2. Natural and conventional
signs
A literature review is usually written as part of a thesis proposal
(project) or at the beginning of a dissertation or thesis.
A literature review gives an overview of the area of study:
what has already been said on the topic;
who the key writers are;
what the prevailing theories and hypotheses are;
what questions are being asked;
what methodologies are appropriate and useful. In a
literature review, you demonstrate that you have read and
understood previous and current research in the area.
3. Steps for Writing a Literature
Review
1. Do a literature search
Find out what has been written about your topic.
A good starting point is the list of references or
bibliography of a recent article or book on the
topic. Then use other bibliographical sources
including abstracts, electronic data bases and the
Internet. If you decide that a text is relevant, write
down the bibliographical details in full—as the
item would appear in your list of references or
bibliography.
4. Steps for Writing a Literature
Review
2. Find the literature
First check whether the material is held at KFU. If
it is not, your supervisor might be able to assist
with some of the material, you may be able to
spend some time working in a library which has
more comprehensive holdings, or you might be
able to use inter-library system.
5. Steps for Writing a Literature
Review
3. Read the literature
Record the author and the title (you already have the
other bibliographical information) and take notes.
Your aim is to determine how the topic is
approached and what is said about it. As you make
notes, ask yourself the some questions such as:
What is the methodology?
What are the definitions used?
What is the theoretical basis?
What evidence is used to back up the proposal?
6. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
There are three ways of incorporating source information into your
own writing: summary and paraphrase.
When you summarize or paraphrase, you restate in your own
words the idea(s) of another speaker or writer.
When you summarize information, you find the main ideas in an
article, essay, report, or other document, and rephrase them. You
shorten (condense) the most important idea or ideas in the source
material and express them in your own words. The purpose of
summarizing is to give the reader an overview of the article, report,
or chapter. If the reader is interested in the details, he or she will
read the original.
7. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
How to Write a Summary
The work you summarize can be as short as a paragraph, or as long as
a book. Before you can summarize anything, you need to read and
understand it. The material you summarize is usually an article,
essay, or chapter (or some portion of it). A typical summary for an
undergraduate research paper ranges from a few sentences to one or
two paragraphs. Here’s how to proceed:
1. Read through the piece carefully, looking up any words you don’t
understand. Write the meanings above the words they apply to.
2. Now read the article or essay again—and again, if necessary. Keep
reading it until you have identified the main ideas and formed a
mental picture of their arrangement. Highlight the title, subtitle, and
headings (if there are any).
8. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
How to Write a Summary
3. In point form, and in your own words, write out a bare-bones
outline of the piece. Your outline should consist of the
controlling idea (thesis) of the article and the key ideas, in the
order in which they appear. Do not include any supporting
details (statistics, specific facts, examples, etc.).
4. Working from your outline, draft your summary. In the first
sentence, identify the article or essay you are summarizing
(by title, enclosed in quotation marks) and the author (by
name, if known). Complete the sentence by stating the
author’s thesis/controlling idea.
9. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
How to Write a Summary
5. Revise your draft until it is coherent, concise, and makes
sense to someone who is unfamiliar with the original
work. It’s a good idea to get someone to read through
your summary to check it for clarity and completeness.
6. DON’T FORGET TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR
SOURCE.
10. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
How to Paraphrase
When you paraphrase, you restate someone else’s ideas in your own
words. Unlike a summary, a paraphrase includes both the main and
supporting ideas of your source. The usual purpose of a paraphrase
is to express someone else’s ideas more clearly and more simply—
to translate what may be complex in the original into easily
understandable prose.
A paraphrase may be longer than the original, it may be about the
same length, or it may be shorter. Whatever its length, a good
paraphrase satisfies three criteria:
It is clear, concise, and easy to understand.
It communicates the idea(s) of the original passage.
It doesn’t contain any idea(s) not found in the original passage.
11. How to Summarize and Paraphrase from
Sources
How to Paraphrase
Here are some simple steps you can follow to learn to paraphrase:
1.Read the passage several times until you understand its meaning and
relevance to the point you are making, and can restate it in your own
words. If you don’t understand the passage, it doesn’t make sense for
you to use it.
2.Look away from the original passage. Imagine that you are
summarizing the passage to a friend who is unfamiliar with your topic.
Usually you do not need to paraphrase the entire passage.
3.Rewrite the passage in your own words, summarizing only the
material that helps you make your point.
4.Check your version against the original to make sure that you have
accurately expressed the relevant information in your own words.
12. How to Paraphrase
For example, a phrase familiar to all baseball fans is
“hitting for the cycle.” It simply isn’t possible to restate
this phrase in three words. (It means that a batter gets a
single, a double, a triple, and a home run in a single
game.)
