您正在看的英语阅读是:The Literature Review:Tips On Conducting It。

　　What is a review of the literature?

　　A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography--see the bottom of the next page), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.

　　Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas:

　　- information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books

　　- critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.

　　A literature review must do these things:

　　- be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing

　　- synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known

　　- identify areas of controversy in the literature

　　- formulate questions that need further research

　　Ask yourself questions like these:

　　1.What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define?

　　2.What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies )?

　　3.What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., nursing psychology, sociology, medicine)?

　　4.How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources I've used appropriate for the length of my paper?

　　5.Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?

　　6.Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?

　　7.Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

　　Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

　　1.Has the author formulated a problem/issue?

　　2.Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?

　　3.Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?

　　4.What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?

　　5.What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?

　　6.What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?

　　7.Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?