Postgraduate Student Learning

Having shifted our attention from the product to the process allows us to use analytical skills developed in undergraduate studies. This is important to remember because if we have no starting point it is very difficult to know when where and how to begin, so all postgraduates have the starting point of considering what strategies they tend to use when needing to analyse something:

define it, consider its key characteristics, distinguish between it and other similar things, consider its reason for being, wonder why it has significance,and just generally break it down into its major parts and see how they all fit together.

So lets apply that analytical method to the document called ‘The Lit Review’!

Definition of the Lit Review: Like all academic writing, a literature review must have an i

Structure of a Lit Review: Introduction, body, and conclusion.

” The introduction should include:

• the nature of the topic under discussion (the topic of your thesis)
• the parameters of the topic (what does it include and exclude)?
• the basis for your selection of the literature

The conclusion should include:

• A summary of major agreements and disagreements in the literature
• A summary of general conclusions that are being drawn.
• A summary of where your thesis sits in the literature

The body paragraphs could include relevant paragraphs on:

• historical background, including classic texts;
• current mainstream versus alternative theoretical or ideological viewpoints, including differing theoretical assumptions, differing political outlooks, and other conflicts;
• possible approaches to the subject (empirical, philosophical, historical, postmodernist, etc);
• definitions in use;
• current research studies;
• current discoveries about the topic;
• principal questions that are being asked;
• general conclusions that are being drawn;
• methodologies and methods in use;”
From the:

University of Canberra website: www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/learning/reading.html

( accessed March 2005)

Another way to consider this is:
• ” Define terms
• Justify selection of literature
• Justify omissions
• Forecast sections of review
• Signal structure
• Link your work to the literature
• Critique the literature
• Define the gap”

from Murray, R. 2002 How to Write a Thesis, Open University Press

Tip of the day

Look at a recently completed thesis in your discipline area, at your postgrdauate level that your supervisor recommends as a good example and analyse it.