Lecture 6 Doing a literature review for your

undergraduate dissertation

Dissertation Module

Kevin Standish

Learning outcomes

• Understand the role of theories in your dissertation• Describe Purpose of a literature review• Name the three stages of literature search• Review the writing up the literature review• Describe Review frameworks

Lecture Overview

1. The role of theories in your dissertation

1. the role of theories in your dissertation

• a review of the literature is important because without it you will not acquire an understanding of your topic, of what has already been done on it, how it has been researched, and what the key issues are.

• In your written project you will be expected to show that you understand previous research on your topic.

•This amounts to showing that you have understood the main theories in the subject area and how they have been applied and developed, as well as the main criticisms that have been made of work on the topic.

Kuada (2012) the role of theories in your project.pdf

1. 2. what is a theory?• theory provides the language, the concepts, and

assumptions that help researchers to make sense of the phenomenon that they seek to investigate. It enables researchers to connect the issues they are investigating to the existing body of knowledge in the area

• The researcher must produce a concept or build a theoretical structure that can explain facts and the relationships between them . . . The importance of theory is to help the investigator summarize previous information and guide his future course of action. Sometimes the formulation of a theory may indicate missing ideas or links and the kinds of additional data required. Thus, a theory is an essential tool of research in stimulating the advancement of knowledge still further.

1.2. what is a theory?

•theories may be defined as series of systematic inter-related statements or generalisations that explain and/ or anticipate developments in a specific context or phenomenon.

• Strauss and Corbin (1998:15) define theory as “a set of well-developed concepts related through statements of relationship which together constitute an integrated framework that can be used to explain or predict phenomena”

1.3. Classification of theories1. Metatheories

2. Grand theories

3. Midrange theories

4. Microtheories

1.3.1.Metatheoriestheory whose subject matter is some theory

• Metatheories describe the broad philosophical assumptions concerning reality that are accepted in social science as clearly demarcated boundaries of thought in a particular field of study.

• Metatheories serve the following purposes:1. clarifying the general assumptions underlying a subject matter;2. specifying the important problems faced in undertaking investigations; 3. and specifying what are acceptable methods

1.3.2. Grand theories

A grand theory is defined as an all-inclusive unified theory that 1. seeks to explain social behaviour, social

organization, and social change in human experience.2. It normally provides the key concepts and principles

of the social science discipline and is therefore consistent with the dominant metatheories or paradigms of the discipline.

3. Examples of Grand theories: Feminism, marxism, and democracy

1.3.3. Midrange theories

• Midrange theory represents theories that connect grand theories with empirical evidence.

• It consists of limited sets of assumptions from which specific hypotheses are logically derived and confirmed by empirical investigation

• Thus, when you engage in literature review, you are mostly discussing midrange theories.

• For example if you adopt a social constructivist approach to your cultural research, you will justify your arguments by using studies that have adopted this approach

1.3.4. Microtheories

Microtheories constitute the lowest level of theories. They focus on:• individuals or small groups located in specific

contexts. As such explanations found in microtheories are of limited generalization on their own.

• They can, however, constitute essential inputs in the generation of new perspectives and theory development.

• For example: scholars use case studies to generate microtheories that are then further developed through multiple case studies to become important inputs in midrange theory formulation

1.4. Use of TheoriesEach of the levels of theory listed above will play a different role in your project.

• The metatheories define the philosophical foundations of your project

• The grand theories define the boundaries of your subject of investigation. They combine with the metatheories to establish the platform on which you will base your research.

• But much of the discussion in your theoretical chapters will draw on midrange theories.

• Midrange theories can also be used to develop variables to analyse and the connections between them: an analytical framework.

• They therefore help you identify what kind of information you require for the analysis and what is the most appropriate means of acquiring this information.

• Without such an analytical framework you will risk drowning in a sea of information, since you will be unable to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant

• An essential task in the project work process is for you to discuss most of the leading theories that attempt to explain the problem of interest, comparing the strengths of the arguments underlying them and their empirical foundation

2. Purpose of a literature reviewBell (2010) The review of the literature.pdf

2. Purpose of a literature review

1. outline the area you are researching

2. Explain why it matters3. Summarise the research that has

already been done in this area particularly any key studies

4. Identify any gaps in this literature to justify why your study is important and what it adds to the literature

2. Purpose of a literature review

5. Present your research questions (qualitative research) or hypotheses (quantitative research). These should be set out at the end of the literature review

6. Be sure to return to your literature review afterwards to read drafted in order to ensure that it gives a clear argument leading up to your research rather than simply summarising past research.

7. Include all key studies and theories8. The review of the literature for a research proposal

does not need to be as extensive as that for the final research write-up.

3 Stages of Literature review

Lit review questioning.pdf

•Review of the LiteratureVs Literature Review: •For your research proposal you will present a broad survey/summary of the current literature reviewed in forming your proposal.

•This is NOT the same as a Literature Review which is the critical evaluation and analysis of the literature upon which your dissertation rests theoretically.

the three stages of literature search

• first stage: using search engines and other resources to queue make a large collection of relevant materials

•Second stage: reading through the abstracts, summaries et cetera, that you have obtained using these to find further materials

•Third stage: consider all the material and determine which papers and chapters need to be read in depth where the gaps in the literature lie.

three key points in a project

• Literature reviews usually happen at three key points in a project:

1. during the development of your research question;2. during the planning stages, as you work out the rationale of the steps you need to take 3. to complete your project; and towards the end of the project, either because:• preliminary analysis points you towards literature

you had not previously considered, or• to check for relevant studies published since your

previous literature searches.

Importance of theory

• The theory in your project is essential; serving the following purpose:

1.They demonstrate your understanding of the current body of knowledge in your chosen field of study. 2.They provide you with a philosophical foundation on which you can ground your study.3.They constitute an important part of the overall research design of the project.

4. writing up the literature review

Barker (2015) Chap 5 Doing a Literature Review.pdf

Literature review writing process

4.1. Use of mind mapping

4.2. The funnel of questions

4.3. creates a clear argument with an initial skeleton structure

4.4. Levels of analysis

1. Analyse the literature actively

2. Evaluate its relevance to the project: include only selected material directly relevant to the review

3. Create a conceptual framework for the project, including an operational research problem: your research question!

Once you have got a big pile of relevant studies it is difficult not to merely describe one study after another, but this creates an overly descriptive list with few elements of evaluation, critique or narrative structure….it is boring and non critical

4.5.Students who use overly descriptive styles of writing tend:

•not to explain why these studies might be of interest

•not to clearly highlight the focus of the studies;

•not to show how the studies they are reviewing fit into a more general picture of the emerging or existent literature

•not to critically evaluate the literature they are reviewing

•not to offer a coherent narrative

4.6.develop your own narrative

• It is a creative act to bring together the research relevant to your study that shows your reader the patterns in what you’ve found in an evaluative and coherent way that highlights the issues, findings and debates in the field and which leads to being able to ask a relevant and interesting research question, or set of research questions

Reviews that have their own narrative:

• offer a coherent, logical story that is written in your own words;

• include relevant studies and interpret them;

• set out a framework so that the reader can gain a good idea of how one study is related to another;

• use these studies to develop a conceptual understanding of the topic;

• draw out the significance of these studies for our understanding of the topic

4.7.Putting the Literature Review Together1. Using Hooks

2. Using Anecdotes

3. Define and discuss Main Concepts

4. Find and Use the Source Texts

4.7.1.Using Hooks

• Strong hooks are attention-seeking headlines which frame the review or any particular section within it.

• These should not be newspaper-style sensationalism, but grounded in the research area.

The use of statistics is often very effectiveTimelines: why the research should be donenow, and why they should therefore keep reading the reviewRelevance of the research today

4.7.2.Using Anecdotes

• Anecdote: a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature. What happened to me type story……

• Anecdotal accounts can bring the text to life but can become wearisome if overused

4.7.3. Define and discuss Main Concepts

• It is important to define your key terms and concepts to inform the reader what you mean by the terms being used.

4.7.4.Find and Use the Source Texts• Do not merely accept the received view of an

author’s work. • Always locate and carefully read the key works

yourself, • and find good reviews of those texts which tease

out the variety of interpretations and uses made of them over the years.

4.7.5.Introduce and Link Texts

• Assembling a review is in effect assembling an academic argument, at

the heart of which lies a challenge.

• In writing a literature review, you are:

1. critically engaging with what has gone before,

2. synthesising areas,

3. challenging existing orthodoxy,

4. seeking to extend debate,

5. and identifying issues which you wish to pursue further.

The component parts of the review must then hang together

in a sustained, academically rigorous manner with a logical

flow.

The dissertation as a whole is a persuasive, argumentative, exploratory

narrative, and your literature review needs to pick up and connect your

research question with the area of work in which it fits, while exposing the gap you seek to fill or the problem which

you wish to raise.

review check list.pdf

5. Review frameworks1. Chronological reviews

2. Thematic reviews

3. Cross-disciplinary review

4. Theoretical framework reviewsForrester (2012) doing a lietrature review.pdf

5.1. Chronological reviews

• your aim is to provide an overview, history or chronology of the literature that you have selected for inclusion in your review.

• Here you have to be careful that your overview doesn’t just simply fall into the trap of being a rather boring descriptive list as discussed above.

• Instead, try to tell a story about the literature from your notes collated from the articles that you selected as being relevant to your project.

• At the end of your chronological review you need to create a summary that leads into the formulation of the research question you are going to ask

2. Thematic reviews

• it is possible to identify patterns of research and to group the studies according to these patterns or themes. These can be discussed under different headings to give an overview of the relevant research for your Project. at the end of a theme, summarise the key points and include a linking sentence to the next paragraph

Advantages of doing a thematic review include:

• You have less concern with who did what and when and in what particular order. This is especially useful if research developments in your area of interest occurred in parallel rather than linearly, which often happens in areas that employ qualitative methods

• This structure encourages analysis and interpretation of the material, since identifying your themes requires you to think analytically about the topic.

• Identifying and drawing out themes facilitates the production of a coherent account of a body of literature and critical discussion of the material from a particular theoretical or methodological perspective. This is often a hallmark of an excellent project.

3. Cross-disciplinary review• a cross-disciplinary framework where studies within a

particular discipline can be described and discussed with reference to the theoretical focus that a specific discipline might orient towards.

• When going through the various studies relevant to your project you could firstly locate where each work sits and then, when summarising the work provide some background to the distinct disciplinary orientation these studies tend to have.

• This will also help you identify issues yet to be addressed from the perspective that you are coming from

• Cross-disciplinary reviews are usually written with a bias towards your own Discipline.

4. Theoretical framework reviews

• theoretical framework acts as a lens so that the studies are evaluated specifically in relation to how they relate to the assumptions of a particular approach or theory

• Taking up of a particular viewpoint, and then providing a review that offers a critical account, gaining a deeper understanding of an area.

• As you develop your skills you will also begin to develop your own particular theoretical allegiances and orientations, which may influence how you want to write your review

Don't•Feel like you have to find everything ever written on topic

•Write your literature review with out structuring it•Do not write when you not in the right space for it

•Attempt to write perfectly in the first draft: go back and polish

•Simply describe the literature: create an argument

•Worry if you have anxieties about writing: everyone does