Working or a draft title: major road sign in research (orienting device)
try completing this sentence: My study is about….
Another strategy for topic development is to pose the topic as a brief question. What question needs to be answered in the proposed study?
what treatment is best for bipolar depression? what brings South-asian people to tourist sites in the Midwest?
Literature review can take several forms:
Steps in conducting a lit review (see handout).
From: Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches / John W. Creswell
When researchers write reviews of the literature for proposed studies, they locate articles and develop brief abstracts of the articles that comprise the review. An abstract is a brief review of the literature (typically a short paragraph) that summarizes major elements to understand the basic features of the article. A good summary of a research study reported in a journal might include the following points
From: Research design : qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches / John W. Creswell
The first part is one or two paragraphs long, and provides a rationale for the research. This begins to set the stage for the methodology and data that follow.
The second part comprises one or several paragraphs that contain references that acknowledge the previous work of others. It is mandatory that you have references in the introduction, and, therefore, the review of literature, because you cannot relate the work you will be doing to the previous literature without them.
The third part is normally one paragraph long, and is a clear and concise statement of the purpose(s) of the work. This will almost always be in the form of an overall objective and the specific objectives that, taken together, show the reader what hypothesis(es) will be tested and question(s) answered. The first and the last paragraphs are especially important, because the writer needs to begin strongly and end strongly.
During development of these three parts of the introduction, the writer should get across to the reader why s/he should be interested in and care about this research and its significance. The writer can also explain why previous research results should be reopened or extended, and often this can be accomplished by an appropriately balanced presentation and discussion of controversies in the published literature. Many times, an excellent item to include in the rationale is the identification of a specifically targeted audience and how that audience could apply the results of this research. By incorporation of these items during the development of the introduction, the writer creates links to the discussion section of the manuscript, and this linkage can be a good thing that helps the reader understand the value of the research that was conducted.
From: Gladon, R. J., Graves, W. R., & Kelly, J. M. (2011). Getting published in the life sciences. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell. More books on Science Writing.
This method provides an easy way to get started and presents an instant structure/format to follow.
This method dictates that the first paragraph of the discussion is written as a compilation of your take-home messages; that is, simply write your take-home messages, one after another, to make a paragraph of two to four sentences (e.g.,"...We also conclude that....", ".....Our data also shows that....").
Each subsequent paragraph is devoted to synthesizing and strengthening each take-home message, at a rate of one per paragraph, in the same order presented in the first paragraph of the Discussion section. Hence, the second paragraph of the discussion is your synthesis and strengthening of the first take-home message you listed in the first paragraph. The synthesizing and strengthening that occurs in each take-home message is the wordage you use to:
In some journals, or sometimes as a part of the style of a particular author, a final paragraph will be provided. The purpose of this final paragraph is to link together all of the take-home messages into an over-arching conclusion, or conclusions, or a theory concerning the interpretation of the meaning of the entire project. If you include a final paragraph, it should not be a simple restating of the information in the first paragraph of the discussion but rather should present an over-arching conclusion or theory.
From: Gladon, R. J., Graves, W. R., & Kelly, J. M. (2011). Getting published in the life sciences. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell.