Unit 4

Patten

Section 14 Reasons for Reviewing Literature

Currently published research may help form thesis or hypothesis.

Replication of studies

• strict
• modified

can also research to resolve a conflict

Reviewing literature benefits pg. 31

• identify measuring tools
• identify and avoid dead ends
• get ideas for organization

Section 15 Locating Literature Electronically

ERIC is a free database that is accessible from any computer.

Section 16 Organizing a Literature Review

To begin a literature review

• Identify the problem area and explain why it is important or
• give a conceptual definition

Go topic by topic through the review

Section 17 Preparing to Write a Critical Review

Literature Review should be critical review
2 mistakes

• taking all information in a piece of literature as fact
• treating all studies as equals with one another and as though they are better than your study

Things to consider when critically reviewing

• the sample population used
• measurement or instrumentation
• with experiments consider the control conditions

Section 18 Creating a Synthesis

Whole view of what is known and not know, put all the pieces together (pg. 39)

• move from sub-topic to sub-topic
• point out major trends
• point out major discrepancies
• point out gaps in the literature
• give an overview, don't go too in-depth
• use quotes sparingly because they break up the narrative

Cresswell Chapter 2

Create a draft title for your study early on

Literature review found in a journal article is shorter than that used in a master's thesis

literature review can be put into 3 different places

1. introduction - background for the problem
2. in its own section - mostly used with quantitative studies
3. mixed method study introduces literature through each phase in which it belongs

Steps in conducting a literature review

• identify key words
• start your search
• try to find at least 50 possible sources
• skim the initial group and use the best ones of those to find more articles
• creature literature map
• start working on summaries

Priority in selecting material

• look at summaries or abstracts
• look for respected and peer-reviewed journals
• consider books
• recent conference papers
• dissertations
• the Internet - but use this with caution

Literature map 

• visual representation of the research already done on a topic
• no standard way of doing it
• helps understanding of the literature at hand

Abstracting studies

items to focus on when abstracting a study (pg. 38)

• mention the problem being addressed
• state central purpose and focus of the study
• brief information about population, sample, or subjects
• review key results that relate to the proposed study
• point out flaws in the study