Lit Review Help

purpleKetchup

Hi everyone,

Hoping someone can help me clarify something about lit reviews, I'm researching online and getting very confused. My lecturer is very clever but has flat out refused to explain what they are, he claims we are under pressure to cover material so we should research what a lit review is outside of class.
We have to submit a project proposal next week and part of the requirement is include a small lit review where we go over the abstracts/conclusions of a few different journal articles which will be used throughout the next 8 weeks for out main paper. I'm not sure how to interpret this as I'm not sure what exactly a lit review should be . .

"I have chosen abc by mr X to study, the author believes that trees are green. I plan to analyse their methodology and confirm their belief."

"Mr X (paper abc - 2003) believes that trees are green, this paper plans to examine some of the major points outlined in paper abc and introduces some of the arguments against his theory which exist in the industry today"

"This paper will look at Mr Xs paper, it will highlight his results and explain how these results came to be and how these results could have an impact in the area of tree colour estimations"

"I chose abc by mr X, he believes trees are green which I agree with, he introduces the observation method of looking with your eyes, widely regarding as an outlandish method of determining tree colours, this paper hopes to outline the merits and demerits of mr Xs work"


Am I going in the right direction with any of these approaches?
Any help at all would be hugely appreciated.
ps It's a paper about economics, not science, if that makes a difference

Unshelved

The Library is your friend here -
http://www.ucd.ie/library/supporting_you/research_support/literature_review/

Be sure to contact your Subject Librarian - http://libguides.ucd.ie/guides - they will be happy to help.

purpleKetchup

Thanks Unshelved, I've been reading through the links, and I think it makes a little more sense now, but I'm still really unsure of my work. I have three papers, taken the abstract and conclusions and summarised them into a paragraph each. ie paper A - ann likes ducks because they fly, paper B - bob likes ducks because they swim, paper C - catherine likes ducks because they quack

Then i summarise the 3 papers as a whole for my opening statement - ie people like ducks, I then point out possible areas for future research - ie do city people like ducks as much as country folks, ann, bob and catherine all come from the country. Finally I conclude by wrapping up all the conclusions in one bunch. So in this case my lit review would look as follows:

People like ducks.

In a 2003 study Ann came to the conclusion that people like ducks because they fly. It is not just flying that attracts admiration for our duck friends, as discovered by bob (2008) who said that over the course of the last ten years, the national animal preference surveys have shown that people like ducks because they swim, this would indicate that we like animals well versed in different modes of travel. This was the generally accepted opinion on ducks until 2012 when catherine published a paper 'i love quacky ducks' which contrary to the previous two papers argued that the ducks graceful aviation and aquatic skills done little to impress people in modern society, and that the main reason behind the common ducks popularity is due to the sound of their quack.

It is important to be cautious when interpreting these results, most of the research involved the opinion of people who live in the country, whose opinion may be bias due to their proximity to duck lakes(?). Despite the possible bias, the general consensus seems to be that even taking into account ugly ducklings that ducks will continue to be popular, with the only variable being the reason why.

Fin

purpleKetchup

ps If anyone is doing a thesis on ducks feel free to use my previous lit review

convert

The library normally run writing clinics, which is a free drop-in clinic, so it could be worth your while dropping in to get some help with your work.