Unit 7 Writing and Communicating the Literature Review

Transcription

1 Unit 7 Writing and Communicating the Literature Review

2 7 Writing and Communicating the Literature Review Introduction This unit considers the writing process together with related issues such as writing style, presentation and referencing systems. The communicating of the literature review takes us on to explore various ways in which the content of a review can be shared with others. From your own experience, you will know that there are different ways in which you have been able to obtain information about your topic. Learning outcomes On completion of this unit of learning you should be able to: Structure and organise the content of your review. Write your review in a coherent and fluent way. You will have noted that there are different styles and formats of presentation dependent upon the audience and the writer. The writing process can seem a daunting task. This unit will attempt to give some practical tips and guidance. Unit 5 was instrumental in facilitating the ability to critique an article. Critiquing, as has already been amply emphasised, is essential for writing your literature review. Drawing from the evaluation you have carried out of the articles, you should now be in a position to plan, write and edit your review. It is important that you have a plan. Without a plan you may find it difficult to develop your ideas and write the review from start to finish without having to re-organise or re-structure your ideas in mid-stream. It is acceptable that the writing of the dissertation will need more than one draft to get it to the submission stage. Remember to make full use of your supervisor during the writing of your review. Your supervisor can help with constructive criticism of your drafts and provide support. TVU 107 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

3 Writing Writing requires creativity and critical analysis. Creswell (1994) suggests that a highly readable manuscript should be the outcome of the writing process, and coherence is built into a study by using consistent terms, staging narrative thoughts, and connecting sentences and paragraphs. In addition, using the appropriate narrative voice, attending to verb tense, and trimming the 'fat' from prose are all useful techniques. (p194) Writing is all about thinking about the subject and attempting to conceptualise the topic. In this instance this refers to the various aspects of the literature review. Use the sources to maximum benefit. You have to demonstrate not only that you have read critically and widely, but also that you can think for yourself. Again, the framework of the literature review you have designed will be invaluable in getting you started. It is useful to write down your ideas as you work through the stages of the workplan. 1. Plan when is the dissertation due for submission? 2. Organise produce a step by step breakdown of your plan and keep to it, share it with your supervisor. 3. Start Begin writing. Creswell (1994) also suggests that the final product is the outcome of working through several drafts. The preferred writing process is very much the iterative process of writing, reviewing and re-writing. Your supervisor can play a central role with this. In this case, the first draft provides a substantive platform to build on and work towards the aim of producing the polished version, which comes later in the writing process. Relevance Relevance is about including what is significant and leaving out what is not. Irrelevant points do not gain marks. What is relevant and what is irrelevant can be ascertained from the conclusions you have drawn from your critical evaluation of the articles. If you have assembled your sources in the context of the framework developed with reference to the literature (see Unit 4), then it becomes easy to abstract and generate the necessary relevant points TVU 108 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

4 and develop the arguments in a structured and coherent manner. The relevance of a point or argument may not be clear at first glance. It should be clearly stated and concise. Coherence Coherence is about whether the writing makes sense, and whether it flows and holds together well. To make sense, the writing has to be clear and explicit, showing that you understand the issues. The other dimension of coherence, cohesion, can be demonstrated through the structure and organisation of the content, in that, it takes the reader from beginning, having 'set the scene' through each of the main ideas to the conclusions at the end. Coherence builds on the consistent and systematic way of developing your ideas. Coherence builds through connecting the words, sentences and paragraphs. Thus there should be a visible link between sentences, with a logical sequence from one sentence to the next. Voice This section draws heavily from the work of Creswell (1994). As a general rule, Creswell (1994) suggests that, as much as possible, the active voice should be used in scholarly writing. For example, when referring to the findings of a research study, you should state it in the active voice: Whiteman et al. (1997) reported that. as opposed to It was reported by Whiteman et al. (1997) that.. The use of the passive construction is appropriate when the first person can be left out. For example, 'rate of suicide was related to social class ' The distinction between the use of the third person (he or she) or the first person (I) has been a point of discussion and debate among researchers for many years. It has been a tradition in writing research papers and essays that the third person has been used. However, this trend has been challenged. Blaxter et al. (1996) have summarised the issue thus: The third person is standard for much research writing, and conveys an impression, whether justified or not, of considered and justified objectivity. The first person comes across as more immediate, personal and committed, and does not deny any inherent subjectivity. Whether you use the first or third person will depend upon your discipline, your politics, your purpose and your audience. (Blaxter et al., 1996, p221) TVU 109 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

5 Look at the papers you have evaluated and see for yourself whether the range of the articles reflects the above principles. Style The style you adopt should meet the requirements of the assignment. The audience, in this instance is the marker and supervisor. The style will reflect your personal skills in expressing yourself clearly and making explicit to others your ideas. It is what you feel comfortable with and what you think is appropriate for the reader. Some useful hints: Avoid writing for long hours but inconsistently. Be direct and make explicit your ideas. Avoid jargon, use simple words to convey accurate meaning. Keep sentences short and to the point. Select words carefully and use them in the context of your writing without creating complex sentences. Follow the writing conventions when using quotations. Use quotations effective without repetitions. Paraphrase and credit in references. Avoid the use of abbreviations. Frequently used names or diagnosis may be used. When these are referred to for the first time in the text, they should be written in full followed by the abbreviations in brackets, e.g. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Tense When writing the literature review, it is common practice to use the past tense. In completing your literature review, you will be aware of the use of tense from the studies that you have read. The past tense enhances the impact of the language. Trimming excess words An accepted fact of writing is that you will need to go through a few drafts before you are satisfied with what you have written. Writing, editing, TVU 110 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

6 revising and rewriting are part of the process. When reading your writing, try to trim the excess words that add to the word limit but do little for the quality of the writing. This will make your writing more compact and robust. Acknowledgements and referencing in the text The ideas drawn from others should be acknowledged otherwise you run the risk of committing plagiarism. It is important to acknowledge the ideas that you are using to the original writers. This applies to words, concepts and illustrations. The exact words or illustration should be referred to in the text and the source cited. Failure to use quotation marks before and after the words and citing the source constitute plagiarism. Structure The writing process requires a structure that will allow you to systematically deal with each set of major activities in turn. Structure and organisation of content will require careful planning. Before getting down to writing, discuss your ideas with your supervisor. A structure may follow the research process format; title Abstract Defining the issues and identifying the problems Setting the content and choice of topic Parameters for search, the search itself Methods in critiquing, evaluation and synthesis Findings and conclusions Discussion Implications for future research, practice Reflections on process, limitations Conclusions References. TVU 111 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

7 N.B. This is not a prescriptive recipe. You will need to discuss with your supervisor how to best structure your review, given that the content of your review will to a large extent influence how you structure and organise the final presentation. However, this framework will allow you to be flexible. There is no hard and fast rule to constrain you. As long as you are aware of some of the conventions of academic writing then you can be as creative as you wish. The method of writing should adhere to a systematic approach. The literature review being a research-based presentation should also lend itself to be subjected to systematic scrutiny. Thus, the rigour of the review should be maintained. The referencing system inset here is the Harvard System. (See Appendix 2 for a copy) Checking your writing Spelling, punctuation and grammar should be checked carefully. If using a word processing package, this can be done easily and quickly. Proof reading will pick up any omissions, which has been overlooked by the computer. Sometimes it is useful to ask someone else to read it. Watch out for Americanisms and take care with structure of paragraphs Guidelines for the submission of your dissertation are found in the Module Study Guide. (Sections within the generic Marking Grid will be referred to in relation to the structure and content of the dissertation.) Evaluation of literature reviews Just as it is possible to critically appraise primary research studies, it is possible too to appraise your own review as well as those of others. You can again use a set of criteria similar to those introduced in Unit 5 but with subtle difference in focus. This checklist is drawn from Locke et al. (1998). Here, the set of questions are expanded 1. Is a rationale and purpose of the review stated? TVU 112 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

8 2. What is the purpose of the review? Is the purpose made clear? 3. Is the rationale for the selection of studies described? 4. Are the parameters of the search made explicit? Are studies exhaustive or limited to particular time period, design, target population? 5. Is there a set of criteria used to check the quality of studies? 6. Are there comments about the credibility of studies reviewed? 7. How does the reviewer categorise the studies? 8. Is a framework used to organise the studies? 9. Are actual data from the studies reported in the review? 10. Is the review done without any data from the studies? 11. Is the need for additional research identified? 12. Have problems with the kind of questions that were asked in the studies been identified? 13. Have difficulties with designs and methods been identified? 14. How has the reviewer summarised key themes and where? At the end of the review, at the end of sections or not at all? 15. How are the summaries carried out and their integration achieved? 16. How are the conclusions drawn from several studies put together? Is there a statistical analysis of the studies (meta-analysis)? 17. What are the main conclusions drawn from the review? Are they consistent with those of the studies reviewed in general? 18. Is there any suggestion for the application of the result of the studies? 19. How clear and thorough has the reviewer been when basing the suggestion on the conclusions derived? Binding and submission Information about your submission can be found in the module guide. Refer to this and discuss any matters of concern with your supervisor. TVU 113 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

9 Unit summary This unit has taken you through some hints that should be useful when writing your dissertation. The structure, organisation and coherence of the writing have been emphasised. The evaluation of your own writing is an important aspect of the writing process. The checklist on how to evaluate reviews should be useful when you are planning your writing as much as when you have completed your writing and want do check the overall quality of your review. TVU 114 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

10 References Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (1996) How to research. Buckingham: Open University Press. Creswell, J. W. (1994) Research Design, Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Locke, L. F., Silverman, S. J. and Spirduso, W. W. (1998) Reading and Understanding Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. TVU 115 BSc (Hons) DM v1.1

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