The Art of Literature Review

elective courses

The course focuses on refining research and literature review skills in linguistics and other humanities disciplines. It transforms the literature review process into a practice of critical thinking and writing, the end result of which is interesting for the target reader.

Specific issues covered in the course include evaluation of sources in terms of their relevance to research problems, the place of literature review in the dissertation; types of literature review; applications of research literature outside formal literature review; degree of granularity; organization of review by subtopics and research questions; selection of review perspective and voice; quoting vs. paraphrasing.

The review of relevant research literature is expected in Ph.D. dissertation, both by the supervisors and the reviewers. In most cases, dissertations in linguistics include a dedicated chapter (typically the first chapter after the introduction). As the first “real” part of the dissertation, it provides the first impression of the text's merit in terms of research skills and analytical thinking. Poor literature review may impact the readers’ opinions of the dissertation negatively despite efforts in subsequent chapters. The challenge of writing an effective literature review chapter is how to succinctly and persuasively present the often overwhelming amount or research done throughout the dissertation writing process.

During the course we will be discussing strategies, approaches, and techniques that help organize this part of one’s research into an engaging and reader-oriented text.. The course will draw on participants’ previous experiences of success stories and good practices of how successful literature review can be done. We will also address challenges and (possibly) failures to find ways of avoiding them in the future. .

The topics of discussion are:

● Different types of research literature and their relevance to specific research problems, including differences in how sources are relevant (background and context, inspiration for methodology, data, arguments and conclusions to agree/disagree with)

● Planning review strategy: combining together in one chapter or presenting where appropriate

● Creating a synoptic consistent picture of what has been published

● Review organization: by topic, by author, by chronology of publication

● Reviewing whole texts vs text fragments

● Making sense of diverse and divergent theoretical frameworks

● Advantages of paraphrasing and quoting/translating

● The art of intellectual disagreement

● Balancing between avoiding bias and maintaining one’s voice and perspective

● Avoiding plagiarism and unethical practices

The participants will be required to prepare a short fragment of their literature review to be presented and discussed in class (the language of such a sample to be decided in class).

Ar Rabbim Md.Tahamid and Mian Md. Naushaad Kabir, „Literature Review in Applied Linguistics: A Conceptual Framework,” in English Language Teaching in the Twenty First Century. Issues and Challenges, ed. T. Karunakaran, 138-158, Colombo – Chenai: Kumaran Book House, 2014

Greetham, Bryan, How to write your literature review, New York: MacMillian Publishers, 2021.

Ridley, Diana, The Literature Review. A Step-by-Step Guide for Students, Los Angeles: Sage Publishers, 2012.

Upon completing the course, the student

● Is aware of multiple and varied research paradigms and theoretical frameworks in linguistics

● Understand academic texts relevant to their research, produced in various theoretical frameworks

● Is capable of critical understanding of relevant literature and employing it appropriately in their research and writing.

P8S_WG.1; P8S_WG.2; P8S_WG.3; P8S_UW.1; P8S_UK.4; P8S_KR.1

○ Regular class attendance (three absences without justification acceptable)

○ Participation in class discussions

○ Preparing the sample literature review

(Make-up assignment: another sample of your literature review)