#Becomingeducational So your students have to produce a literature review…
In this post our Helen Webster considers useful ways to tackling the literature review when for most students the literature is overwhelming – the arguments already produced unassailable – and the gaps… What gaps?!
Illustrated with some brilliant ‘mapping the literature’ templates that we personally can’t wait to use!!
All the best,
Sandra & Tom
Words words words wordswordswordswords….
One of the challenges of a literature review is gaining enough distance to see the wood for the trees. Especially for students whose disciplines don’t generally involve writing words about words, a literature review can be more bewildering than orienting. We see this in literature reviews which become a catalogue of isolated, often descriptive entries: I read this text and it says this….and then i read that text and it says this….and then I read another text and it says this…..
One of the difficulties is that academic writing is by its nature persuasive. Each article, each book, wants the reader to believe that this is the most important text on the subject, this is the most significant contribution to debate, this is the final word on the matter. It’s what a REF-driven research context demands. So they’re ALL important, all significant, all authoritative and unassailable…
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Becoming An Educationalist 