CO3008 Honours Degree Project
CO3008 Lecture 4 - Guest Speaker (Gillian Kendall) - Careers & Employability

Lecture Documents¶

CO3008 Lecture 5.pdf (Slides: 1 - 27)

Written Notes¶

What is the State of the Art Section¶

"Background reading is a select analysis of existing research which is relevant to your topic, showing how it relates to your investigation or project. It explains and justifies how your investigation may help some of the questions or gaps in this area of research."

mindmap
    root((**Why?**))
        Identify Major Works
        Identify Key Writers
        Identify Methods & Research Techniques
        Identify Main Ideas Conclusions & Theories
        Establish Similarities & Differences
        Provide Context For Research
        Show Relationships Between Previous Studies or Theories
        Find Out What Information Already Exists
        Identify Gaps In The Literature

Purpose of State of The Art¶

• Helps define and limit research area.
• Puts study into context/perspective.
• Helps avoid unnecessary duplication.
• Can evaluate promising research methods

Skills Required For Section¶

State of the Art Process¶

flowchart TD
    A1[Look at question or topic]
    A2[Make notes on what is already known]
    A3[Identify the gaps in knowledge. What needs to be find out?]
    A4[Look at reading list. Identify starting point]
    A5[Continue reading add notes made earlier and fill in gaps]
    A6[**GOOD TIP**: Look for authors which have their studies repeatedly mentioned]
    A7[Don't just read the information, make connections between the texts]
    A8[Keep in mind how different texts link to the study]
    A9[Identify gaps, these gaps will justify the study]

    A1 --> A2 --> A3 --> A4 --> A5 --> A6 --> A7 --> A8 --> A9

Writing Advice¶

What Should Be Written About?¶

• What has already been written about the topic
• What has not been written on the topic
• How research conducted or project addresses the gap or weakness in the existing knowledge base
• Reviewing the literature is not simply reproducing/summarising but showing how the literature relates to the research project.

How Should It Be Structured¶

• A background reading section - organised around and related directly to research or artefact being developed.
• Group authors who worked on similar themes & link ideas.
• Make clear links between ideas inside the background reading, research, and progress on artefact.
• Evaluate material according to the main concept (i.e. problem statement) of the research problem/artefact.
• Voice (tone) of writing should be neutral, the sources should support what is being assessed by the material.

Typical Structure¶

flowchart TD
    A[General]
    B[Specific]

    A1[Studies that Overlap Research]
    A2[Studies that Directly Relate to Investigation]

    A --> A1 --> A2 --> B

    subgraph **SOMETIMES** 
    direction TB 
        note[Brief conclusion summarising key points and gaps that the study seeks to address.] 
    end

    %% Invisible link to push footnote to bottom 
    E ~~~ Reference

Literature Review Should¶

• Introduce - introduce the reader to the topic area (i.e. the problem to be solved) and provide information needed to understand the research study.
• Create Summary - What is and not is known about the topic area.
• Formulate Questions - What requires further more extensive research
• Specify Aims - The aims and objectives of the project.
• Justify - Justify the need for the artefact.

Reviewing Literature¶

• Compare & Contrast - Different authors may have different views on the issue and it is important to assess different sides.
• Grouping - Authors who draw similar conclusions.
• Criticising - Problems that may exist within aspects of the chosen methodology.
• Exemplary Studies - Highlighting high quality sources.
• Gaps in Research - Highlight gaps in the research.
• Research Progression (Generally) - How the literature review will build on the work of previous studies.

Literature Review Examples¶

Good Example Reasoning¶

• Grouped Similar Information - Steudell (2009), Tanchoco (2008) and Agee(2008), Tanchoco et al. (2005) and Grasso and Tanchoco (2009) studied various aspects of this subject.“
• Shows The Relationship - Between the work of different researchers, discussing similarities and differences: "The general results, reflect the stochastic nature of the flow of goods, are similar to those reported by Rosenblatt and Roll (2008)".
• Indicator of Position - Indicated the position of the work in the research area history: "Early work by Hausman, Schwarz and Graves . . . "
• Discussed General to Specific Area - Moved from a general research in AS/RS to the more specific area (optimal container size) previous work to their own define it, justify it, and explain it.

Formal Academic Style¶

• Write concisely
• In the 3^rd Person (i.e. do not use 'I', 'we', 'you', etc)
• Be objective and respectful of others' opinions.
• Don't use emotive language or express strong personal opinions.
• Choose your reporting verb carefully: don't use "says" but use "argues", "claims", or "states".

Tense¶

• Use present tense for general opinions and theories, or the past when referring to specific research and experiments:
• "Although Trescovick (2001) argues that attack is the best form of defence, Boycott (1969) claims that..."
• "In a field study carried out amongst the homeless of Sydney, Warne (1999) found out that ..."

Flow¶

• Flow is interrupted when the reader pauses to understand.
• Provide clear explanations.
• Avoid one sentence paragraphs.
• Leave out material that does not contribute directly to the discussion, argument, or development of a theme or idea.

Final Suggestions¶

• Keep revising the work in this section as it will be a work in progress.
• Continue reading around the subject and adding to the section.
• Re-read the State of the Art at least once a week and keep improving it incrementally.

Summary¶

• Stay strictly relevant to the research topic.
• Reference accurately and consistently.
• make it obvious why you are carrying out your research in light of your readings.

Lecture References¶

• Higher Education Academy (2011). Deep and surface approaches to Learning. [online] Available at: http://exchange.ac.uk/learning-andteaching-theory-guide/deep-and-surface-approaches-learning.html [Accessed 9^th April 2015].
• Lincoln University. (n.d.). What is a literature review? http://library.lincoln.ac.nz/Research/Writing-your-research/LiteratureReviews/What-is-a-literature-review/ 19/02/15
• University of Reading. (n.d.). Starting a literature review. http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/studyadvice/StudyResources/Essays/ sta-startinglitreview.aspx 19/02/15

CO3008 Lecture 6 - State of the Art - Part 2