The document provides guidance on writing literature reviews for academic essays and research. It explains that a literature review surveys and synthesizes existing scholarly publications on a topic to establish current knowledge and identify gaps. It discusses common problems such as lack of context or relevance in citations. The document offers tips for critically analyzing sources and referencing them properly in a literature review. It emphasizes that reviews should synthesize findings around a guiding concept rather than just listing summaries.

1. Using Literature in Academic Writing
A mini-guide for M Ed students
Tony Jones and Nick Reynolds

2. What is a review of the literature?
 an account of what has been published on a topic by
accredited scholars and researchers
 it is often part of the introduction to an
essay, research report, or thesis
 the purpose is to convey to your reader what
knowledge and ideas have been established on a
topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are
 Your first assignment is not a lit review but an
informed essay, many of the same rules apply

3. Nature of a lit review
 As a piece of writing, the literature review must be
defined by a guiding concept (i.e., 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. In this case your negotiated topic will be the
‗guiding concept‘

4. Some typical problems
 There are many benefits to classroom use of
IWBs. Teachers and students both suggest that
there is an improvement in lessons in which IWBs
are used (Higgins et al., 2005).
What lessons?
No context, no What
relevance improvements?
Not sure why
Higgins is even
there

5. More Problems Not academic
literature
No citation
 IWBs provide ways to show students anything which
can be presented on a computer's desktop. They are
great for demonstrations. In addition, IWBs ―allow
teachers to record their instruction and post the
material for review by students at a later time.‖ This
can be a very effective instructional strategy for
students who benefit from repetition, who need to see
the material presented again, for struggling
learners, and for review for examinations. ―Brief
instructional blocks can be recorded for review by
students—they will see the exact presentation that
occurred in the classroom with the teacher's audio
input. This can help transform learning and
instruction‖ (Wikipedia, 2007).
Description
Doesn‘t really add Not synthesised
anything

6. In a lit review you gain and
demonstrate skills in:
 information seeking: the ability to scan the
literature efficiently, using manual or
computerised 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

7. A good example
 The technology acceptance model (Lee, 2006)
suggests that emerging technology tools will be
adopted according to ease of use and perceived
usefulness. In other words, if tools and systems
offered in an LMS are not easy to use and
useful, then teaching staff will not adopt them.
Synthesised
Contextual
Not a direct
quote

8. A literature review can and should:
 be organised around and related directly to the
argument or research question you are developing (in
your case this is the topic you are writing about)
 synthesise results into a summary of what is and is not
known (certainly what is known)
 identify areas of controversy in the literature (or at least
acknowledge that these areas exist)
 formulate questions that need further research (not
necessarily the case for your essay though)

9. Nicely worded!
 If the postmodern era can be defined as ‗the
analysis of disintegrating modernist social orders
and representations‘ (Elliot, 2010, p. 290) then
our technological world certainly fits into this
epoch. The very structure of computer
technology, and more specifically the online
community, is ‗rhizomatic:‘ horizontal rather than
vertical; decentred rather than centred;
unstructured rather than structured, with many
points, intersections and overlappings
(Schroeder, 2005) .
Contextually defined
Synthesised

10. Academic Vs Professional Voice
 Usually lit reviews are not written in the 1st person (not
always though)
 There is nothing wrong with using the 1st person in
academic writing – but it‘s not ‗just about me and what I think‘
 Your professional voice is informed by your practice
and experience – who you are as an education professional
 Your academic voice is informed but your readings
and your research – what you‘ve read and what it means
 This essay requires both – I would rather a stronger
professional voice than an attempt at ‗academia‘ that weakens what you
have written

11. Not bad either: ‗groups‘ of authors
 There is also an underlying approach to the study of
composition stemming from Wallas (1926), through
Torrance (1963), Guilford (1967) and Webster (1979)
to Kratus (1989; 2001) that looks at the process of
composition as a series of steps, or as in the case of
Kratus (1994; 2001) three processes
(exploration, development and repetition), that
composers take leading up to the final product.

12. Questions about sources (1)
 Does the author formulate a problem/issue?
 Is this clearly defined?
 Is its significance established?
 Is there another approach to the problem?
 What is the author‘s research orientation?
 What is the author‘s theoretical framework?
 What is relationship between research and
theoretical perspective?
These are questions to ask yourself when reading as they
inform what was written

13. Questions about sources (2)
 Has the author reviewed relevant literature?
 How good (appropriate) is the research design?
 population, intervention, outcome
 valid instruments, accurate data analysis
 Objective reasoning or appeals to emotion?
 Does the author structure the argument?
 How does this contribute to understanding?
 How does this relate to my question/topic?
These are questions to ask yourself when reading as they
inform what was written

14. Critical analysis in relation to a topic
 Their review of literature is one that is drawn
mostly from old sources that describe the uses of
computers in the teaching of music. Their
understanding of CAI fits with Papert‘s (1980;
1993b) less than flattering description made in
the early 1980s where CAI ―means making the
computer teach the child‖ (1980, p. 5). Papert‘s
ideal is that the role of the computer is to be a
―carrier of cultural ‗germs‘ or ‗seeds‘ whose
intellectual products will not need technological
support once they take root in an actively growing
mind‖ (p. 9). Context
Critique against other
sources

15. Questions about lit reviews
 How good was your information seeking?
 found all relevant material?
 excludes irrelevant material?
 number of sources appropriate for length?
 Are sources critically analysed? Rather than just used
because you need to fill up your reference list!
 Are contrary studies cited and discussed?
 Is the review relevant, appropriate and useful to
readers?

16. Referencing
 Use author/date
 No need for page numbers unless using a direct
quote
 Full stop at the end of the sentence
 Returning to play and its centrality to the current
study, Daiute (1989) argues that ―play is a form of
thought for children‖ (p. 2).
 Try not to use too many direct quotes. If using
large chunks (best not to) indent without ―‖
My point is that ‗good‘ is a simple notion, just as ‗yellow‘ is a simple notion;
that, just as you cannot, by any manner of means, explain to anyone who
doesn‘t already know it, what yellow is, so you cannot explain what good
is (Moore in Moustakas, 1981, p. 210).

17. Final comments
Lit reviews are discursive prose not descriptive or
summary lists.
Where possible, don‘t start paragraphs with author‘s
name.
Do synthesise and evaluate.
Organise based on themes, trends, theories.
Annotated bibliographies are lit reviews with a
summary of each source.