Lit Review Class 1
12 Sep 2023
Purpose of Literature Review
Collecting, Summarising, Synthesis
● Identify the argument in each source or work.
● Collect specific information from each source regarding the theoretical
framework, methodology and findings.
● Compare the information gathered from each source.
● Group ideas together.
Organizing the literature review section
Organization of the literature review depends on researcher’s intent. Four
ways of organizing literature review are: chronological, thematic,
methodological and theoretical.
●Chronological: used when the researcher wants to highlight the evolution of
the field.
●Thematic: used when the researcher has identified recurring themes in the
field.
Chronological
The word “humanities” derives from the Latin word humanitas. Originally, humanitas – in English “humanity”
– meant humane feeling, which today could be known variously as sympathy, empathy, compassion, pity,
concern,or caring. It was also understood as a kind of virtue inspired by knowledge or a quality of refinement
achieved by intellectual accomplishment. Humanitas in this sense was similar to the Greek term philanthropia,
that generous spirittoward others that ideally results from education in the liberal arts. In the fourteenth-
century Italian Renaissance, Petrarch (1304–1374 CE) rediscovered the term humanitas from Cicero (104–43
BCE) and shaped it into the ideal of forming a person who combines humane feeling with liberal learning and
action in the world.11 This threefold ideal was built into the tradition of liberal education in the United States
and reformulated by Lionel Trilling (1905–1975) as the “humanistic educational ideal”12 in the 1970s, when it
first came under severe criticism from postmodernist thinkers. The humanistic educational ideal can be seen in
strong form today, for example, in the work of Martha Nussbaum (1947–).13 For all its limitations, we support
this ideal, which is wholistic, fluid, and individual.
Thematic
Commons or common pool resources (CPR) is defined as a ‘natural or man-made resource
system hat is sufficiently large to make it costly to exclude potential beneficiaries from
obtaining benefits from its use’ (Ostrom 1990, 30). CPRs have been broadly defined as
resources accessible to the whole community and over which no individual has exclusive
property rights (Jodha 1986). Water, whether it is groundwater or surface water, is
categorised as CPR by critical scholars (Jodha 1986; Bakker 2005). At the same time,
water crisis is one of the defining tensions in the 21st century, especially in Global South.
As there are no alternatives to water, we need to find more equitable, sustainable and
efficient ways of governing water (Paerregaard and Oberborbeck Andersen 2019).
Information-prominent and Author-prominent referencing
Two common type of referencing in literature review section are information-prominent
vs author-prominent referencing. Both have specific function in writing literature review.
●Information-prominent referencing is used to highlight the information. The author’s
information will be backgrounded.
For example: Impact of smoking is high among Indians because of the moderate living
conditions (Muthu, 2015; Prakash, 2016 & Sen, 2019).
●Author-prominent referencing is used to highlight the contribution of the author. If the
researcher uses author-prominent referencing, it indicates the importance of the author's
contribution for the current study.
For example: Littlejohn (2006) has studied the impact of smoking on quality
of sleep.
Lit Review Class 2
14 Sep 2023
Useful Techniques to do a Literature Review
QUOTING
Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source.
They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the
original author.
Example: Kate’s (2002) definition of mob violence included, an
‘organised or spontaneous act of physical assault against individuals or
specific groups motivated by ideology or hatred’ (p.9)
WHAT IS A PARAPHRASE?
● Your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed
by someone else, presented in a new form.
● One legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate
documentation) to borrow from a source.
● A more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses
concisely on a single main idea.
WHAT IS PARAPHRASING
● Changing a text so that it is not similar to the source
● But retains the meaning
e.g.:
a) ORIGINAL: Most of the cars in the office parking lot are grey in
colour.
PARAPHRASED: Grey seems to be a popular colour among car
owners in the office.
WHY PARAPHRASE?
● It is better than quoting information from an undistinguished
passage.
● It helps you control the temptation to quote too much.
● The mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to
grasp the full meaning of the original.
WHAT IS IT USED FOR?
● Note-making
● Summary-writing
● In literature reviews in research articles and reports
Helps in avoiding plagiarism!
In-text references need to be provided at the end of paraphrases so that the source
is made clear. These are presented in parenthetical entries with the author name
and year of publication and/or other details such as page numbers.
HOW TO PARAPHRASE?
● Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
● Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
● Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision
using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to
indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
● Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately
expresses all the essential information in a new form.
● Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have
borrowed exactly from the source.
● Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it
easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
STRATEGIES FOR PARAPHRASING
● Use synonyms for as many words as you can.
(It may be difficult to find synonyms for words like world, food, or science because they are so basic and
common.)
● Structure the sentence differently/ change the word order
● Active voice may be changed to passive voice and vice versa
● Change the word class or parts of speech
EXAMPLE
Original Acceptable Paraphrase #1 Acceptable Paraphrase #2
With Synonyms Changed Sentence Structure
Like drought, excess rainfall and An overabundance of rainfall can When there is an overabundance of
flooding can also contribute to also be a factor in rainfall, two situations can occur:
epidemics of waterborne infectious spreading infectious sewers can overflow and water can
diseases, in this case due to poor diseases carried by water, usually become polluted by the presence of
sanitation resulting from runoff from as a result of overflowing livestock, both of which can lead
overwhelmed sewage lines or the sewers and pollution from farm to outbreaks of waterborne diseases
contamination of water by livestock. animals (Shuman, 2010). (Shuman, 2010).
(Source: Shuman, E., M.D. (2010, March 25).
Global climate change and infectious
diseases. New England Journal of Medicine; 362,
12, 1061-1063. Retrieved from nejm.org at MIT
Libraries.)
EXAMPLE
Original Acceptable Paraphrase
Changed Voice and Changed Parts of Speech
Current political and economic incentives favour industry
and other interest groups at the expense of health: Researchers point out that in attempting to implement
consider the subsidies paid for corn-based agriculture economic growth, industry is often favored over health:
and mass-produced processed foods, the tobacco government may subsidize certain forms of agriculture
revenue generated in countries with a government- and food production, contribute to tobacco consumption
owned tobacco industry, industrial growth in the face of in nations where it owns the industry and otherwise
environmental pollution, and the spread of the sedentary promote growth of industries that pollute. (Venkat
automobile-and-television culture. Narayan et. al, 2011).
(Source: Venkat Narayan, K.M., Ali, M.K., and Koplan, J. (2010,
September 23). Global noncomunicable diseases – where worlds meet.
The New England Journal of Medicine, 363; 13. 1196-1198. Retrieved
from nejm.org at MIT Libraries.)
PARAPHRASE EXERCISE 1
PARAPHRASE EXERCISE 1
Possible paraphrases:
A) As a COVID-19 crisis response measure the RBI extended its loan repayment moratorium to the 31 st
of August 2020. [Appropriate paraphrase.]
B) Due to the COVID-19 predicament, the RBI declared that they would postpone/ extend the loan
repayment deadline to the 31st of August 2020. [Appropriate paraphrase.]
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the RBI gave a statement in March which declared
that the loan repayment duration has been augmented to relieve the population from wide angled
burdens. [Italicized phrases indicate use of vague/ euphemistic terms that could be avoided while
paraphrasing]
Announcement: Quiz 1
21 Sep 2023
Exercise Based
Not theoretical
