lab dis 1

Adam Wells The Purpose of the Literature Review Literature Review Purpose             Literature reviews have a few intended purposes. One is to adequately assess the quality and validity of the literature being reviewed. According to Martinez (n.d.) a quality literature review, in its simplest form, is a detailed and critical look at the literature to be described. Dr. Hickey mention that when reading various forms of literature, the reader must assess what is known and what is missing (Laureate Education, 2016). Of course, different organizations have slightly different viewpoints as to definition of a literature review. According to Walden University Writing Center (2015), a literature review occurs when a reader reviews published literature to provide a written description regarding a specific topic or field. Although similar at the foundation, the changes in definition phrasing help to guide reviewers in setting barriers to remain focused on the intent of the literature review. Furthermore, the context of the review may be different depending upon the need. Martinez (n.d.) further described several types of literature reviews that can be conducted, but explained the review should be conducted with a purpose and not just a summary. Although a summary may be part of a literature review, it is not the main focus of intent. As mentioned by the Walden University Writing Center (2015), literature reviews are often misinterpreted as being a summary and not a critical look at the published literature. An effective and quality literature review has several key components to ensure it is presented in its entirety and not missing information. Three Key Components             Three of the important key components are introduction/conclusion, citations, and relevance. A thorough introduction and conclusion are in place to help readers understand what is included in the literature review. As mentioned by the Walden University Writing Center (2015), the introduction and conclusion serve as a summary of information before and after each specified literature to help the reader determine when one review ends and the next begins. Having a clearly organized literature review is imperative for the reader to understand what is being said. As mentioned by Martinez (n.d.) the motivation is an important part of a review to help the reader assess why the author is reviewing the article and for what intent. The motivation could be detailed within its own paragraph, but could also fit into the introduction to allow readers to assess what is in the following review and the intended purpose of the review.             The second components is appropriate use of citations. According to Laureate Education (2016), Dr. Hickey mentioned many students struggle with citing everyone else and not having their own words. This can be a challenging aspect for many students to overcome. During literature reviews, dissertation backgrounds, and even the clarification and validation of data comes from previously completed research and literature. Patterson (2012) mentioned most schools require a minimum of 75 sources with around 80% of those sources stemming from peer-reviewed sources that have been published. Having large number of sources to pull from is important in giving research a foundation of validity and not one that is based on speculation or confirmation bias. If a person develops results vastly different from previously published work, a great deal of assessment should be done to understand why the results are different. Therefore, a critical look at the literature and one’s own research must be completed to determine if there are gaps and where. With a large number of sources used, the author is more likely to observe variants in their own research. Thus said, contradictory information should not be excluded either. Any information that contradicts should be included and explained.             I believe a third key component is ensuring relevance. If one were to be looking into the topic of human trauma responses, a literature review on which medications function in a certain way is not likely to produce relevant and quality information. That is unless the medical literature relates medication to trauma in some way. It is easy to pull a line or two from various forms of literature that have nothing to do with the topic at hand to make the review or the research sound good and validated. Patterson (2012) mentioned writers may include a research strategy that helps to identify the methodology on how the author search for literature. This helps to ensure the author is not searching too broad and is keeping their search of literature to relevant topics. As previously mentioned, the information obtained should be relevant to the topic. Martinez (n.d.) explained literature reviews should answer several questions regarding the topic at hand as far as what is known, and what is not known. As mentioned by Dr. Hickey, what is not known about the literature is just as important as what is known, because that is where we find the gaps (Laureate Education, 2016). The author should be seeking information in literature reviews of what is reported as known and confirmed information. Furthermore, the author should be assessing what is not known about the topic and what may be missing from the literature. Explanation             Although several key components exist, these three were selected to discuss because I believe their value to the literature review is beyond compare. Many components of a literature review hold great value and importance. However, I believe if the review is not clearing explained, includes an abundance of the author’s own ideas, or is not relevant, the literature review lacks in overall validity and interest to readers. There is no good in writing a literature that no one wants to read. And there is no good in writing a large paper full of fluff without substantial information obtained from the literature. Furthermore, since a literature review is about critically taking about the literature reviewed, if not done correctly, the literature may be used in the context of a dissertation that results in misleading or incorrect information presented.     References Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Identifying gaps in the literature [Video file]. Author Martinez, S. (n.d.) How to write an effective literature review. http://www.dphu.org/uploads/attachments/books/bookds_71_0.pdf Patterson, J. (2012). When is a literature review a literature review? Walden University Writing Center. https://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/02/when-is-literature-review-literature.html Walden University Writing Center. (2015). Basics of literature reviews. http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/literaturereview Amanda Najar-Cabrera Post by Day 3 an analysis of the purpose of the literature review.          A literature review serves several purposes--both for the author and their reader--to understand what research is currently available on a given topic and to highlight where a research gap exists (Laureate Education, 2016; Randolph, 2009). The literature review itself is an active process where the researcher informs themselves about all available and current research on a topic of interest (Randolph, 2009). In the mechanics of writing a literature review, the author should explicitly identify to the reader the relevance of the research in relation to previous research, and how it will fill the gap in knowledge (Randolph, 2009). Another aspect of a literature review is for the writer to demonstrate their proficiency for conducting research and synthesizing the peer-reviewed sources which serve as the basis for their research project (Laureate, 2017; Martinez, n.d; Patterson, 2012; Randolph, 2009; Stadtlander, 2015). Also, list three key components that need to be included in a literature review, and explain why you chose these components. Three key components of a literature review include: (a) a synthesis of cited works to identify what is known about a topic, (b) an explanation of the research gap to highlight the relevance of the research within the broader context, and (c) an explanation of major themes in existing research organized in a logical manner to emphasize the similarities and dissimilarities between and among sources (Laureate, 2017; Martinez, n.d; McIndoo, 2014; Patterson, 2012; Walden University Writing Center, 2015b). I selected these components because I would argue that without these components a literature review does not exist (Laureate, 2017; Martinez, n.d; Patterson, 2012; Randolph, 2009; Stadtlander, 2015). An exhaustive search of the available current literature must be completed to identify where the gap exists (McIndoo, 2014). The three aforementioned components of a literature review serve as a filter by which all relevant research is sifted, while focusing on identifying the main themes that emerge (Randolph, 2009). For an effective literature review to exist, the author and the reader must understand how the research fits into the bigger picture within the research landscape (McIndoo, 2014; Randolph, 2009). References Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Identifying gaps in the literature [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Martinez, S. (n.d.). How to write an effective literature review. Retrieved June 5, 2016, from http://www.dphu.org/uploads/attachments/books/books_71_0.pdf McIndoo, T. (2014, July 8). Defining a gap in the literature: On proving the presence of an absence [Blog post]. Walden University Writing Center. https://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2014/07/defining-gap-in-literature-on-proving.html Patterson, J. (2012, February 16). When is a literature review a literature review? [Blog post]. Walden University Writing Center. https://waldenwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/02/when-is-literature-review-literature.html Randolph, J. J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical Assessment, Research, & Evaluation, 14(13), 1-13. http://pareonline.net/pdf/v14n13.pdf Stadtlander, L. M. (2015). Finding your way to a Ph.D.: Advice from the dissertation mentor. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Walden University Writing Center. (2015b). Basics of literature reviews. https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/literaturereview