Literature review

This is just a few notes made after I attended a workshop at the Open University July 2012; I'd be glad of comments or other thoughts.

Six key areas:

• ·         Outline your boundaries (e.g. just UK, just one type of school, just post 2000) but remember what one of the participants in the workshop said (Michael I think): keep your boundaries porous because sometimes something from 1948 might just be relevant!
• ·         Find the gaps that you want to fill
• ·         Write in a way which synthesises the literature (with proper attribution) rather than a list of who said what
• ·         Set up e-mail alerts
• ·         Follow up references from articles that interested you
• ·         Follow up citations; for example, do an internet search for an author then see who has cited them

Consider many sources, with your personal framework being central

Remember there is more than one type of literature review and the one you do for a thesis will be different from one you do as a standalone piece of writing. As a standalone, published piece of work, the review represents a product. For a thesis, it represents a journey: signposting the reader through what you have found and what you intend to do with that, how it links with your own work.

• ·         Decide if it will have a beginning, middle and ending (say what you’re going to say, say it, say what you’ve said)
• ·         Always state the purpose of your review
• ·         Give the review a personal voice as well as critical analysis rather than just description
• ·         Recognise different discourses in an analytic way
• ·         Your passion for the topic should be evident

Finally, some thoughts I wrote a while ago that came back into my head during the workshop:-

From a blog post http://mainlyouteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/literature-as-data.html

As I could basically be said to be in the Grounded Theory 'camp' I do regard the whole process of research as potentially yielding data. Thus, one's own bias (properly described and acknowledged) becomes data ( Glaser, B. G. (2002, September). ‘Constructivist Grounded Theory?’  Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 3, 3 http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-02/3-02glaser-e.htm   for a much better way of explaining than I can). And I think any researcher (GT or otherwise) will wish to link their literature review to their own empirical data. But how can this be done?

There are lots of different types of software and apps around now that can certainly aid the process ( as @lizith amongst others points out on #phdchat ) but does that help with developing a framework for actually using and linking your highlighted clips and references with other data? I am not sure that the following is really getting me to where I want to be. Comments welcome!