PhD Research Seminar Series: Writing the Literature Review

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PhD Research Seminar SeriesWriting the
Literature Review

• Dr. K. A. Korb
• University of Jos

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Overview

• Unless your study explicitly builds on the work
  of other researchers in your area of inquiry, it
  is unlikely to contribute to research knowledge
  (Gall, Gall, Borg, 2003)
• Considerations for writing the Literature Review
• Online sources for research literature

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Literature Review

• Purpose Demonstrate a logical continuity between
  past research and your present work by evaluating
  information found in literature related to your
  independent and dependent variables
• Objectives
• Justify your research
• Show where your study fits into the existing body
  of knowledge
• Highlight flaws in previous research
• Outline gaps in previous research
• (Central Queensland University Library website)

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Contents of Literature ReviewTheories

• Evaluate theories of how your variables either
  influence (for IVs) or are influenced by (for
  DVs) certain aspects of the environment
• Describe the main tenets of the theory
• Describe research studies that support the theory

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Contents of Literature Review Research Studies
(APA)

• For each research study you evaluate
• Emphasize pertinent findings
• Describe major conclusions
• Critique relevant methodological issues
• Population
• Methods
• Variables the researcher did not think of
• Assumptions
• Once you have critiqued a sufficient collection
  of research studies, you should have established
  that while other studies have been conducted on
  your IV and DVs, none have done exactly what you
  will.

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Contents of Literature ReviewExample

• Describe goal-setting theory
• Mechanisms for how goals affect performance
• Details of a goal that will make it more likely
  to influence performance
• Describe supporting research studies (Seijts
  Latham, 2001)
• Emphasize Findings University students who had
  specific, difficult learning goals performed
  better on a class scheduling activity than
  university students who had a do-your-best goal.
• Describe Conclusions Specific, difficult
  learning goal leads to better performance
• Critique Methodological Issues
• Goals were set for the participants
• Examined performance in an artificial task

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Concluding Advice

• Do NOT include research or theories on variables
  that are not an independent or dependent variable
  in your study.
• When finding research to review, use your
  independent and dependent variables as keywords
  in search engines
• Write strong transitions between topics
• Enables the reader to know where you are taking
  them

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos
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Searching for Articles

• Eric
• www.eric.ed.gov/
• Google Scholar
• http//scholar.google.com
• JSTOR
• www.unijos.edu.ng/
• Gutenburg
• http//www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
• HINARI
• http//www.who.int/hinari/en/
• User Name NIE014 (3 Letters, 3 Numbers)
• Password See Me for the UniJos Passcode

Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos