexed publications, electronic sources, abstract series, and databases

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review (cont’d)Literature Review (cont’d)

• Step 3: Critically Evaluate and Select Literature• Rely on journal articles published in

national journals• Prioritize your search: first look for

refereed journal articles, then, non-refereed articles, then books, then conference papers, dissertations and theses and then papers posted to websites

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review (cont’d)Literature Review (cont’d)

• Step 4: Organize the Literature• Create a “file” or “abstract” system to keep

track of what you read. Each article you read should be summarized in one page containing

Title (type the title so that you can later copy-paste this into the References section of your paper)Source: journal article, book, glossary, etc.

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Step 4: Organize the Literature Step 4: Organize the Literature (cont’d)(cont’d)

Research problem: one or two lines will suffice Research Questions or HypothesesData collection procedure (a description of sample characteristics can be very handy as well)Results or findings of the study

• Sort these abstracts into groups of related topics or areas which can then become the different sections of your review

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Creswell’s 5 steps to Conduct a Literature Review (cont’d)Literature Review (cont’d)

• Step 5: Write a Literature Review• Types of Reviews:

Thematic Review: a theme is identified and studies found under this theme are described. Major ideas and findings are reported rather than details.

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Step 5: Write a Literature ReviewStep 5: Write a Literature Review(cont’d)(cont’d)

Study-by-study Review: a detailed summary of each study under a broad theme is provided. Link summaries (or abstracts) using transitional sentences. Must be organized and flow coherently under various subheadings. Avoid string quotations (i.e., lengthy chunks of text directly quoted from a source)

Creswell, J.W. (2005) Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Part III. Sources of literaturePart III. Sources of literature• Own Books or Journals• Library Books• Library Journals

e.g. - Jour. Of Adv.. Nursing, Advances in Nursing Science, Applied

Nursing Research, Clinical Nursing Research, IMAGE: Journal of Nursing Scholarship - Nursing Times Research, Quality in Health Care- Nurse Researcher, Nurse Education Today- Nursing Standard

• Abstracts from other disciplines• Search sources

e.g. MEDLINE and CINAHL, CancerLit, PsychInfo

Identifying potential sources of research with Identifying potential sources of research with key terms and search opportunitieskey terms and search opportunities

• Your starting point – Libraryhttp://www.tnstate.edu/interior.asp?mid=71

• http://www.tnstate.edu/library/milcat/mildata.htm (databases)

On-line literature search key sitesOn-line literature search key sites

• www.windsor.igs.net/~nhodgins/literature_searches.html (Online Literature Search Workshop)

• Web of science

• Google scholar

Part IV.

What is an Effective Presentation and How to Give an Effective

Presentation Sue McCormick

Why Do You Give a Presentation

• Present your work

• Communicate your ideas

• Inform your audience

What is an Effective Presentation• Effectively present your work

audience understands the work

• Effectively communicate your ideas

audience understands your interpretations

• Effectively inform your audience

audience remembers

How to Give an Effective Presentation

• Analyzing the basics

• Preparing the presentation

• Giving the presentation

Steps to an Effective Presentation

Analyzing The Basics

• Audience background

• Purpose of your presentation

• Time

Analyzing The Basics

• Audience backgroundTerminology and ConceptsIntroductionContent and focus of presentation

• Purpose of your presentation

• Time

• Audience background

• Purpose of your presentationWhat do you want to tell your

audienceWhy are you giving this presentation

• Time

Analyzing The Basics

• Audience background

• Purpose of your presentation

• TimeRange of presentationDepth of presentationDo not go over!

Analyzing The Basics

Steps to an Effective Presentation

Analyzing the basics

Preparing the presentation

Giving the presentation

Preparing Your Presentation

• Outline presentation

• Prepare visual aides

• Write talk

• Practice presentation

Preparing Your Presentation• Outline presentation

IntroductionMethodsResultsConclusionsFuture Work

• Prepare visual aides

• Write talk

• Practice presentation

Outline PresentationIntroduction

Present background information that: Briefs the audience Peaks their curiosity Explains concepts and terminology

Method

Results

Conclusions

Future Work

Outline Presentation Introduction

Methods How you did the experiments Outline of procedure Diagrams of special equipment

Results

Conclusions

Future work

Experimental designExperimental design

5 m

Subambient CO2 tunnel Elevated CO2 tunnel

250 ppm

500 ppm370 ppm

370 ppm

Outline Presentation Introduction

Methods

Results

Analyzed Data

What does it mean

Conclusions

Future work

Outline Presentation Introduction

Methods

Results

ConclusionsBottom line for each experiment

Future work

Outline Presentation Introduction

Method

Results

Conclusions

Future WorkHow you will continue your research

Preparing Your Presentation

Outline presentation

Prepare visual aides

Write talk

Practice presentation

Prepare Visual Aides(Guidelines for Making Slides)

• Color schemeVisible when projected ?

• Fonts

2 is the limitstyle – Arial, Times New Romansize – 36, 32

• Be consistent

Prepare Visual Aides(Guidelines for Making

Slides)(Cont.)

• Title on every slideTopic of slide

• Brief statements

• No more than 7 lines of text

• Use bullets

• Presentation of data Numbers vs graphs

Preparing Your Presentation

Outline presentation

Prepare visual aides

Write talk

Practice presentation

Write Talk

As you write your talk:

• Adjust outline and slides as necessary

• Will the audience understand the

presentation?

• Am I saying what I think I am?

Preparing Your Presentation

Outline presentation

Prepare visual aides

Write talk

Practice presentation

Practice Presentation

• Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice out loud • Don’t need to memorize your talk• Modify text and slides as necessary

• Point to slideTurn laser on and off Do not wave the laser around

• Look at audience

Preparing Your Presentation

Outline presentation

Prepare visual aides

Write talk

Practice presentation

Analyzing the basics Preparing the presentation

Giving the presentation

Steps to an Effective Presentation

Giving the Presentation

• Breath deeply

• Be energetic

• Talk to your audience

Summary

• Thank you

• Good luck on your presentation

Class ExerciseClass Exercise

• Now you’re ready to formulate your own research question(s)

• Sample questions:– What make tropic forests a hotspot for diversity?– How does global warming influence coral reefs?

• http://faculty.tnstate.edu/dhui/biol4120/ for more topics

Research QuestionsResearch Questions

• From Topic to Research Question A good research topic asks a clear, concise question. Asking a research question helps you keep a tight focus on your topic.

• Tweaking Your Research Question A good research topic is broad enough to allow you to find plenty of material, but narrow enough to fit within the size and time constraints of your paper. – If your topic is either too broad or too narrow, consider adding or eliminating

the following elements:

Time Period, century, decade, future, Population Type, age, gender, nationality, species, Geographic Location country, state, region, Point of View economic, social, cultural, biological

Assignment. Components Assignment. Components

• Title Page• Nature of the Problem• Background and Significance of the

Problem• Literature Review• Research Questions• References (list three papers)