introduction & literature review webinar
DESCRIPTION
This must see webinar provides tips on writing the introduction and literature review sections of your dissertation. Dr. Lani provides tips on searching, reading, organizing, and writing your literature review.TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and Literature Review
By Dr. James Lani
The Dissertation Hourglass
INTRODUCTION/LITERATURE REVIEW
METHODOLOGY
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
• OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROBLEM--Why study
topic?
• SIGNIFICANCE OF PROBLEM—Why important?
• RATIONALE
• IDENTIFY KEY VARIABLES—How do you measure?
• EXPLAIN PROCEDURES—How are measures
administered?
• A FEW PAGES IN LENGTH
Introduction/Literature Review
• Literature (body of work) and review (survey of).
• Critical thinking skills matter—especially to the argument. A critical review includes previous research strengths and weaknesses.
• Writing skills matter (organize your chapter, use topic sentences, paragraphs must be coherent, have intros and conclusions).
• Stay in charge of your study (the best you can—you know more than the committee).
• Tells readers what’s been done and identifies the gaps in the literature.
• Search relevant information then evaluate it.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature
• Provides the context of the study.
• Empirical and logical.
• Build a coherent argument, answering why the
study needs to be conducted.
Articles
SEARCH READ ORGANIZE WRITE
Searching • Keywords matter.
• The source matters—e.g., Use peer reviewed.
• Primary sources—textbooks (overviews), journals
(peer reviewed), dissertation abstracts, research
reviews.
• Start with recent articles.
• Find a good reference librarian; learn Boolean
searches (AND, OR).
Search Strategies
• Identify databases.
• Identify appropriate search terms.
• Expand and narrow.
• Use citation chaining.
Identify Databases and Search Terms
• What are the big databases for this field?
• Ex. PubMed for medicine
• What terms best describe this topic?
• You may already have a clear idea of these terms, if not
do some preliminary searches to help identify them.
Expand and Narrow
• Consider the number of results.
• Use filters.
• Identify relevant articles and note their
subjects or keywords.
• Use these to do a new search
Citation Chaining • Using a relevant resource to find more relevant resources by looking at who they cite and who cites them.
Relevant Resources
Relevant Resources
Relevant Resources
Cites Cites
Reading
• Reading Strategy:1. Abstract2. Introduction3. Topic Sentences of method and
results4. Skim discussion5. If interesting, then rest of article
• What is the problem? What is the research question?
• What was the research design?
• Who or what is being studied?
• Sample size?
• What measures were used? How were they operationalized?
• What were the procedures used, and what were the results?
• Constantly ask the “so what questions.”
• What is the central theme of the research?
Organizing
• Use a system of keeping notes (e.g., group articles
into categories/themes).
• Movie analogy: long shot (generally relevant to your
topic), medium shot and close up (very relevant to
your topic) shots.
Organizing Your Search
• Keep track of databases, search terms
• Use reference management software
• Zotero
• RefWorks
• EndNote
Writing
• You don’t have to cite EVERYTHING that you’ve read—
be selective (e.g., evidence in a courtroom is very
selective).
• Don’t “””quote””” to death.
• Use tons of subheadings (easy to sequence).
• Summarize sections often.
• Transition between paragraphs and between
sections.
Literature Review Conclusion
Solidify that argument
Example from My Dissertation
Questions Stimulated By and Limitations of the HW (1999) Study
• Several Questions were stimulated by the findings of the HW (1999) study. In this section I will discuss problematic findings, construct hypotheses as to what may have…
• One puzzling finding from the • A couple of limitations in the HW study hindered the usefulness and generalizability
of the marker strategy.
First…• I also wondered whether the markers from her study were applicable to other
therapies from different theoretical orientations.
Given the above questions and limitations regarding the HW study, I now present my study that address these issues.
Research Questions
I examined two primary questions in this study:
1.Can markers of assimilation be reliably identified
in excerpted passages of psychotherapy
transcripts?
2.Are the identified markers valid indicators of APES
stages?
Research Questions: Qualitative
• Qualitative research questions– Phenomenological
research (Moustakas) shows human lived
experiences, uncovers the texture of factors, and
encompassing descriptions of experience.
• Qualitative research questions– Grounded theory
research (Morse) builds a theory. It is a process
type of question:
• How the process is helped or hindered?
• How did the process change from time period to
time period?
Hypotheses
Educated guess of how variables interact with each
other or change in response to time or intervention.
Should be crystal clear to naïve readers–
comprehensible.
Questions
&
Answers
Personalized Dissertation Consulting
See yourself graduate in 2015!• Problem
Statement
• Significance
• Theoretical
Framework
• Literature Review
Searches
• Annotate
Bibliography &
Synthesize
• Research Questions
877-437-8622Info@StatisticsSolutio
ns.com
Thank you for your participation
and attention!Join us for our next webinar onWednesday, November 19th at
8:30pm EST
Methodology and IRB/URR
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Saturday December 6th, 2014 9:00 am-5:00 pmDallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott
Fee: $199
Lodging: $89/night