如何写literature review

如何写literature review
如何写literature review

https://www.360docs.net/doc/6d2562328.html,/dissertation_guide/dissertation_literature_review.h tm 2011.11.13 18:29

How To Write A Dissertation Literature Review?

By: Dominic Corey

Literature review is an extremely important part of your dissertation and it proves that you have learned and understood the matter published on a particular topic. Your literature review is not a mere summary of publications by other authors. It actually demonstrates your understanding of different arguments, advancements and theories. When you start writing your literature review, follow these key

points:

?In your literature review, you compare how relevant the work of previous authors was.

?You also talk about the agreement and disagreement of different authors.

?You need to mention the relationship of your work with the previous work, relevant to your area of study.

?You talk about the gaps in current research and also recommend where further research is needed.

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

1.Has the author formulated a problem/issue?

2.Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?

3.Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?

4.What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?

5.What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?

6.What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?

7.Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author

include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?

8.In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g.,

population, intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions

validly based upon the data and analysis?

9.In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion,

one-sided examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone? Is there an objective

basis to the reasoning, or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already believes?

10.How does the author structure the argument? Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the

argument to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing

cause-effect relationships)?

11.In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem

under study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and

limitations?

12.How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?

Final Notes:

A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another.It's usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question

https://www.360docs.net/doc/6d2562328.html,/study-skills/research/how-to-write-your-dis sertation/03.html

A literature review should:

?identify gaps in current knowledge

?show that your research builds on previous work

?show that your research is important and relevant

?show that you're aware of important developments in your area

?identify different view points and/or highlight areas of controversy

?critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of previous research

Bookreview (2)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Is it a darkly passionate tale of love? Or should we call it a highly original gothic story? The classic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is, in my opinion, a unique and gripping blend of these genres. Written in 1847, it is an epic family saga full of desire, hate, revenge and regret, focusing on the main characters of Heathcliff and Catherine. The atmospheric setting of the wild Yorkshire moors cleverly mirrors the violent emotions. When Catherine’s father adopts the starving orphan boy Heathcliff, Catherine’s brother Hindley feels deeply hurt and resentful. She, on the other hand, develops an immensely strong bond with Heathcliff, which becomes an all-consuming love. Upon her father’s death, Hindley becomes the head of the family and forces Heathcliff to assume the position of a servant. Despite loving Heathcliff, Catherine chooses to marry Edgar Linton, who is closer to her class and position in society. It is this decision which leads to heartbreak and tragedy, not only for them but for many others. Heathcliff could be described as an anti-hero with his rough manners and lack of control. Likewise, Catherine displays many flaws, but the reader can still empathize with these characters. In fact, this is the main reason why I believe this novel is so brilliant. It rings with truth. The reader may be horrified at the way that Heathcliff and Catherine behave, and yet, at the same time, the writer ensures that we never hate them because the reasons for their actions are crystal clear. The main part of the book relies on a narrator, Ellen Dean, who is a servant at Wuthering Heights and I think that this is a useful device which holds the complex plot together. However, Wuthering Heights is not what I would call an “easy read”. There is dense description and some of the dialogue is written in dialect, which can be difficult to follow. Nevertheless, I persevered and, all in all, I can highly recommend Wuthering Heights. I challenge you to remain unmoved after reading this exceptional book. From “Oxford Writing Tutor”, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th ed. Classics Title: Othello Author: William Shakespeare; Marie Macaisa, Series Editor Rating: Must Read! Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc. Web Page: https://www.360docs.net/doc/6d2562328.html, Publisher's E-mail: How to use the database of reviews

hamlet book review

Hamlet and Two Heroines Hamlet is one of the most famous play that written by William Shakespeare. It is the tragedy of tragedies. This is a story about revenging ending in perishing together. After reading through the whole play, two heroines, Gertrude and Ophelia, impress me most. In Middle Ages, women were considered as appendages of men, so were Gertrude and Ophelia. They both have close bound with Hamlet, the hero, and love him deeply. However, does Hamlet love them as much as they do? It confuses me a lot. “Are you honest? Are you fair?” In front of Ophelia’s tomb, Hamlet declares that “What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? Whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wand’ ring stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane”, and “I loved Ophelia, forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?” Those words are aimed at refuting Laertes’s denouncement. It is more of a riposte than expression of love. Leartes imputes Ophelia’s death to Hamlet, exploding his grief with exaggerated tone. As soon as Hamlet hears his denouncement, he steps forward and wants to Prove that his is much more distressed than Leartes. I first recognize Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship from the conversation among Ophelia, her brother and her father. She believes that Hamlet loves her sincerely, but she was satirized by his father, Polonius. Then she follows Polonius’s advice, rejecting Hamlet’s letters and not meeting with him, which makes a breakthrough of their relationship. It seems that Hamlet becomes insane. In order to test his insanity, Ophelia recites what her father tells her, that makes Hamlet crazier. The death of Ophelia is a tragedy. The causes of her death include several reasons. First, Hamlet becomes “insane”and “breaks faith”. What’s worse, her father is killed and the murderer is Hamlet. What kind of affection dose Hamlet hold to Ophelia? Apparently, his love is neither a brain storm nor as much as “forty thousand brothers”. Hamlet cannot consider Ophelia as a companion and he hesitates to trust her. He loves her beauty and purity, but he cannot share his very secret with her and earn her support. What’s worse, the secret told by ghost makes mother’s image ruined. As far as he considers, Ophelia’s present beauty is not a promise to future chastity. What makes him upset is his uncertainty in his inside world. A critic commented Hamlet as “the giant of thoughts, the dwarf of actions”. He has no strong motion disclosure to Ophelia. As Hamlet describes, women are flirtations and weak-minded, which become women’s sin. While, beauty makes women easier to be tempted, so beauty becomes sin. “Frailty, thy name is woman!” When Hamlet is alone, he seldom thinks of Ophelia, but frequently thinks of his mother Gertrude. However, it is not a son’s attachment and love to mother, instead, it represents anger and hate. Certainly, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t love his mother at all. It is more like a sense of stigma.

Book Review

Book Review: They Say I Say Many College and university students often have trouble performing well in their academic writing, which is a necessary part of higher education. They cannot assert their argument critically and logically, thus making their writing less forceful and convincing. The reasons may be that cannot get helpful instruction form traditional methods which focuses on abstract principles of writing, while they themselves don’t know how to state their argument appropriately, and engage with the thought of others. The book They Say I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein attempts to solve this problem that college and university students are faced with. Different from traditional books, which pay more attention to writing principles rather than practical use of them, They Say I Say offers students useful templates and directly applies them to practical writing. The book is written on the premise that good argumentative writing begins not with an act of assertion but an act of listening, of putting ourselves in the shoes of those who think differently from us (p. xiii). Its goal is to help college and university students become excellent writers and critical, independent thinkers by applying “moves”---steps to perform students’writing activities---to academic writing and offering specific methods and techniques. You mustn’t miss the first two sections of this book. They are worth reading if you want to have a general knowledge of this book. Two prefaces talk authors’intention of writing the book, innovation and improvement and also arguments on it. In introduction section, it’s clearly to know the foci of the book, and the authors

Sample book review (1)

A Review of Once a Mouse by Marcia Brown Baoya Zhang Brown, Marcia. (1961). Once a mouse…a fable cut in wood. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. As is suggested by the title, the 1962 Caldecott Medal winner Once a mouse…a fable cut in wood by Marcia Brown falls into the category of picture story books. The book tells an ancient Indian story in which a mystical hermit, mighty at magic, rescues a wretched little mouse from the beak of a hungry crow, and later transforms it into a stout cat, a big dog, and finally a royal tiger when it is threatened by a cat, a dog, and a tiger. The mouse becomes increasingly vain as it changes into larger and larger creatures and the hermit has to turn it back to its original state when it wants to kill him. This book is what a picture story book can be. As far as the content is concerned, with the subject of the evils of pride, it is appropriate for and appealing to very young children. Textwise, the number of words on each page is kept to a minimum. It is indeed a big theme with few words. The clearly patterned plot makes the story highly predictable so that when being read to, children will actively problem-solve. For all the predictability, suspense is nevertheless abundant due to the way the text is written and arranged on the pages. Consequently children’s interest will be held from the beginning to the very end. What contributes most to the superb quality of this book, however, is the illustrations that are in perfect harmony with the text. The dramatic color woodcuts achieve a fluidity of motion rarely found in the medium. Minimal as the test is, the illustrations create so clear a story line that a preliterate child will find the story easy to follow. The bold clear designs of the principle figure, the animals, and the landscape backgrounds are well created by simple masses so imaginative in concept that the woodcuts alone are a treasure of fine art. In rich jungle colors, the story of the rise and fall of the mouse is completed and extended by the pictures. The yellow green of sun through leaves and of earth, the dark green shadows, and the red that is mixed with other colors, all are compatible to the life in a forest, and help convey the mood well. Also the occasional use of visual metaphor reinforces the drama of the mouse. And even the natural texture of the long-grained plank is preserved to add depth and interesting patterns to the dramatic illustrations and help convey the mood. Other factors that lead to the high quality of the book include its powerfully attractive jacket, a nice appropriate format and a typeface that matches the illustrations. Compared with her soft delicate drawings in curved pen lines and gouache for Cinderella, the strength and rhythm that the beautiful boldly stylized woodcuts for this book possess are just outstanding. This book deserves an honorable place in the treasure house of picture story books. It makes a great read-aloud for very young children who will definitely find great pleasure in the transformations of the mouse into ever more terrifying animals and the wonderful changes of expression on the tiger’s faces as their emotions toward each other change. But for older children, much delight will be derived from both their visual experience of the work and their discovery of the profound meaning embedded in the seemingly simple story.

Book Review of The Great Gatsby

Book Review of The Great Gatsby The novel The Great Gatsby written by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was published on April 10th, 1925. When the book was first published, it received mixed reviews and sold poorly. However, the novel experienced a revival during World War II, and it is widely considered to be a literary classic and a contender for the title "Great American Novel." today. Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. During the time, America entered an unprecedented economic prosperity. With traffic, construction business, appliances and many other things developing fast, more and more people start to consider the wealth the only standard of being successful or not. The Great Gatsby mainly tells about the love story between Jay Gatsby and his ex-girlfriend Daisy Fay Buchanan through Nick Carraway’s eyes. The main events of the story take place in the summer of 1922. The novel’s narrator, Nick Carraway, is a graduate from Yale University and World War I veteran from the Midwest. Next to his small house on Long Island, a mysterious millionaire holds extravagant parties every night but does not take part in them. After meeting and knowing Gatsby, Nick finds out a lot of surprising facts of Gatsby’s experiences in the past. In Gatsby’s youth, he once fell in love with a girl called Daisy. She was so beautiful and attractive, and seemed to be interested in Gatsby. However, after World War I broke out, when Gatsby had to go to Europe for the war, Daisy broke up with him, and married with Tom, a millionaire who lives on East Egg. However, due to Tom’s mistress, Daisy’s didn’t achieve a happy marriage with Tom. With great depression, Gatsby believes that his poorness has caused all the tragedies. Therefore, he makes up his mind to become rich. Eventually, he achieved his goal successfully after a few years. He uses his money in different luxury ways, in order to attract Daisy and retrieve their love. But Daisy no longer love Gatsby anymore. In an car accident caused by Daisy, to protect Daisy, Gatsby claims that he is responsible for all the results. Even when Gatsby was shot by the dead’s husband, he still believes Daisy loves him. As you can see, Gatsby gives out all his life just for the love for Daisy. As the title of this novel, Gatsby is absolutely great. What’s more, in my point of view, he is also clever and foolish, rich and poor. His spirit of persevering touches me a lot, but Daisy and her husband’s inhuman behavior breaks my heart too. Is it worth to make so many efforts for the illusory love? Gatsby should think over the problem seriously. But actually, he may have already found out the answer. Although Daisy moved on and he recognized clearly that her voice was full of the smell of money, he still decided to try retrieving her back, that’s exactly the great point of Gatsby, and the point that the author would like to show us with the fictional story as well. As Sarah Churchwell sees, The Great Gatsby is a "cautionary tale of the decadent downside of the American dream."The story deals with human aspiration to start over again, social politics and its brutality and also betrayal, of one's own ideals and of people. According to the story's narrator, Nick Carraway, "...a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth." We should always keep our eyes clear, and know which way can lead to a bright future.

bookreview书评

SAMPLE GUIDELINES FOR CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW Preliminary Considerations First, one must understand that a critical book review is not a book report (a summary of the contents of a book). A critical book review is a vehicle for examining and discussing issues the book itself raises or fails to raise. One writes a critical book review for the benefit of those who might not presently have time to read the book but who nevertheless need to learn more about its basic approach should they desire to read or study it at a future time. The job of the book reviewer is to inform these readers concerning any merits and/or shortcomings the book may have. From information based on a well-written review, the reader may conclude that this book is either indispensable or inconsequential. Components of a Critical Book Review A. Give complete bibliographical information at the top of the page (title, author, publisher, place of publication, date of publication, number of pages, and name of reviewer). Use the following format: Toward Rediscovering the Old Testament, by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, l987. 250 pages. Reviewed by Randy C. Slocum. B. Briefly state the reason this book was chosen for review. State the author's credentials (education, place of employment, previous achievements, etc.) as a preface to giving the book a serious hearing. Biographical information about the author should be included only as it demonstrates the author’s competency to write the book. Within the context of the paper, do not use titles (Dr., Rev., etc.). In most brief reviews, you will likely need to limit the introduction to one or two paragraphs. C. Briefly (in one or two well-written sentences) summarize the thesis of the book. This is a crucial step because the thesis contains the reason why the author produced this particular book (there may be dozens on the market with similar subject matter). The thesis will state the author's basic presuppositions and approach. The critical nature of the book review will then grow from the reviewer's conclusion that the book does or does not achieve the author's stated purpose. D. The main body of a critical book review will be concerned with "thesis development." That is, did the author achieve the stated purpose? In this section the reviewer will inspect each of the chapters of the book to see how the thesis is (or is not) developed. If the author makes progress and develops the thesis convincingly, providing adequate information and statistical data, the reviewer says so, providing concrete examples and citing their page numbers in the text. Given the limited amount of space in a brief book review, footnotes should not be utilized. Quotations or ideas taken directly from the text should be followed parenthetically by the page number of the quotation. The abbreviation for page(s) (p./pp.) should not be used.

a book review

a book review Wu Zetian is a book written by Feng Xuemin that is about the whole life of Wu Zetian who is not the first but also the unique female empire in tang dynasty. This book restores the real appearance of wu,but not the fustigation that historians make. In my opinion,this book can be divided into three parts.The first part is mainly about the time when wu is born to the time before she go to the palace.She is very clever when she was a child and at that time she has the consciousness of equality between men and women.After her father’death,she and her family are faced with many difficulties,which helps her develop a tough character. The second part is about how she becomes an empress.Wu Zetian enters the Tang palace at 13 and then she becomes a concubine of Emperor Taizong.Unfortunately,after Taizong’s death in 649, she might have been expected to spend the rest of her life as a Buddhist nun, like his other childless concubines.However, through an unlikely fortuity—that Empress Wang, the wife and empress of Emperor Taizong's son and successor Emperor Gaozong, wanted another beautiful concubine to divert Emperor Gaozong's favors from Consort Xiao,bringing her back to the palace.because of the fierce struggle,both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao were killed, and she was made empress.

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