[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>OK guys, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with Diving, but hey, you were good enough on the Mathemagician question for me to think that you might be able to help on this one.

Now I have to write a literature review, and I have no idea what is supposed to be in it, or where to start. And yes, I already know it's a review of literature. But please bear in mind the last literature review I did was when I was about 8 giving books a mark out of 5. I'm presuming this is not the point.

So, any good guides to how to write one of these things available? Preferably on the net.

Once again, thanks in advance. A chance for the academics to shine!

Digs.

 

[tom]

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It really depends on the purpose of  the review.

In general, you want to be addressing some kind of question (e.g. weighing up different sides of an argument, describing and discussing the literature supporting each position), or exploring the literature with the intention of deriving some hypotheses to be tested experimentally.

Best bit of advice would be to go and talk to whoever has set the question, and ask exactly what's required.

Or re-read the coursework documentation to see if it tells you what's required there

 

[tom]

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Forgot to say, be wary of any generic advice on 'how to do it' - especially from people on the net

 

[peter k]

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Digs,
        Reading a book would be a good start I reckon

Peter

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Cheers for the quick response Tom. Unfortunately, it's for my dissertation, and whilst there's loads of info out there, it's a bit hard to nail it down to a specific questions I'm answering.

Basically I'm developing a new product for the treatment of asthmatics who are triggered by particles in the air.

So far my tutor (who i suppose is the one setting the question) has been about as useful as a porcupine in a condom factory. It's not easy, and I think she's winding down for retirement sometime soon...

Digs.

 

[tom]

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OK, one model might be -

- what is asthma, who suffers from it, etc
- role of airborne particles in triggering some forms of asthma
- current interventions to help people with that form of asthma, pros and cons of each, reason an alternative would be desirable
- rationale behind the product you are developing - any historical precedents, how it will work, etc
- your ideas / aims for the project, and how you will evaluate its effectiveness

That's just an off-the-top-of-the head outline. You'll need to develop a plan like that, with headings and subheadings, then fill in the blanks between (that's a really good way of writing, create the skeleton and build round it).

You'll be drawing on a number of sources, most of which will be in the research and professional literature (medical & engineering journals). Avoid Internet references if possible. Make sure that at least some of the literature you cite is bang up to date (but don't be scared of citing older stuff if it's relevant). Describe and evaluate each piece of work, discuss its implications for your project.

Some disciplines will be looking for a critical evaluation of the sources you cite, I'm not sure if that's the case for your course. Adopt a similar style to essays you've written on the course (if any) that have got good marks.

Hope that makes some kind of sense...

Quote[/b] ]a new product for the treatment of asthmatics who are triggered by particles in the air.

It's not a scuba set is it?

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Tom, once again you've come to the rescue. Remind me I now owe you two pints at the next gig.

I just needed a starting point, and it seems like I have one now. I just didn't know what to start with, but this is all making a bit more sense now.

I can talk about the design and testing til the cows come home, because every time someone asks me about my dissertation I have to explain it! It's just this thing is being a real pain.

Roll on the weekend. No more damned dissertation to do. Oh, friday night is going to be big.

Digs.

 

[Noel Johnson]

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Quote[/b] ] think she's winding down for retirement sometime soon

Digs, You've probably driver her to it

. I'll ask Dawn for you and get her to comment  -She's the one with the brains - If you want

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Any advice much appreciated. I'm just cacking my pants at the moment, as it's a major part of the thing, and it's not done.

Digs.

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Yeah, getting the first words down on the page is always the hardest part, so here's a freebie from the immunology perspective to get you going
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(heading)INTRODUCTION
(sub-heading) Asthma defined  
Asthma is an autoimmune disease of the respiratory tract. The number of UK citizens requiring treatment for this condition is increasing annually; the 2001 Asthma Audit by the National Asthma Campaign estimates this number to be around 5.1 million people (1 in 13 adults and 1 in 8 children).

Autoimmune diseases cause our immune system cells (e.g. immunoglobulins,T-cells, mast cells, eosinophils, neutrophils etc) to perceive our own tissues as “foreign” and to attack them, causing inflammation with resulting symptoms of  breathlessness, wheezing and tightness of the chest (Roitt, 1988).

Asthma manifests in a variety of ways, of which the most common tends to be extrinsic or allergic asthma; this can be triggered by a number of different airborne antigens such as pollen, housedust mites, animal hair and tobacco smoke. Consequently, removal of airborne particles can play a significant role in reducing the incidence of allergic asthma.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the end you'll want your references or bibiography section, (in alphabetical order) which for the reference I quoted would look something like:

References
Roitt, I.M, (1988) Essential Immunology. Blackwell, Oxford, 6th edition.

 

[J.D.]

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Digs,  not sure what sources youve got already so apologies if you already known this.  But i use a couple of online databases that have a lot of good journal articles.  

The best one ive found is Science Direct, you can log into using an Athens user name - you can get one from your uni.  Pretty much all of the articles are in pdf format so easy to print out, and theyre all from scientific journals so are good sources to cite.

Others are Pub Med, this one doesnt have so many full articles but you dont need a user name, and BIOSIS, although this one also needs an Athens user name, and it doesnt have any full articles only abstracts so youll have to find the journals in a library, but it does search a lot more journals so is useful if you cant find what yopu want in the others.

HTH
James

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>Cheers guys. I'm getting underway now. Steve, you're right about getting something down. I've not been able to get started really, all I've got is a lot of waffle in my head, and I need to get it in a decent order.

Thanks for the links James. I've got an ATHENS username and password, so should be able to get in and have a look.

Digs.

 

[Digger]

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<font color='#000080'>OK , now how do I reference a newspaper article? Is that accpetable for this sort of work? Take as an example I want to reference the Independant on the 31/12/03. Do I need an author?

Cheers.

Digs.

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Narr... for a 3rd year undergrad dissertation you should only reference quality textbooks and periodical articles (ie journals). If you want to talk about something from a newspaper you need to find the source of their material.

feel free to ask me owt you like about the asthma part of your work, fraid my engineering knowledge stopped when I finished my apprenticeship way way back in the distant mists of time

 

[Sorted]

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Don't know if it help, but I have used the following for presentations.

Situation

Complication

Question

Answer.


It's culled from Babara Minto.  Do a search on her name on google there is a couple of good expanations on the net.

Paul

 

[che]

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Digger, for advice on referencing, a good place to go is here:
http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/using/citing_references.html
You'll find a link to a complete guide to the Harvard system for references (which is what most places use these days). It's a downloadable pdf file.

The particular advice re. newspaper items with no author is:

If it is a reference to a newspaper article with no author the name of the paper
can be used in place of “Anon”:-
e.g. More people than ever seem to be using retail home delivery (The Times 1996,
p.3)
(You should use the same style in the bibliography.)

Re. the literature review, a good bit of advice from a book by Judith Bell called Doing Your Research Project:

"...the main point to bear in mind is that a review should provide the reader with a picture, albeit limited in a short project, of the state of knowledge and of major questions in the subject area being investigated."

Good luck with it.

Che

 

[ian Price]

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Digger

Ideally your dissertation as somebody has said I think should be based on a hypothesis...

In other words you are posing a question that you and your research will prove or disprove!! Its a good idea to keep a tight focus

your Lit. review then highlights general work in the area of your dissertation and should focus on proving and or disproving your general hypothesis.

If its an undergraduate degree your dissertation shouldnt be too big!

hope this is useful

Ian P