Most of the international students just contacted with literature review feel that they can’t get started, it is difficult to read reading, and writing literature review is even more like searching for a needle at the bottom of the sea, and then filling up the other sea with many, many needles.
What has been done before? What problems have not been solved?
Literature summary
Logical structure and context
Critical thinking (positive or negative)
What parts does a literature review contain?
A literature review usually consists of four parts Abstract+Introduction+main body+conclusion
Abstract section
Briefly describe the background, purpose, and scope of the paper’s study
Introduction
Introduce the topic of the study
Why this question is important
How I will answer this question
Main body section
Explain whether the research methodology is sound.
Whether it solves your problem.
Whether the subjects are accurate.
Conclusion section
Summarise the results
Explore the implications of the results
Point out directions for future research
Misconceptions about writing a literature review
A literature review is just a pile of literature
A literature review is just a compilation of previous literature.
A literature review can be written on a random selection of literature.
The literature review should be written in chronological order
1. What is literature review?
(1)Standing on the shoulders of giants.
(2)It is the source of your contribution and the theoretical basis of your hypotheses.
(3)It is the best assessment for you to prove your academic knowledge accumulation to your teacher.
2. Literature Review consists of five parts
(1)Key Definitions and Concepts – Review +Working Definition
(2)Key theories and framework
(3)Empirical findings – similar research questions,similar methods -contributions and limitations
(4)Gaps analysis
(5)Hypotheses development
Note: Always focus on your research question and give examples for each of the 5 parts.
V Literature Review Section Template
Literature Review (25%)
Compare and discuss previous definitions to get the Working Definition you need for this paper.
A separate paragraph for each concept – Rewrite as much as possible without using direct quotes from the Quotation.
-Definition 1 (reference)
-Definition 2 (reference)
-Definition 3
-Working definition In this research, what do you think it is (cannot use 1)
In this research, … can be defined that … (the working definition of . is that …
2.2Theoretical Foundation
It is mainly used to summarise, discuss and compare previous theories to get the Hypothesis (quantitative research)/Sub- questions (qualitative research).
– What, Why, How What is the theory? What is it about? What kind of analyses can it be used for?
Who has done what research on the theory? Don’t quote from a book/article (What were the conclusions found? What conclusions were found and what explanations were given? And then what are the shortcomings? )
And finally.
Quantitative research: Hypothesis (previous results can be put to the test in our study).
2.3Prior studies
The main purpose is to review the previous similar studies – it can be similar methods, similar problems, similar keywords and then do evaluation – what are the revelations and what are the shortcomings.
You can use the content of our reading notes.
Finally, the relationship between the study and my study, what ideas and methods are provided.
