Assignment: Literature Analysis

Background

A  critical  part  of  developing  a  research  project  proposal  is  to  review  existing  knowledge relevant to the problem to be solved.  To help you identify a worthwhile research problem, in this assignment you will review previously published research that describes what is already known about your chosen topic. By  doing  so  you  will  provide  a  context  for  your  research problem and provide evidence that the topic is worthy of investigation. 

To  do  this  you  must  evaluate several  previous  research  publications  in  the  specific  area  of your  chosen  research  problem. From  within  these  prior  publications  you  will  identify particular contributions  that are directly relevant  to your topic,  thus  showing how  this prior work supports your argument for the novelty, value and feasibility of your own research idea.

How to recognise relevant literature

To  complete  this  assignment  you  must  find  high-quality  literature  directly  relevant  to  your chosen  research  problem.    

Previously-published  research  may  be  useful  to  your  argument  for  the  value  of  your  own research idea in any of the following ways:

• It may address a research problem very similar to yours, thus providing evidence for the significance of your own problem. (It may even directly state the need to conduct future research on your chosen topic.)
• It may have used a research methodology, tools or a technique that you could re-use in your own research, thereby providing supporting evidence for the ability to solve your research problem.
• It may have produced results or data that you can directly use in your own research.
• It may define benchmarks, precedents or standards relevant to your research problem, thus helping you express the necessary criteria for successfully solving it.

How much to write

You should write enough to make your argument clear, no more, no less.  You will be assessed on the quality of your writing, not its quantity.  In particular, the technical aspects of your idea must be easily comprehensible by a layperson.  It should not be necessary for the reader to be an  expert  in  the  particular  technical  field  or  domain  to  understand  and  appreciate  your arguments.  Specialised terminology and abbreviations should be explained clearly or, better yet, avoided altogether.

Similarly,  you  should  cite  only  as  many  publications  as  needed  to  make  your  argument convincing.  Each publication you cite must clearly provide support for conducting research on your chosen topic, either in terms of the novelty, value and/or feasibility of the research.

There  is  no  fixed  word  limit  for  the  document  or  a  required  number  of  references. Nonetheless, as a rough guide, we expect you will need about 1,500 to 2,000 words to explain your argument clearly and around 5 to 7 references to demonstrate that you have searched the literature thoroughly.  (The markers will not count how many words you have written!)

Specific requirements

Analysing the literature is an important step in determining whether or not there is a need to conduct research on a particular topic. It is also the process for positioning your proposed research within existing knowledge and theory.

Your task is to identify a problem you would like to use as the basis for the research proposal you will develop this semester and to write an analysis of the published literature related to that problem.

The primary requirement for this assignment is to argue the case for undertaking research on your chosen problem.  To do so you must convince the reader that the research problem you have identified is:

• Novel - To qualify as research the problem must be one that has not been solved previously.
• Important - The problem must be one whose solution will be of significant value.
• Solvable - The problem must be one which has a reasonable prospect of being solved with contemporary tools and techniques.

In order to convince the reader of these points your argumentation must be:

• Clear - Your writing must be easily understandable by a lay reader, avoiding uncommon terminology and abbreviations.
• Concise - You must express your ideas efficiently, so that key points are not obscured by irrelevant material.
• Coherent - Your arguments and the conclusions you draw must be structured logically.
• Convincing - The overall "story" you tell must be compelling and believable.

Your submission  document  needs  to  include  the  following  major  sections  and  include  the elements listed. You may choose to add subsections, but keep in mind the need to keep your writing concise and the overall document as short as possible. Marks will be awarded for quality, not quantity.

1. Problem Statement

-State clearly the broad problem you wish to solve.  Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern.  (NB: You may change the research problem you described in previous assessment tasks.  It is likely that your analysis of the literature will cause you to rethink your chosen research problem.)

-Point out the following as necessary:

• overall trends in what is known or has been published about the topic;
• conflicts in previous theory, methodology, evidence and conclusions;
• gaps in research and scholarship; and
• a single problem to be solved or a new perspective of immediate interest.

2. Approach

-Explain the method you used for finding, analysing and comparing literature.

-Explain how your analysis of the literature is organised (e.g., by theme, chronologically, according to results achieved, according to the approach used, etc).

-State what is in and out of scope for your literature analysis:

• types of literature sources;
• topics.

3. Literature Analysis

• Engage with different types of literature as necessary to support your argument (e.g., research studies, reviews, theoretical articles, case studies, etc.).
• Unpack themes, highlight major concerns, influential studies, etc., in relation to your topic.
• Synthesise your findings into a coherent summary of research related to your chosen problem. In particular, you should not present unrelated, disjoint summaries of the publications found.
• Focus on areas of agreements, disagreements, tensions and contentious issues related to your topic.
• Evaluate the current "state of the art" for the body of knowledge reviewed, pointing out any gaps in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or issues pertinent to future study.
• Use citations to the literature throughout to support your claims. Where appropriate, include direct quotations from the literature and/or paraphrase previous author's arguments.
• Use strong "umbrella" or topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph, and brief "so what" summary sentences at intermediate points in the review, so the reader can easily identify the theme or aspect of the theme being described and understand comparisons and analyses.

4. Conclusions

• Summarise major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus on the research problem established in your problem statement.
• Conclude by summing up and identifying the significance of your chosen research problem in relation to the literature.
• Develop a brief recommendation for future studies into the problem in the context of the outcomes of your literature analysis.

5. References

• Provide a list of all references cited in the previous sections in a standard referencing format.
• All the references you cite must be of high quality, typically as evidenced by peer review.

Adapted from:

1. Review of literature (2006).  UW-Madison Writing Centre

http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html

2. Writing a literature review assignment (2014).  RMIT-Study and Learning Centre

https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/Writing_a_Literature_review_assignment_2015_Accessible.pdf.Number of

Words : 1750 Words/ 7 Pages

Referencing Style : APA

References : 8.