Writing a literature review...

[Whisper]

I am trying to start writing a lit. review that will form the majority of my diseratation word count. (emphasis on trying!) My supervisor suggested that I create an appendix and include a table that looks at each of the articles, I have emailed her back, but won't get reply till after Tuesday because of the bank holiday.

So I was hoping you guys could be my sounding board and see if my titles for columns make sense.

Author is a really obvious one as well as the reference, I thought about then putting in a summary of the findings, what kind of research the study was, and if the paper made any recomendations.

The problem is that that is only 5 headings and she suggested around ten... I have checked my reserach books and I think I must be missing something really obvious, so has anyone got any ideas???

I have no shifts for tomorrow and was hoping to crack on, but at this rate I may just have to enjoy the bank holiday 'sun!' :rotfl:

Whisper

[J. Tigana]

You could include headings which detail what the researcher's thesis was or their research question, the methodology, data collection methods, data analysis methods, how they attempted to limit bias, limitations to each study

e.t.c.

[elkpark]

Publication date and "N" (sample size) are important info ...

[Whisper]

Thankyou ever so much! I am not great at writing essays and literature reviews seem even harder.... I think having so many more references to juggles is what worries me, so I am making extra effort to be organised!

Whisper

[llg, PhD, RN]

I learned to do make such tables during my doctoral program in the United States. I recommend them highly and agree with the suggestions that J. Tigana and Elpark gave.

You might want to combine some of your columns into one (e.g. Author and reference). Depending on your topic and references, you might want a column for "what type of article?" -- e.g. a review article, a research article, a meta-analysis, a philosophical or concept clarification article, theory article, etc. You might have some good articles that are not strictly research reports.

Then for research reports, you might want to get specific ... methodology, sample characteristics, research question/hypotheses, results, conclusions/recommendations, perhaps theoretical foundation of the research, limitations.

Good luck!

llg

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

This site might help

http://www.joannabriggs.edu.au/pubs/approach.php

[Whisper]

Wow! and thanks again,

You guys are the greatest, virtual cookies to you all!

Thanks for the link Gwenith,

Whisper