Introduction and Literature Review

By Dr. James Lani

The Dissertation Hourglass

INTRODUCTION/LITERATURE REVIEW

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

• OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH PROBLEM--Why study

topic?

• SIGNIFICANCE OF PROBLEM—Why important?

• RATIONALE

• IDENTIFY KEY VARIABLES—How do you measure?

• EXPLAIN PROCEDURES—How are measures

administered?

• A FEW PAGES IN LENGTH

Introduction/Literature Review

• Literature (body of work) and review (survey of).

• Critical thinking skills matter—especially to the argument. A critical review includes previous research strengths and weaknesses.

• Writing skills matter (organize your chapter, use topic sentences, paragraphs must be coherent, have intros and conclusions).

• Stay in charge of your study (the best you can—you know more than the committee).

• Tells readers what’s been done and identifies the gaps in the literature.

• Search relevant information then evaluate it.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Literature

• Provides the context of the study.

• Empirical and logical.

• Build a coherent argument, answering why the

study needs to be conducted.

Articles

SEARCH READ ORGANIZE WRITE

Searching • Keywords matter.

• The source matters—e.g., Use peer reviewed.

• Primary sources—textbooks (overviews), journals

(peer reviewed), dissertation abstracts, research

reviews.

• Start with recent articles.

• Find a good reference librarian; learn Boolean

searches (AND, OR).

Search Strategies

• Identify databases.

• Identify appropriate search terms.

• Expand and narrow.

• Use citation chaining.

Identify Databases and Search Terms

• What are the big databases for this field?

• Ex. PubMed for medicine

• What terms best describe this topic?

• You may already have a clear idea of these terms, if not

do some preliminary searches to help identify them.

Expand and Narrow

• Consider the number of results.

• Use filters.

• Identify relevant articles and note their

subjects or keywords.

• Use these to do a new search

Citation Chaining • Using a relevant resource to find more relevant resources by looking at who they cite and who cites them.

Relevant Resources

Relevant Resources

Relevant Resources

Cites Cites

Reading

• Reading Strategy:1. Abstract2. Introduction3. Topic Sentences of method and

results4. Skim discussion5. If interesting, then rest of article

• What is the problem? What is the research question?

• What was the research design?

• Who or what is being studied?

• Sample size?

• What measures were used? How were they operationalized?

• What were the procedures used, and what were the results?

• Constantly ask the “so what questions.”

• What is the central theme of the research?

Organizing

• Use a system of keeping notes (e.g., group articles

into categories/themes).

• Movie analogy: long shot (generally relevant to your

topic), medium shot and close up (very relevant to

your topic) shots.

Organizing Your Search

• Keep track of databases, search terms

• Use reference management software

• Zotero

• RefWorks

• EndNote

Writing

• You don’t have to cite EVERYTHING that you’ve read—

be selective (e.g., evidence in a courtroom is very

selective).

• Don’t “””quote””” to death.

• Use tons of subheadings (easy to sequence).

• Summarize sections often.

• Transition between paragraphs and between

sections.

Literature Review Conclusion

Solidify that argument

Example from My Dissertation

Questions Stimulated By and Limitations of the HW (1999) Study

• Several Questions were stimulated by the findings of the HW (1999) study. In this section I will discuss problematic findings, construct hypotheses as to what may have…

• One puzzling finding from the • A couple of limitations in the HW study hindered the usefulness and generalizability

of the marker strategy.

First…• I also wondered whether the markers from her study were applicable to other

therapies from different theoretical orientations.

Given the above questions and limitations regarding the HW study, I now present my study that address these issues.

Research Questions

I examined two primary questions in this study:

1.Can markers of assimilation be reliably identified

in excerpted passages of psychotherapy

transcripts?

2.Are the identified markers valid indicators of APES

stages?

Research Questions: Qualitative

• Qualitative research questions– Phenomenological

research (Moustakas) shows human lived

experiences, uncovers the texture of factors, and

encompassing descriptions of experience.

• Qualitative research questions– Grounded theory

research (Morse) builds a theory. It is a process

type of question:

• How the process is helped or hindered?

• How did the process change from time period to

time period?

Hypotheses

Educated guess of how variables interact with each

other or change in response to time or intervention.

Should be crystal clear to naïve readers–

comprehensible.

Questions

&

Answers

Personalized Dissertation Consulting

See yourself graduate in 2015!• Problem

Statement

• Significance

• Theoretical

Framework

• Literature Review

Searches

• Annotate

Bibliography &

Synthesize

• Research Questions

877-437-8622Info@StatisticsSolutio

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