Unit 11

CRITICALLY REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

 

Task 1. Read and learn the words and word combinations.

allegiance n. – вірність, відданість, лояльність

approve v. – схвалювати, стверджувати

biased a. – необ’єктивний, тенденційний

coherent a. – логічно послідовний, узгоджений

cohesive a. – зв’язний

commence on v. – приступати до чого-н., розпочинати що-н.

compilation n. – компіляція, складання

collation n. – порівняння, співставлення

commitment n. – прихильність, погляди

confrontation n. – протистояння, протиріччя

cover v. – охоплювати, включати, містити

currently adv. – на теперішній час, зараз

discredit v. – спростувати, показати неспроможність

disputation n. – суперечка, дискусія

distinguish v. – розрізняти

draw out v. – складати (документ)

enhance v. – збільшувати, посилвати, покращувати

exercise v. – тренуватись, використовувати, здійснювати

explicit a. – явний, точний, ясний

fault n. – дефект, помилка, пошкодження

humility n. – стриманість, помірність, скромність

implicitly adv. – неявно, імпліцитно, повністю, цілком

indent v. – робити абзац/відступ

index n. – предметний покажчик, каталог; показник, ознака, індекс

judgement n. – судження, твердження

locate v. – визначати місцезнаходження, розташовувати

merit n. – позитивна риса, чеснота, заслуга

newsworthy a. – вартий висвітлення у пресі, важливий

occurrence n. – поява; випадок,  подія

overlap v. – частково співпадати

overlook v. – не помітити, пропустити

plagiarism n. – плагіат

reasoned а. – обґрунтований, мотивований

reference n. – посилання, зноска, згадка

relevance n. – релевантність, значущість, важливість

seek v. – шукати

tertiary a. – (той) що належить до третього рангу/класу, третьорядний

Task 2. Make up sentences with the words given in task 1.

 

Task 3. Read and translate the text.

 

CRITICALLY REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

1. Knowledge doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and your work only has value in relation to other people’s. Your work and your findings will be significant only to the extent that they’re the same as, or different from, other people’s work and findings.

You therefore need to establish what research has been published in your chosen area and try to identify any other research that might currently be in progress. The items you read and write about will enhance your subject knowledge and help you to clarify your research question(s) further. This process is called critically reviewing the literature.

2. Your critical literature review will form the foundation on which your research is built. Its main purpose is to help you to develop a good understanding and insight into relevant previous research and the trends that have emerged. Your review also has a number of other purposes:

•        to help you to refine further your research question(s) and objectives;

•        to highlight research possibilities that have been overlooked implicitly in research to data;

•       to discover explicit recommendations for further research. These can provide you with a superb justification for your own research question(s) and objectives;

•        to help you to avoid simply repeating work that has been done already;

•        to sample current opinions in newspapers, professional journals, thereby gaining insights into the aspects of your research question(s) and objectives that are considered newsworthy;

•       to discover and provide an insight into research approaches, strategies and techniques that may be appropriate to your own research question(s) and objectives.

3. As you begin to find, read and evaluate the literature, you will need to think how to combine the academic theo­ries and ideas it contains to form the critical review that will appear in your project report. This will need to discuss critically the work that has already been undertaken in your area of research, and reference that work. It will draw out the key points and trends and present them in a logical way. In doing this you will provide readers of your project report with the necessary background knowledge to your research question(s) and objectives and establish the boundaries of your own research. It will also enable the readers to see your ideas against the background of previous published re­search in the area. This does not necessarily mean that your ideas must extend, follow or approve those set out in the literature. You may be highly critical of the earlier research and seek to discredit it. However, if you wish to do this you must still review the literature, argue clearly why it is problematic, and then justify your own ideas.

In writing your critical review you will therefore need:

•        to include the key academic theories within your chosen area;

•        to demonstrate that your knowledge of your chosen area is up to date;

•        to show how your research relates to previous published research;

•        to assess the strengths and weaknesses of previous work and take these into account in your arguments;

•        to justify your arguments by referencing previous research;

•        through clear referencing, to enable those reading your research report to find the original work you cite.

4. Within the context of reviewing the literature, the term ‘critical’ refers to the judgement you exercise. It there­fore describes the process of providing a detailed and justified analysis of and commentary on the merits and faults of the key literature within your chosen area. This means that, for your review to be critical, you should:

•        refer to work by recognized experts in your chosen area;

•        consider and discuss work that supports and work that opposes your ideas;

•        make reasoned judgements regarding the value of others’ work to your research;

•        support your arguments with valid evidence in a logical manner;

•        distinguish clearly between fact and opinion.

5. Although there is no single structure that your critical review should take, it is useful to think of the review as a funnel in which you:

•        start at a more general level before narrowing down to your specific research question(s) and objectives;

•        provide a brief overview of key ideas;

•        summarize, compare and contrast the work of the key writers;

•        narrow down to highlight the work most relevant to your research;

•        provide a detailed account of the findings of this work;

•        highlight the issues where your research will provide fresh insights;

•        lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report, which explore these issues.

Whichever way you structure your review you must demonstrate that you have read, understood and evaluated the items you have located. The key to writing a critical literature review is therefore to link together the different ideas you find in the literature to form a coherent and cohesive argument, which set in context and justify your research. Obvi­ously, it should relate to your research question and objectives. It should show a clear link from these as well as a clear link to the empirical work that will follow.

6. The literature sources available to help you to develop a good understanding of and insight into previous re­search can be divided into three categories: primary (published and unpublished), secondary, and tertiary. In reality these categories often overlap: for example, primary literature sources including conference proceedings can appear in journals, and some books contain indexes to primary and secondary literature.

Primary literature sources (also known as grey literature) are the first occurrence of a piece of work. They include published sources such as reports, conference proceedings, theses. They also include unpublished manuscript sources such as letters, and memos.

Secondary literature sources such as books and journals are the subsequent publications of primary literature. These publications are aimed at a wider audience. They are easier to locate than primary literature as they are better covered by the tertiary literature.

Tertiary literature sources, also called search tools, are designed either to help to locate primary and secondary literature or to introduce a topic. They therefore include indexes and abstracts as well as encyclopedias and bibliog­raphies.

Your use of these literature sources will depend on your research questions and objectives. For some research pro­jects you may use only tertiary and secondary literature; for others you may need to locate primary literature as well.

7.It is important that you plan the literature search carefully to ensure that you locate relevant and up-to-date literature. This will enable you to establish what research has been previously published in your area and to relate your own research to it. Time spent planning will be repaid in time saved when searching the literature. As you start to plan your search, you need to beware of information overload! Before commencing your literature search you should under­take further planning by:

•        defining the parameters of your search;

•        generating key words and search terms;

•        discussing your ideas as widely as possible.

Techniques to help you in this include brainstorming and relevance trees.

8. Once obtained, the literature must be evaluated for its relevance to your research questions and objectives. The following questions provide a checklist to help you in this process.

- How recent is the item?

- Have you seen references to this item (or its author) in other items that were useful?

- Does the item support or contradict your arguments? For either it will probably be worth reading!

- Does the item appeared to be biased? Even if it is it may still be relevant to your critical review!

- What are the methodological omissions within the work? Even if there are many it still may be of relevance!

- If the precision sufficient? Even if it is imprecise it may be the only item you can find and so still of relevance!

Your assessment of whether you have read a sufficient amount is even more complex. It is impossible to read eve­rything, as you would never start to write your critical review. Yet you need to be sure that your critical review dis­cusses what research has already been undertaken and that you have positioned your research project in the wider con­text, citing the main writers in the field. One clue that you have achieved this is when further searching provides mainly references to items you have already read. You also need to check what constitutes an acceptable amount of reading, in terms of both quality and quantity, with your scientific advisor.

 

Task 4. Skim the text about critical literature review. Find an appropriate heading for each paragraph.

a.   planning the literature search

b.   definition of critical literature review

c.    evaluating the literature found

d.   what is meant by critical

e.    the purpose of the critical review

f.     the structure of the critical review

g.   the content of the critical review

h.   literature sources

 

Task 5. Answer the questions.

1 What is the purpose of the critical literature review?

2. What items should you include in your critical review?

3. What literature sources should you use when writing your critical review?

4 How can you evaluate the relevance and sufficiency of the literature found?

 

Task 6. Match terms in column A with their definitions in column B

A

B

1) critical literature review

a) an alphabetical list of something such as subjects or names at the back of a book, that shows on which page they are mentioned

2) key word

b) the first occurrence of a piece of work, including published sources such as government white papers, and unpublished sources such as letters, memos and committee minutes

3) tertiary literature source

c) detailed and justified analysis and commentary of the merits and faults of the literature within a chosen area, which demonstrates familiarity with what is already known about your research topic

4) grey literature

d) journal in which the articles have been evaluated by academic peers prior to publication to assess their quality and suitability

5) index

e) journals produced by a professional organisation for its members, often containing articles of a practical nature related to professional needs

6)professional journal

f) source designed to help locate primary and secondary literature, such as an index, abstract, or bibliography

7) references

g) article that contains both a considered review of the state of knowledge in a given topic area and pointers towards areas where further research needs to be undertaken

8)refereed academic journal

h) International Standard Serial Number, a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication

9) review article

i) bibliographic details of all items referred to directly in the text

10) ISBN

j) basic term that describes the research questions and objectives which can be used in combination to search the tertiary literature

11) ISSN

k) International Standard Book Number; a unique 9-digit number given to every book that is published

 

Task 7. State whether the following statements are true or false.

1. Bibliographic details required to find a journal article normally include the author, year of publication, title of article, title of jour­nal, volume, part/issue, page numbers.

2. Theses can be difficult to locate and, when found, difficult to access as there may be only one copy at the awarding institution.

3 Academic journals are never available on the Internet.

4. While reviewing the literature you do not need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of previous work, including omissions and bias.

5. For your review to be critical you don’t need to make reasoned judgements regarding the value of others’ work to your research.

6. By fully acknowledging the work of others you will avoid charges of plagiarism.

 

Task 8. Find Ukrainian equivalents of the English words used in the text.

1) enhance v.

а) судження, підстава

2) emerge v.

б) відбирати зразки, пробувати

3) implicitly adv

в) збільшувати, підсилвати

4) explicit a.

г) складати(документ)

5) justification n.

д) неявно, приховано

6) sample v

е) проявлятись, виникати (про питання, проблему)

7) draw out v.

є) явний, конкретний, повністю висловлений

8) discredit v.

ж) використовувати, користуватись

9) exercise v

з) логічно послідовний, когерентний

10) distinguish v

и) остерігатися

11) reference v.

і) необ’єктивний, тенденційний

12) coherent a.

ї) дискредитувати

13) cohesive a.

й) забезпечити текст посиланнями

14) beware v.

к) відрізнятись

15) biased a

л) зв’язний

16) relevance n.

м) частково співпадати

17) overlap v.

н) значущість, доречність, важливість

 

Task 9. Fill in the blanks in the text using the phrases from the box.

a) critically discussing and referencing work

b) develop a thorough understanding of and insight into

c) research question(s) and objectives

d) primary literature

e) brainstorming and relevance trees

f) at a more general level

g) a logically argued way

h) following up references in articles you have already read

i) key words and search terms

A critical review of the literature is necessary to help you to 1)         previous research that relates to your research

question(s) and objectives. Your review will set your research in context by 2)         that has already been undertaken,

drawing out key points and presenting them in 3)       , and highlighting those areas where you will provide fresh

insights. It will lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report.

There is no one correct structure for a critical review, although it is helpful to think of it as a funnel in which you start

4)                                     prior to narrowing down to your specific research question(s) and objectives.

Literature sources can be divided into three categories: primary, secondary and tertiary. In reality, these categories often overlap. Your use of these resources will depend on your research question(s) and objectives. Some may use only tertiary and secondary literature. For others, you may need to locate 5)_________ as well.

 

When planning your literature search you need:

- to have clearly defined 6)___ ;

- to define the parameters of your search;

- to generate 7)________ ;

- to discuss your ideas as widely as possible.

Techniques to help you in this include 8)      .

Your literature search will be undertaken using a variety of approaches in tandem. These will include:

- searching using tertiary sources and the Internet;

- 9) ____________ ;

- scanning and browsing secondary literature in your library.

Once obtained, the literature must be evaluated for its relevance to your research question(s) and objectives. This must in­clude a consideration of each item's currency. Each item must be read and noted. Bibliographic details, a brief description of the content and appropriate supplementary information should also be recorded.

 

Task 10. Answer the questions.

1.     What does the process of critically reviewing the literature involve?

2.     What is the main purpose of critical literature review?

3.     What other purposes does the review state?

4.     What do you need to include in your critical review?

5.     Does the review imply that your ideas should extend, follow or approve those set out in the literature?

6.     What is meant by ‘critical’ in the context of reviewing the literature?

7.     What is the accepted structure of critical review?

8.     What three categories can literature sources be divided?

9.     What do primary literature sources include?

10.        Why are secondary literature sources easier to locate?

11.        What are tertiary literature sources designed for?

12.        What does planning the literature search include?

13.        What parameters of the literature obtained should be assessed?

Task 11. Critically reviewing the literature. Perform the following:

•        Consider your research questions and objectives. Use your lecture notes, course textbooks and relevant review articles to define both narrow and broader parameters of your literature search considering language, subject area, geo­graphical area, publication period and literature type.

•        Generate key words and search terms using one or a variety of techniques such as reading, brainstorming and relevance trees. Discuss your ideas widely, including with your project tutor and colleagues.

•        Start your search using both database and printed tertiary sources to identify relevant secondary literature. Be­gin with those tertiary sources that abstract and index academic journal articles and books. At the same time, obtain relevant literature that has been referenced in articles you have already read.

•        Expand your search via other sources such as the Internet and by browsing and scanning.

•        Obtain copies of relevant items, read them and make notes. Remember also to record bibliographic details, a brief description of the content and supplementary information on an index card or in your reference database.

•         Start drafting your critical review as early as possible keeping in mind its purpose.

 

Lexical revision. Commonly misused words.

Translate the sentences. Choose the correct usage with the help of a dictionary if necessary.

1. The coal minors / miners were trapped during the cave-in. The young man was not allowed to enter the bar because he was a minor / miner.

2. Because of Mike's high morale / moral standards, he returned the wallet to its owner. The story of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ has a morale / moral that applies to everyone. Because the war was immoral, the morale / moral of the troops was low.

3. When we drove past the skunk, the car was filled with a nauseous / nauseated odor. The odor of the skunk nauseous / nauseated Sara.

4. The amount of paint needed to finish the job would fill a one-gallon pale/pail. Because of the long illness, Maria's complexion was very pale/ pail.

5. We past /passed the model “T” on the parkway. You cannot always try to recapture the past /passed.