In a Nutshell...
Your task is to write a literature review on a contentious and/or novel topic in the sciences (this is anindividual submission).The literature review is due on Week 9, 10 May 22:00.To ensure the references you are including in the literature review are adequate for your topic, you are to submit anAnnotated bibliography on Week 7, 19 April 22:00
(Assessment 3b: Literature Review Part 1- Annotated bibliography).
The Assessment Task
You are to choose acontentious and/or novel topic that is related to science/technology and write a literature review.This is the same list of topics used for the group presentations. You are free to choose from this list (you may want to write about the same topic in which your group presentation was basedORchoose an entirely new topic).
Topics_Assessment2aGroupPres_Assessm3LitReview.docx
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To assist you, we have created a
template (includes guidelines)
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for you to follow. We have also provided an
Exemplar Literature Review
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in case you want to see what a literature review looks like. Below, we also define what a literature review, offer guidance and provide the grading criteria
LitReview_Marking.docActions.
What is a literature review?
In a literature review, you will conduct an in-depth investigation about published sources (or literature) on a topic. To write a literature review, you need to collect, organise, evaluate, and critically interpret information about the topic in question. In the literature review, you will essentially tell the reader what you have learned from your investigation. You will communicate the different viewpoints about a topic and you will also highlight where there are gaps (i.e. areas where not much research has been done or there is little knowledge).
It is of extreme importance that when you write your literature review you are objective, and produce it using logical and evidence-based arguments.
RMIT’s Learning lab has created a great page that provides many tips when working in a literature review. Westrongly recommendyou visit this page:
https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/choose-define-refine-your-topic(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
What you will find below are snippets taken from RMIT’s learning lab.
A literature review is:
- a review of writings, or literature, on a particular subject/topic
- a review of the most relevant, recent and scholarly work in the subject/topic area
- a piece of writing that supports, evaluates and critiques your research topic.
A literature review is not:
- a summary of articles, texts or journals; or
- an analytical, opinionative or argumentative essay.
The purpose of a literature review is to:
- establish a theoretical framework for your topic/subject area
- define key terms, definitions and terminology
- state what is the current state of knowledge about your topic by identifying studies, models, case studies, etc., supporting your topic
- define/establish your area of study, i.e. your research topic.
The three key points of a literature review are:
- what the research says (theory)
- how the research was carried out (methodology)
- what is missing, i.e. the gap that your research intends to fill.
https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/content/what-literature-review(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
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How to get started?
The first step is to
pick a topic.
ActionsAnd the good news is you’ve already started. On Week 2, we gave you a list of topics that were used for the group presentations. We use the same list of topics for this assessment. You are free to choose a topic that interests you. Hopefully you have already heard about this topic from your own group presentation or another fellow group of students.
For advice on doing the literature review (from doing your research, critically evaluating it, summarising and organising your readings and writing) we once again refer you to theRMIT learning lab(Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., who have put together a series of guidelines for each of these steps.
However,to ensure you are on the right track, we want you to organise your references into a matrix and submit Assessment 3b: Literature Review Part 1 – Annotated bibliography.
References
In a literature review, you will refer to references throughout the document (in-text citations) and at the end of the document (reference list).
Which reference style should you use?
For this assignment, we will be using theHarvard referencing style.
The following website is an excellent guide for references (how to incorporate citations in your text and also how to compile a reference list at the end of your document).
Don’t know where to look for references?
When you write a literature review, you conduct an in-depth investigation about published sources (or literature) on a topic. To write it, you need to collect, organise, evaluate, and critically interpret the relevant scholarly work that has been written about the topic in question. That means you must read and collect references, which can be very daunting.The following sources will help guide you when finding references.
This checklist can help you decide whether a reference is relevant for your topic.
Authority/Validity (of research and sources)
- Where has this research come from? Who conducted the research?
- Is the author an authority in their field of study? Is it from a valid/credible source, e.g. an educational institution?
- Is it peer reviewed or been passed by an editorial panel, e.g. is it in a refereed journal?
- If it is from a website, does it contain details of the author, is it from an '.edu' site, does it have a publication date?
Accuracy/Objectivity
- Is the literature accurate and how do you know? One way to find out is to check if the same research is referred to in other sources, or is it inconsistent with other findings? If not, is the argument (method, research design, etc.) on which they are based convincing?
- How do you know the data is true? What other supporting data is there?
- Is there evidence of bias in the article? For example, would you trust research from a cigarette manufacturer claiming that smoking does not damage your health?
Currency
- What is the publication date of the material?
- Have you found any more recent research that casts doubt upon or refutes some findings? It is advisable to have references that are current.
Coverage
- Is the information complete? Based on your research so far, does the information appear to cover the area being studied?
- What is the sample size? Is it adequate?
- Is there any further research that has not been mentioned or deliberately omitted from the findings?
Location
- In which country was the article written?
- Is the location relevant/important to your research?
Note on the internet:The internet has given people access to huge amounts of information. Some of this is valid, other parts are not. You cannot simply accept that all information/research available on the internet, e.g. through Google, is valid. Many university libraries, such as the RMIT library, subscribe to online, referenced journals, which provide current academic writings. These are not always available through Google.
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