Conventions of academic writing Literature review Referencing The

Conventions of academic writing Literature review Referencing The argument

Literature Review • Finding and evaluating available literature in your subject or area • Documenting the state of the question with respect to your subject or area

The objectives of a literature review • Surveying the literature in your chosen field • Synthesising information in the literature as a summary • Analysing critically the information: isolating gaps; foregrounding limitations; articulating areas for further work; indicating unresolved areas • Presenting the literature in an organised manner • Displaying in-depth grasp of your field, and where your research intersects with agreed knowledge.

Key actions of a review • demonstrates familiarity with a subject and credibility of your intervention • summarises prior research and shows how your work intersects with it • summarises and integrates what is known about a subject • demonstrates what and how you have benefitted from previous work, and that your own work can initiate new ideas.

What a literature review is not / needs • Not a descriptive list • Not a sedulous piece-by-piece summary • Not just a survey of every single thing you found! • Needs a thread, guiding idea, target, objective • Needs to narrate: what has been established, what the strengths and weaknesses of previous positions are.

Structure of a literature review • • define your topic and the context establish your perspective explain your route set out your scope - this can include saying what is not included!

Main body of review It should: • organise your literature according to common themes; • establish relations between your subject and the wider field • move from an overview through to the precise concern of your work.

The conclusion of the review It should • summarise the important aspects of the existing field; • evaluate the current state of the field reviewed; • identify significant flaws or gaps in existing knowledge; • outline areas for future study; • link your research to existing knowledge.

A literature search • • • Define your terms Search creatively Use the library Journals Newspapers and magazines Don’t limit yourself to obvious sources Conference papers National and local Government publications Publishers’ websites Online discussion lists Databases.

Referencing: sources and plagiarism • When using someone else’s words you must reference them correctly. • If you don’t, you are passing off other peoples’ ideas or words as your own. This is plagiarism. • You must follow referencing and bibliographical conventions.

How to avoid plagiarism • Always indicate if you are using someone else’s ideas. • When taking notes always note down the source – author, book and page number – as you go along. • Develop the habit of referencing ideas etc. taken from sources. It helps also when you are looking for them again!

Quotation versus paraphrasing • ‘In the presidency, one must always tell the truth’ (Obama, 2018, 13). • Regarding the need to tell the truth while in office, Obama (2018, 13) is unambiguous.

Referencing • Providing supporting evidence for your work’s use of quotations or paraphrases. Showing the origins of the information you use in your work. In this way: Ø The reader has evidence that you have researched the topic. Ø The reader can pursue your sources, and so learn more / develop her own argument. Ø You are not guilty of plagiarism!

Setting out quotations • Embedding. If the quotation is 30 words or fewer it can ‘run on’. Example: Ø In his memoir about the presidency, Obama expressed the sententious view that ‘it is imperative always to tell the truth’, whatever the consequences.

Setting out quotations • Displaying. If the quotation is longer than 30 words, you should indent it and display it separately. For example: Ø https: //www. amazon. co. uk/Nancy-Blanchot. Controversy-Philosophical. Projections/dp/178660888 X/ref=sr_1_2? s=bo oks&ie=UTF 8&qid=1540797370&sr=12&keywords=blanchot+hill

How to use quotations • • Effectively Carefully Accurately (the three dots convention) Online sources can be tricky

Organising the argument • Roadmaps, structures, architecture, music… • Movement: from an establish starting point to a definite conclusion • Connection: parts that combine, link together • Development: from this to this.

Academic arguments • • Premise or claim. Facts and evidence. Logic and coherence. References and credits. Not fake news!

Constructing an academic argument • Mediation. This can be: Øcontrastive: theory x and theory y ØBuilt up from pros and cons • Categorisation. Classifying issues • Chronology / sequence. History of science, production. . . • Combinations of above. Think about the nature of your argument.