Positioning yourself in relation to previous research

How to decide what's in and what's out?

This is always a hard question - you need to work on developing your own principles for the bodies of literature - and the scholars - you end up including in the literature review and those you exclude.
Kamler and Thomson have a suggestion. They say to try thinking of the literature review as like a dinner party. You are the host, and you decide who comes and who sits where, depending on how much they can contribute to the conversation about your topic. Don't forget that you are the boss: if someone's talk becomes irrelevant, throw them out!
They also suggest that one good way to start is to do an exercise where you use a template or skeleton to get you on the right track with your literature review.
Try this early in your candidature. You may like to attempt the exercise together with research peers in your discipline.

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Planning the review

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself when you are planning and drafting your Literature Review:

1. What has been done in your field of research? What principles of selection are you going to use?
2. How are you going to order your discussion? Chronological, thematic, conceptual, methodological or combination? What section headings will you use?
3. How do the various studies relate to each other? What precise contribution do they make to the field? What are their limitations?
4. How does your own research fit into what has already been done?

Adapted from Literature Review Guide, Gail Craswell, ANU.

Try to think of a title for your literature review. If you can think of a good one, this is more interesting for the examiner than simply 'Literature Review'.
If your review of the literature is segmented into several chapters, relating to and introducing your own research in each one, you will have to develop chapter titles anyway.

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What are the examiners looking for in the literature review?

(See also What PhD thesis examiners expect.)
A review of the literature should:

• set up a theoretical framework for your research
• show your reader that you have a clear understanding of the key concepts/ideas/studies/ models related to your topic
• demonstrate that you know about the history of your research area and any related controversies.

In addition, it can:

• discuss these ideas in a context appropriate for your own investigation
• evaluate the work of others
• clarify important definitions/terminology
• show how your work will fill the research 'space' or gap which you have identified in the Introduction
• narrow the problem, make the study feasible.

Citation of sources has many roles and purposes. The citing of others' ideas:

• acknowledges the work of others and protects you against the charge of plagiarism
• gives greater weight to the authoritativeness of your work
• demonstrates you have a (critical) grasp of the field
• demonstrates that you have the capacity to be critical of scholarly work
• justifies the significance of your choice of topic
• identifies a gap in current knowledge and thus prepares a space for your own work.

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Review the literature

Why do you need to review the literature for your thesis or project?

A review of the literature has the following functions:

• to justify your choice of research question, theoretical or conceptual framework and method
• to establish the importance of the topic
• to provide background information needed to understand the study
• to show readers you are familiar with significant and/or up-to-date research relevant to the topic
• to establish your study as one link in a chain of research that is developing knowledge in your field.

The review traditionally provides an historical overview of the theory and the research literature, with a special emphasis on the literature specific to the thesis topic. It serves as well to support the argument/proposition behind your thesis, using evidence drawn from authorities or experts in your research field. It provides the bridge between your introduction of your research question or problem and the presentation of your original contribution.
Your review of the literature may be:

1. stand-alone; or
2. embedded in the discussion; or
3. segmented into a series of chapters on several topics.

The review must be shaped by a focus on key areas of interest, including research which provides a background to the topic. It should also be selective. A common mistake in writing the review is to comment on everything you have read regardless of its relevance. In your writing it is useful to think of the review as a funnel - start wide with the overview and then narrow fairly quickly into discussing the research that relates to your specific topic.
Another way of looking at the process, particularly if you are examining several topics (or variables) is to think of yourself as rather like a film director (Rudestam & Newton, 1992). You can think of providing your audience with:

• long shots to provide a solid sense of the background
• middle distance shots where the key figures and elements to be examined are brought clearly into view
• close-up shots where the precise focus of your work is pin-pointed.

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Discuss your methodology

What you need to discuss

In a thesis you are setting out an argument based on evidence. This evidence may have many different forms and be gathered or selected by many different methods, according to the discipline and field of inquiry. However, every thesis needs to answer these questions:

"How did you do your research?"

"Why did you do it that way?"

This covers not only the methods used to collect and analyse data, but also the theoretical framework that informs both the choice of methods and the approach to interpreting the data, and relates all of these explicitly to the research question(s) addressed in the thesis.
You may need to summarise available methods and theoretical approaches for your research topic; you will certainly need to justify choice of method(s) (where a combination of methods is used, that needs to be justified too), and indicate any relevant limitations they may have.
All this will be set out in preliminary form in the research proposal you wrote for confirmation of candidature, but it is likely that you have refined and developed it since then. In addition, you now have to report the details of how, where and when the study was actually carried out.
The detail and emphasis of what is covered will be different in different disciplines.

Scientific and technical disciplines:

• rationale for choosing materials, methods and procedures
• details of materials, equipment and procedures that will allow others to
• replicate experiments
• understand and implement technical solutions

Social science disciplines:

• demonstration of fit between methods chosen and research question(s)
• how the data was
• collected
• recorded
• analysed
• rationale for sampling or choice of cases, representativity of sample or case

Humanities disciplines:

• what sources were used
• rationale for choice of sources (considering their fit with the research question, and how representative they are)
• approach to interpretation - what approach was chosen and why

Where to present it in the thesis

In the classic "Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion" thesis structure common in the experimental and social sciences, the discussion of research methods occupies a separate chapter. However, where the research consists of a series of experiments or studies that are reported separately, it is usually more appropriate to devote a chapter with its own methods section to each study.
Theses that are arranged in thematic chapters may have a discussion of methodology and theoretical framworks in the introductory chapter, or the discussion may be integrated into individual chapters.

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Introduce your thesis

Chapter One is important!

Your first chapter is extremely important because it sets the scene and the tone for the thesis. It is your first real opportunity to highlight the importance and value of your work and to contextualise it, all in a well-written, clear and interesting manner. This is the first impression that the reader or your examiner will get. It will give an indication of the writing style, the depth of research and content, structure, language and complexity. Examiners indicate that they pay considerable attention to the first chapter, which creates a strong initial indication as to the standard of the thesis.
This first chapter must introduce the thesis with an emphasis on its key components, providing a clear statement of the topic or problem under investigation. It generally includes:

• Context information
• Theoretical framework
• Statement of the problem or 'gap' in the research
• Aims of the project
• Brief description of your methodology/ research
• Outline of chapters - Thesis plan

The purpose of the Introduction is to provide a rationale for your research project. It establishes the need for your research within the current knowledge of the discipline, in a clearly constructed logical and explicit argument, clarifying how this work will contribute to knowledge in the field. In addition, the Introduction often discusses why the particular approach taken in conducting the research has been chosen.
To establish the need for your research, you must indicate in precise terms the problem which has not yet been adequately investigated. This is usually done by showing:

• the limitations of previous research
• the gaps in the previous research
• the unresolved conflicts in the field that still require investigation
• new developments that are required by the current state of knowledge in your field.

You will probably treat these points in more detail elsewhere in the thesis - if you review the literature in a free-standing chapter or in sections of separate chapters, for example - but you still need to present them in summary form in the introductory chapter.
The Introduction generally moves from general information providing background about the research field to specific information about the research project itself, culminating in an outline of the chapters . This finale to the introductory chapter provides a plan of the structure of your project, describing chapter by chapter, the major components of the research and showing how the various threads are woven together. Try to make it interesting and informative as you outline the way the content is organised in each chapter.

When to write the introductory chapter

Write a preliminary draft of the introduction at the start of the research process. It is a good way to clarify your own thinking and the parameters of your project. However, keep in mind that this is only a draft. Review your introduction periodically, but don't worry too much about it until you have finished most of the writing.
When you have completed the whole thesis, then go back to Chapter One. You are now better informed about your research and your findings than you were when you started, and are now in a position to craft a first chapter in accordance with your overview of the whole research, your findings, the literature, and theory, linking all strands and demonstrating its scholarly contribution. Pay particular attention to your choice of language: refine your expression until you believe it is clear and concise, and you have created a well-written and interesting text. You want to ensure that your reader is sufficiently engaged to want to read the whole thesis.
At this final stage in your thesis, when you have completed your research and most of the writing and are really feeling close to completion, you may well be feeling exhausted from the sustained effort, and eager for closure, with little energy to pursue an additional thesis task. But, like the mountain climber so close to the summit, you are well advised to muster all the energy that you have, to focus on Chapter One until it is a really good piece of writing which succinctly encapsulates the essence of the thesis. It is worth the effort!
Be particularly careful with proofreading this chapter; a first chapter with errors suggests sloppy work and the possibility that the research has been conducted in a sloppy manner too.
Use the final paragraph of your introduction to make sure that the sequencing of your chapters is logical. Remember, you are telling a story: the story of your research.

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