We will consider parts of this in depth introduction to lit reviews. Today we will focus on Summary and Synthesis; Comparison and Critique. Pages 1-3
Summary writing:
A good summary should do three things: offer a balanced coverage of the original, present the source material in a neutral fashion, and condense the source material and present it in your own words. The ability to effectively summarize information into a more concise and readable form is a highly valued skill. Good summaries are valuable because they keep busy readers informed without demanding more time than necessary to get the information they need.
Summary workshop
Information Organization Overview: (Page 13 in into to lit reviews workshop) This handout has more information about the types of citations.
- Use a logical plan to order your citations.
- Use information prominent and weak author prominent citations at the beginning and at transitional points in the lit review.
- Use author prominent citations to report specific findings later in the lit review.
- Use verb tenses correctly: present tense for facts; present perfect for weak author citations and general statements about the research; past tense for author prominent citations and results limited to a single study.
- Use tentative verbs of report for suggestions or proposals. (The results suggest that...)
- Use modal auxiliaries in the complement to indicate tentative findings.
Parts of this lesson adapted from Weisberg and Buker, Writing up Research 1990
