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GRAMMAR, STYLE, COHESION, and PUNCTUATION: Guide and online exercises provided by Aalto University, Helsinki.

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GRAMMAR, STYLE, COHESION, and PUNCTUATION: Guide and online exercises provided by Aalto University, Helsinki.

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ACADEMIC STYLE according to the TUT Thesis Guide, Chapter 4.

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ACADEMIC STYLE according to the TUT Thesis Guide, Chapter 4.

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OWL PURDUE: A very useful source for all kinds of writing tips at this level....

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OWL PURDUE: A very useful source for all kinds of writing tips at this level....

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This resource will help you write clearly by eliminating unnecessary words and rearranging your phrases.

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VOCABULARY for COHESION: Some online exercises to practise language, e.g. linking expressions

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VOCABULARY for COHESION: Some online exercises to practise language, e.g. linking expressions

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Try these quizzes to test your use of linking words for the CAE Writing paper

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Common linking words used in typical CAE Writing tasks

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GRAMMAR: There are more useful sites in the 'Resources for Writing' section of our Moodle page.

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GRAMMAR: There are more useful sites in the 'Resources for Writing' section of our Moodle page.

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Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Charles Darling.

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The Guide to Grammar and Writing is sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation, a nonprofit 501 c-3 organization that supports scholarships, faculty development, and curriculum innovation. If you feel we have provided something of value and wish to show your appreciation, you can assist the College and its students with a tax-deductible contribution.

For more about giving to Capital, write to CCC Foundation, 950 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103. Phone (860) 906-5102 or email: jmcnamara@ccc.commnet.edu Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

These pages were designed with Cascading Style Sheets and will work best with recent versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (6.0+). Navigator 4.7 may cause portions of the text to overlap on some pages. Unless otherwise indicated, all written material on this Web site is the property of Professor Charles Darling and the Capital Community College Foundation and is published here for free use by the college's students and staff and for the general online community. This Guide may not be reproduced wholly or in part, by any means whatsoever, including mirroring on other Web servers, without prior written consent of the author. Printing out sections for a student's personal reference or class practice is permitted as long as the source is indicated. Linking to this site is encouraged; ca-webmaster@ccc.commnet.edu notifying us is appreciated. Copyright 2004; Hartford, Connecticut.

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The Guide to Grammar and Writing contains scores of digital handouts on grammar and English usage, over 170 computer-graded quizzes, recommendations on writing -- from basic problems in subject-verb agreement and the use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and help with argumentative essays, and a way to submit questions about grammar and writing.

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VOCABULARY: Here is a comprehensive bank of academic phrases.

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VOCABULARY: Here is a comprehensive bank of academic phrases.

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The language functions for the main task in Stage 5 (Parts 1 & 3) can be found here with examples. There is also information on what to include in an introduction or literature review.

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ). Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing (see the menu on the left). The resource should be particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work. The phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can be used simply to assist you in thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate. In most cases, a certain amount of creativity and adaptation will be necessary when a phrase is used. The items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people's ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism. For some of the entries, specific content words have been included for illustrative purposes, and these should be substituted when the phrases are used. The resource was designed primarily for academic and scientific writers who are non-native speakers of English. However, native speaker writers may still find much of the material helpful. In fact, recent data suggest that the majority of users are native speakers of English. More about Academic Phrasebank.

Call for research participants
Are you a postgraduate student with a specific learning difficulty? We are conducting research into how Academic Phrasebank can be useful for postgraduate students who have specific learning difficulties. Would you like to assist with this project by taking part in an online interview? If so, please complete thisshort form. It will only take around one minute of your time.

This site was created by John Morley.

Academic Phrasebank is the Intellectual Property of the University of Manchester.

Copyright © 2023 The University of Manchester

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ).

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: Another step-by-step guide.

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: Another step-by-step guide.

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: This takes you through a simple step-by-step guide on how to write a literature review.

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: This takes you through a simple step-by-step guide on how to write a literature review.

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Definition

A literature review is both a summary and explanation of the complete and current state of knowledge on a limited topic as found in academic books and journal articles. There are two kinds of literature reviews you might write at university: one that students are asked to write as a stand-alone assignment in a course, often as part of their training in the research processes in their ﬁeld, and the other that is written as part of an introduction to, or preparation for, a longer work, usually a thesis or research report. The focus and perspective of your review and the kind of hypothesis or thesis argument you make will be determined by what kind of review you are writing. One way to understand the differences between these two types is to read published literature reviews or the ﬁrst chapters of theses and dissertations in your own subject area. Analyse the structure of their arguments and note the way they address the issues.

Purpose of the Literature Review

It gives readers easy access to research on a particular topic by selecting high quality articles or studies that are relevant, meaningful, important and valid and summarizing them into one complete report

It provides an excellent starting point for researchers beginning to do research in a new area by forcing them to summarize, evaluate, and compare original research in that speciﬁc area

It ensures that researchers do not duplicate work that has already been done

It can provide clues as to where future research is heading or recommend areas on which to focus

It highlights key ﬁndings

It identiﬁes inconsistencies, gaps and contradictions in the literature

It provides a constructive analysis of the methodologies and approaches of other researchers

Content of the Review

Introduction

The introduction explains the focus and establishes the importance of the subject. It discusses what kind of work has been done on the topic and identiﬁes any controversies within the ﬁeld or any recent research which has raised questions about earlier assumptions. It may provide background or history. It concludes with a purpose or thesis statement. In a stand-alone literature review, this statement will sum up and evaluate the state of the art in this ﬁeld of research; in a review that is an introduction or preparatory to a thesis or research report, it will suggest how the review ﬁndings will lead to the research the writer proposes to undertake.

Body

Often divided by headings/subheadings, the body summarizes and evaluates the current state of knowledge in the ﬁeld. It notes major themes or topics, the most important trends, and any ﬁndings about which researchers agree or disagree. If the review is preliminary to your own thesis or research project, its purpose is to make an argument that will justify your proposed research. Therefore, it will discuss only that research which leads directly to your own project.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes all the evidence presented and shows its signiﬁcance. If the review is an introduction to your own research, it highlights gaps and indicates how previous research leads to your own research project and chosen methodology. If the review is a stand-alone assignment for a course, it should suggest any practical applications of the research as well as the implications and possibilities for future research.

Nine Steps To Writing A Literature Review

1. Find a Working Topic

Look at your speciﬁc area of study. Think about what interests you, and what is fertile ground for study. Talk to your professor, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the ﬁeld.

2. Review the Literature

Using keywords, search a computer database. It is best to use at least two databases relevant to your discipline

Remember that the reference lists of recent articles and reviews can lead to valuable papers

Make certain that you also include any studies contrary to your point of view

3. Focus Your Topic Narrowly and Select Papers Accordingly

Consider the following:

What interests you?

What interests others?

What time span of research will you consider?

Choose an area of research that is due for a review.

4. Read the Selected Articles Thoroughly and Evaluate Them

What assumptions do most/some researchers seem to be making?

What methodologies do they use? what testing procedures, subjects, material tested?

Evaluate and synthesize the research ﬁndings and conclusions drawn

Note experts in the ﬁeld: names/labs that are frequently referenced

Note conﬂicting theories, results, methodologies

Watch for popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time

5. Organize the Selected Papers By Looking For Patterns and By Developing Subtopics

Note things such as:

Findings that are common/contested

Two or three important trends in the research

The most inﬂuential theories

6. Develop a Working Thesis

Write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major trends and developments you see in the research that has been done on your subject.

7. Organize Your Own Paper Based on the Findings From Steps 4 & 5

Develop headings/subheadings. If your literature review is extensive, ﬁnd a large table surface, and on it place post-it notes or ﬁling cards to organize all your ﬁndings into categories. Move them around if you decide that (a) they ﬁt better under different headings, or (b) you need to establish new topic headings.

8. Write the Body of the Paper

Follow the plan you have developed above, making certain that each section links logically to the one before and after, and that you have divided your sections by themes or subtopics, not by reporting the work of individual theorists or researchers.

9. Look At What You Have Written; Focus On Analysis, Not Description

Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. If you were to read only these sentences, would you ﬁnd that your paper presented a clear position, logically developed, from beginning to end? If, for example, you ﬁnd that each paragraph begins with a researcher's name, it might indicate that, instead of evaluating and comparing the research literature from an analytical point of view, you have simply described what research has been done. This is one of the most common problems with student literature reviews. So if your paper still does not appear to be deﬁned by a central, guiding concept, or if it does not critically analyse the literature selected, then you should make a new outline based on what you have said in each section and paragraph of the paper, and decide whether you need to add information, to delete off-topic information, or to restructure the paper entirely.

For example, look at the following two passages and note that Student A is merely describing the literature and Student B takes a more analytical and evaluative approach, by comparing and contrasting. You can also see that this evaluative approach is well signalled by linguistic markers indicating logical connections (words such as "however," "moreover") and phrases such as "substantiates the claim that," which indicate supporting evidence and Student B's ability to synthesize knowledge.

Student A:
Smith (2000) concludes that personal privacy in their living quarters is the most important factor in nursing home residents' perception of their autonomy. He suggests that the physical environment in the more public spaces of the building did not have much impact on their perceptions. Neither the layout of the building, nor the activities available seem to make much difference. Jones and Johnstone make the claim that the need to control one's environment is a fundamental need of life (2001), and suggest that the approach of most institutions, which is to provide total care, may be as bad as no care at all. If people have no choices or think that they have none, they become depressed.

Student B:
After studying residents and staff from two intermediate care facilities in Calgary, Alberta, Smith (2000) came to the conclusion that except for the amount of personal privacy available to residents, the physical environment of these institutions had minimal if any effect on their perceptions of control (autonomy). However, French (1998) and Haroon (2000) found that availability of private areas is not the only aspect of the physical environment that determines residents' autonomy. Haroon interviewed 115 residents from 32 different nursing homes known to have different levels of autonomy (2000). It was found that physical structures, such as standardized furniture, heating that could not be individually regulated, and no possession of a house key for residents limited their feelings of independence. Moreover, Hope (2002), who interviewed 225 residents from various nursing homes, substantiates the claim that characteristics of the institutional environment such as the extent of resources in the facility, as well as its location, are features which residents have indicated as being of great importance to their independence.

Finishing Touches: Revising and Editing Your Work

Read your work out loud. That way you will be better able to identify where you need punctuation marks to signal pauses or divisions within sentences, where you have made grammatical errors, or where your sentences are unclear

Since the purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that the writer is familiar with the important professional literature on the chosen subject, check to make certain that you have covered all of the important, up-to-date, and pertinent texts. In the sciences and some of the social sciences it is important that your literature be quite recent; this is not so important in the humanities

Make certain that all of the citations and references are correct and that you are referencing in the appropriate style for your discipline. If you are uncertain which style to use, ask your professor

Check to make sure that you have not plagiarized either by failing to cite a source of information, or by using words quoted directly from a source. (Usually if you take three or more words directly from another source, you should put those words within quotation marks, and cite the page.)

Text should be written in a clear and concise academic style; it should not be descriptive in nature or use the language of everyday speech

There should be no grammatical or spelling errors

Sentences should ﬂow smoothly and logically

In a paper in the sciences, or in some of the social sciences, the use of subheadings to organize the review is recommended

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A literature review is both a summary and explanation of the complete and current state of knowledge on a limited topic as found in academic books and journal articles.

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COHESION: Vocabulary and style alone are not enough. This source examines how you can connect ideas within and between paragraphs in a literature review.

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COHESION: Vocabulary and style alone are not enough. This source examines how you can connect ideas within and between paragraphs in a literature review.

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: How to....This site provides brief but concrete examples for writing a literature review. There is also a section on reading; but we have already covered most of this!

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THE LITERATURE REVIEW: How to....This site provides brief but concrete examples for writing a literature review. There is also a section on reading; but we have already covered most of this!

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This also has the examples of highlighted and annotated text mentioned in the assignment for this Stage.

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Writing your literature review takes time. You may need to complete several drafts before your final copy. It is important to have a good introduction that clearly tells the reader what the literature will be about.

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ACADEMIC STYLE: Some advice from the University of Portsmouth.

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ACADEMIC STYLE: Some advice from the University of Portsmouth.

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VOCABULARY: Some basic tips on extending your vocabulary from the University of Portsmouth, Key Skills.

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VOCABULARY: Some basic tips on extending your vocabulary from the University of Portsmouth, Key Skills.

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Click on View Full Post.