A literature review in an introduction provides an overview of past and current work in your research topic. It is usually summarized in the introduction of a thesis, and sometimes appears as a separate section. It outlines the main research questions faced in a given domain of research, and provides motivations and justifications for pursuing your research into the topic. As many students on an undergraduate level will not pursue a career in research, it's particularly important for an undergraduate thesis to understand the societal relevance of a topic and to anticipate applications of the research to "real-life" situations. Therefore, the literature review is often accompanied by a description of the societal relevance of the research.
Literature reviews can be found in the introduction practically in any refereed journal article. Almost every sentence in the introduction of most papers contains large numbers of citations, as the introduction summarizes the most important facts, theories and science on which your paper rests on. You can (almost) never have to many references in an introductory literature review.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Review papers
Review papers summarize the body of research on a topic from the earliest studies right up to ongoing research. They are periodically updated as research progresses on a given topic. A review paper is a good place to begin any study, as they put historical and current research in context, and point out when information in old papers become obsolete. They are easy to find because they are usually referenced in the introduction of most papers on the topic.
Review papers are written by leaders in this field of research, and in turn refereed by leaders in their respective fields. These papers receive more scrutiny in the review process than other papers. Controversies on a given topic are generally described neutrally. Often, the information found on websites can also be found in review papers. It's therefore preferable to check to see if information found on websites (which generally provide unrefereed writings) can be found in review papers. If so, it is better to use refereed papers from an established journal in your papers as reference.
Example
The following is an example of a paper with a literature review in the introduction of the paper:
Mitigating New York City's Heat Island: Integrating Stakeholder Perspectives and Scientific Evaluation
"Urbanization is often associated with elevated surface air temperature, a condition referred to as the urban heat island. Aspects of the urban environment that contribute to the urban heat island include i) dense, impervious surfaces that reduce evaporative latent heat cooling and increase the amount of energy that is absorbed and stored in the city; ii) low-albedo surfaces, such
as dark rooftops and asphalt roadways; iii) reduced skyview from within urban canyons, which impedes radiative longwave cooling to space, a process that is especially important at night (Oke 1981); and iv) anthropogenic heat sources associated with transportation and building heating and cooling systems (Taha 1997; Hsieh et al. 2007). Heat island intensity tends to be greatest at night, particularly when conditions are clear and calm. Local hot spots may shift with diurnal and seasonal cycles, under particular meteorological conditions, or with land use change (Unwin 1980). Landsberg (1981) and Oke (1987) describe urban climate and heat island processes. More recent reviews can be found in Arnfield (2003) and Grimmond (2007)."
This leads to a recent paper review paper by Grimmond (2007)
Grimmond, C. S. B., 2007: Urbanization and global environmental change: Local effects of urban warming. Geogr. J., 173, 83–88.
Review papers are written by leaders in this field of research, and in turn refereed by leaders in their respective fields. These papers receive more scrutiny in the review process than other papers. Controversies on a given topic are generally described neutrally. Often, the information found on websites can also be found in review papers. It's therefore preferable to check to see if information found on websites (which generally provide unrefereed writings) can be found in review papers. If so, it is better to use refereed papers from an established journal in your papers as reference.
Example
The following is an example of a paper with a literature review in the introduction of the paper:
Mitigating New York City's Heat Island: Integrating Stakeholder Perspectives and Scientific Evaluation
"Urbanization is often associated with elevated surface air temperature, a condition referred to as the urban heat island. Aspects of the urban environment that contribute to the urban heat island include i) dense, impervious surfaces that reduce evaporative latent heat cooling and increase the amount of energy that is absorbed and stored in the city; ii) low-albedo surfaces, such
as dark rooftops and asphalt roadways; iii) reduced skyview from within urban canyons, which impedes radiative longwave cooling to space, a process that is especially important at night (Oke 1981); and iv) anthropogenic heat sources associated with transportation and building heating and cooling systems (Taha 1997; Hsieh et al. 2007). Heat island intensity tends to be greatest at night, particularly when conditions are clear and calm. Local hot spots may shift with diurnal and seasonal cycles, under particular meteorological conditions, or with land use change (Unwin 1980). Landsberg (1981) and Oke (1987) describe urban climate and heat island processes. More recent reviews can be found in Arnfield (2003) and Grimmond (2007)."
This leads to a recent paper review paper by Grimmond (2007)
Grimmond, C. S. B., 2007: Urbanization and global environmental change: Local effects of urban warming. Geogr. J., 173, 83–88.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Get to the point II: Figures
Figures
When referring to figures in text,
For the example used in the previous post, the first two sentences could be accompanied by an introduction to a figure:
You could then proceed with a detailed analysis of the figure in question.
Include all information seen in figure
Include the following information in figure where possible
The example below shows a good caption. Note how the units are clearly indicated on the graph, so there is no need to mention in the caption. Times and dates of data are clear. A legend describes the different parameters plotted, so this is not necessary to put in the captions. If these elements were missing, they would need to be in the captions. Note that analysis is done in the text.
When referring to figures in text,
- Introduce the figure and the main point it is intended to convey early in the paragraph before you begin interpreting results.
- Refer to figures in order of appearance.
- In the middle of the sentence, name of the figure is capitalized and abbreviated (e.g. Fig. 1).
- At the beginning of a sentence, name of figure is capitalized and unabbreviated (Figure 1).
- Dates/time should be in format: 8 AM EDT 8 September 2012 or 12 UTC 8 September 2012
For the example used in the previous post, the first two sentences could be accompanied by an introduction to a figure:
- "Figure 1 shows the frequency of hurricane force winds along the Florida coastline."
- "The frequency of hurricane force winds along the Florida coastline is shown in Fig. 1."
You could then proceed with a detailed analysis of the figure in question.
Include all information seen in figure
Include the following information in figure where possible
- Figure title
- Contour labels
- Axis labels
- Parameters
- Dates and times
- Parameters plotted
- Contour intervals with units
- Source
The example below shows a good caption. Note how the units are clearly indicated on the graph, so there is no need to mention in the caption. Times and dates of data are clear. A legend describes the different parameters plotted, so this is not necessary to put in the captions. If these elements were missing, they would need to be in the captions. Note that analysis is done in the text.
Get to the point I: Paragraph structure
Paragraph Structure
Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that acts as a thesis statement and summarizes your paragraph. If you are doing a literature review and summarizing other people's work, include the source that contains the information outlined in the paragraph. Use the active voice if possible.
Prefaces and Segues
A common mistake many students make in scientific and technical writing is to preface paragraphs containing important information about the atmosphere with unnecessary segues and prefaces:
"Studies of hurricanes have shown that they are a dangerous phenomenon. They represent an important aspect of the tropical environment."
This may be okay in oral presentations, conversation, literary work, personal diaries, and rants on blogs, but only wastes valuable space in technical reports and science papers. You want to make it as easy as possible for your reader to get the information they need to know.
References and example
It is good style to begin any paragraph with the main point. It is equally good style to begin the first sentence of the paragraph with the reference that backs up this point:
"Smith et al. (2010) showed that hurricanes can cause significant amounts of damage when they strike populated areas. "
This forces you to use the active voice, makes it clear that you are presenting information from an authoritative source, and makes subsequent referencing unnecessary.
If you need to provide secondary references that add to the credibility of the information, this can be done with brackets:
"They used 6-hourly sea-level pressure fields from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (Kistler et al. 2001) for the years 1951-2000 to examine hurricane tracks in the North Atlantic Ocean. "
This gives the reader information they can use to assess the quality of the study and to reproduce the results if necessary.
If the order of the above sentences were reversed, the paragraph is less clear because the secondary (albeit important) information appears first, and the main point of the paragraph second. Your reader will mumble under his breath "Get to the point".
Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that acts as a thesis statement and summarizes your paragraph. If you are doing a literature review and summarizing other people's work, include the source that contains the information outlined in the paragraph. Use the active voice if possible.
Prefaces and Segues
A common mistake many students make in scientific and technical writing is to preface paragraphs containing important information about the atmosphere with unnecessary segues and prefaces:
"Studies of hurricanes have shown that they are a dangerous phenomenon. They represent an important aspect of the tropical environment."
This may be okay in oral presentations, conversation, literary work, personal diaries, and rants on blogs, but only wastes valuable space in technical reports and science papers. You want to make it as easy as possible for your reader to get the information they need to know.
References and example
It is good style to begin any paragraph with the main point. It is equally good style to begin the first sentence of the paragraph with the reference that backs up this point:
"Smith et al. (2010) showed that hurricanes can cause significant amounts of damage when they strike populated areas. "
This forces you to use the active voice, makes it clear that you are presenting information from an authoritative source, and makes subsequent referencing unnecessary.
If you need to provide secondary references that add to the credibility of the information, this can be done with brackets:
"They used 6-hourly sea-level pressure fields from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (Kistler et al. 2001) for the years 1951-2000 to examine hurricane tracks in the North Atlantic Ocean. "
This gives the reader information they can use to assess the quality of the study and to reproduce the results if necessary.
If the order of the above sentences were reversed, the paragraph is less clear because the secondary (albeit important) information appears first, and the main point of the paragraph second. Your reader will mumble under his breath "Get to the point".
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