Discussion Thread: Literature Review Types and Primary Steps
Serenity3203
Chapter2forHtdylr.pptx
PowerPoint 2 Scanning, skimming, saving and storing
Chapter 2 from
How to do your literature review
This is PowerPoint 2 for Chapter 2 …
We will look at
Speed reading
Gutting books and articles
Keeping notes
Using a reference manager
All of this is discussed in much more detail in Chapter 2 of How to Do Your Literature Review
Speed reading
Don’t try to read word by word.
Rather than reading left to right as normal, scan down the centre of the page.
Allow yourself a maximum time to scan one page – say, 20 seconds.
Give more time to diagrams and tables, which contain more information than words.
Cover the lines and paragraphs that you have already read. Or if reading on a screen, keep scrolling so that you can’t go back.
Don’t try to understand the full sense of a piece. Just get an impression of what it’s about. Use titles and section headings to help you in this.
Don’t be a perfectionist. If it doesn’t make sense, move on.
Gutting an article
Read the abstract, if there is one. If not (if it’s a chapter, for example), use some other summary, often contained in the Introduction section.
Look at the keywords. Do they address the theme of your own research questions?
Scan and survey the whole piece quickly, remembering that key nuggets of information occur at the beginning and end of an article or chapter, and at the beginning and end of paragraphs.
Ask yourself questions, related especially to what you intend to find out.
Gutting a book
Very quickly, flip through the book to get a general impression of its relevance for you. Don’t be tempted to try to read parts in detail.
Look at the table of contents – the headings and subheadings. Pay particular attention to the Introduction chapter. In many books, this contains a useful summary of the whole book.
Sometimes a book will contain a Conclusion chapter. Read this more carefully.
If you have an e version of a book, it’s easy to highlight parts or mark phrases for notes.
Try using an app to keep notes
Microsoft OneNote
Apple Notes
Google Keep
Notion
Obsidian
Evernote
Joplin
Formatting notes
At the top, put the reference to the article or book
On the next line, write down keywords
Now, jot down notes about background information, themes, methods, findings, or any material of interest to you and your research questions
Go through these notes highlighting themes or adding different coloured text to indicate higher-order classification
Use background colours to differentiate categories
Make clear any words that come directly from the author
In the last lines, add any of your own commentary, including reference to other material that you think may be relevant
Use the organisational system of the particular tool you are using (e.g. Notebook Section Page in OneNote, or Labels and Titles in Google Keep), to divide up and hierarchise your references
Use a reference manager
A reference manager helps you to build up a personal library of references to sources as you collect them.
Popular ones are RefWorks, EndNote and Zotero
RefWorks is almost entirely web based which means there isn’t much software to install but you’ll always need a web connection. EndNote and Zotero, by contrast, are mainly desktop based and work offline.
RefWorks and EndNote need institutional subscriptions for free use, but Zotero is free for a basic account.
EndNote, RefWorks and Zotero all work with Mac and Windows, but only Zotero works also with Linux.
All are compatible with Word. EndNote is not compatible with Google Docs, while RefWorks and Zotero are.
Summary
There’s a lot to read, and it’s important to be able to read quickly, given the amount of material that has to be digested in a literature review.
In your initial scans of the literature, learn to skim, speed read and gut articles and books.
To do this we have to learn to skip over material and just get a general feel of what it’s saying.
Taking notes is important for subsequent retrieval of your findings and ideas.
You can take notes in a number of ways, including by using readily available online tools.
Be systematic in the way you collect notes, and use online tools such as Google Keep to help you store and organise them.
Reference managers such as Zotero take much of the drudgery out of saving and storing references and help enormously in the compilation of your reference list.
Reference managers also help in the organization of your work by enabling you to compile a library with sections and subsections
Activity
Using your favourite search engine, access the home pages for EndNote and Zotero
Make notes on the offer made by each
Find out which reference manager your university supports (eg EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero)
Access the reference manager in 3 and take notes on its main features
If you can’t access the university-supported reference manager, access Zotero (which is free) and take notes on its main features
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