Writing principles of literature review
01."5w" writing principle
The "5w" principle is the principle of writing literature review according to who, when, where, why and what academic opinions are put forward.
A truly valuable literature review should be like an experimental report in physics. Others can repeat the experiment according to the experimental report, so that readers can quickly consult the original literature and do further textual research and research. The "5w" principle is not only the writing principle of literature review, but also the standard academic norm. Writing a literature review according to the "5w" principle, and then engaging in serious academic research is conducive to the accumulation of academic achievements and the progress of scientific development.
02. Classical principle
The so-called classic writing principle means that the content of literature review must be the classic works of classic writers on the studied issues. It is true that any research topic has its own classic works in its research field. The author of graduate thesis must make great efforts to systematically read and dig deep into the true academic connotation of classic works in his research field, so as to lay a solid theoretical foundation for his follow-up research. Of course, we emphasize that literary criticism is best the classic works of classic figures, and we don't despise the valuable works of unknown authors at all. We list the authoritative works of authoritative figures, not to show respect for celebrities and disrespect for non-authoritative figures. In academic research, it is natural to adhere to academic standards, and no other factors other than academic standards can participate.
03. Principles of ancient and modern China and foreign countries
The principle of ancient and modern China and foreign countries is to do everything possible to fully possess theoretical materials and "search for its strange peaks and draft its drafts". There is a view that literature review is a review of the current research situation. I personally disagree with this view. In essence, "the status quo" is only a continuation of "history". Without "history", how can there be "status quo"? If you don't understand "history", how can you know where the research question "comes from"? How to accurately judge the research question "where to go"? Only by understanding "history" and "present situation" at the same time can we deeply grasp the research object. Without "history", research is flat, without depth and three-dimensional sense; Without "Chinese and foreign", there is no horizontal comparison in research, and there is no broad vision. Only by adhering to the principles of ancient and modern China and foreign countries can we "grasp all the theoretical materials of the research object" and lay a solid theoretical foundation for the research of topic selection. Master's thesis, especially doctoral thesis, is different from MBA thesis. The writing characteristic of MBA thesis is to apply the theory learned to solve practical problems, and finally draw a general conclusion, preferably to put forward a complete solution to a specific research problem. You don't even need to write a literature review for an MBA thesis. Master's thesis, especially doctoral thesis, is not like this. It depends on whether the author has a solid theoretical foundation in this respect. A master's thesis or doctoral thesis without literature review is not a master's thesis or doctoral thesis.
04. The principle of "document tree"
The principle of "document tree" is also the principle of "academic pedigree". It is intended to emphasize the "class generation" and "lineage" of literature, that is, the second evolutionary relationship. When writing a literature review, the author must systematically sort out the evolution process of the research literature. Specifically, he must adopt a historical method and write in the ways of "from far to near", "from front to back" (in time), "from big to small" and "from wide to narrow" (in space).
The only purpose of emphasizing the "document tree" writing principle of literature review is to clarify the internal logic and evolution law of research literature and lay an indispensable solid theoretical foundation for its follow-up research.
05. The principle of "indomitable spirit"
In a word, the principle of "indomitable spirit" requires the author to approach the forefront of academic research at home and abroad from the theoretical inheritance; The Site requires the author to solve the real economic problems in China through academic research and integrating theory with practice. If the literature review can't be close to the academic frontier at home and abroad, then the author's research is doomed to be mediocre or repetitive. To make an inappropriate analogy, the world champion of women's pole vault is Russia's Isinbayeva. She has broken her own world record more than 20 times and maintained monopoly rule, with a score of more than 5 meters. Whoever wants to make achievements in the women's pole vault must catch up with Isinbayeva, the unavoidable peak, and there is no other way.
Naturally, "heaven" is a question of inheritance. Without real inheritance, it is difficult to have real innovation. Without "innovation", it is absolutely difficult to "innovate".
06. Comment on the principle of combination.
Literature review writing must be combined with review. Only "narration" has no "comment", so literature is fragmented and the purpose of writing literary comments is lost; There is no basis for studying problems only by "commenting" without "narrating". Traveling is rootless and unconvincing. What needs to be emphasized is that "narration" should try to "catch all the research documents", and so does the so-called "search all the strange peaks". On the premise of detailed possession of the existing research literature, we should dare to summarize and analyze the "contribution" and "deficiency" of the existing research literature. Through the further analysis of "deficiency", we can derive our own research topic from "deficiency", that is, to study a "deficiency" or even a certain aspect of a "deficiency". In this way, the logical starting point and theoretical starting point of the research problem are clarified. See table 1 for the relationship between "narration" and "comment" in literature review.
07. Singularity principle
Simply put, the "singular principle" of literature review writing is "a paper, a literature review".
There is a simple reason. A dissertation only needs to study a problem or one aspect of a problem systematically and deeply. Therefore, the research object of dissertation must be "singular" rather than "plural". If it is "plural", it means that the topic of the dissertation is not concentrated. Numerous writing practices show that this will inevitably lead to the complexity of literature review and paper structure, and will inevitably bring endless annoyance and serious trouble to paper writing.
The "single principle" of literature review writing is determined by the "single" of the research object of the paper.
08. Obey the theme principle
"Summary must focus on the innovation of paper research. Learn the achievements of predecessors and serve your own papers. " Literature review is to review and sort out the existing achievements of your own research problems. Therefore, the literature reviewed must be matched with their own research problems and cannot be divorced from the theme of their own research problems. Otherwise, it will destroy the inherent logical consistency of the research paper and cause unnecessary confusion. Furthermore, literature review should serve its own research problems, rather than "I note six classics" Based on this, when writing a literature review, the author must always keep in mind the theme and hypothesis of his paper and choose the literature around it.
Here is a brief summary of the writing principles of literature review, as shown in Table 2.
The writing method of literature review: "inverted triangle method"
There are naturally many writing methods for literature review. Different researchers have different ways of writing, and different scholars even have different ways of writing. The author thinks that the best or even the only correct writing method for literature review is the "inverted triangle method".
Specifically, the so-called "inverted triangle method" of literature review writing means that the writing of literature review should be promoted from wide to narrow (in space) and from far to near (in time), and finally around a "point", we can find the logical starting point of our own research, that is, the starting point of our own research.
As for the specific boundary between spatial amplitude and time length, it should be decided by the author according to the actual needs of research work. Generally speaking, we should adhere to the principle of closely surrounding the theme and helping to clarify the theme. For master's dissertations, especially doctoral dissertations, the space of literature review should be as wide as possible, the length of time should be as long as possible, and the scale should be as large as possible. The writing of literature review should be as detailed as possible, and it is best to systematically sort out the academic history of research issues.
The "inverted triangle method" for writing literature review can be simply illustrated, as shown in figure 1.
The scientific point of the "inverted triangle method" written in literature review is that it can help the author gradually approach the problem he wants to study and find the theoretical and logical starting point for further research. Therefore, the "inverted triangle method" can also be called "gradual approximation method". In short, it is from "research field" to "main problem" to "research hotspot direction" to "unsolved problem", and gradually abstract out the problem you want to study further or some aspect of a problem. Naturally, the "inverted triangle method" or "step-by-step approximation method" written in literature review is completely equivalent. In other words, the "inverted triangle method" or "gradual approximation method" is "one view, two expressions". See figure 2.
Obviously, literature review can never be simply listed and written as "parallel lines" (A, B, C, ...), nor can it be written as "parallelogram" (without focus, problems cannot be derived), let alone written as "regular triangle". Starting from a point, the more you write, the less you can reach the end.
The essence of writing literature review is to sort out the academic history of research topics. In this regard, Professor Li Jianming, a famous historian, has clearly stated: "In the process of choosing the research direction and establishing the project plan, sorting out the academic history of this topic has become an indispensable work." Professor Li Jianming's point of view is completely correct and worthy of attention.
Problems in Literature Review Writing
0 1.
There are very few graduate dissertations without literature review, which is naturally a great progress. However, although many graduate dissertations have literature review, there are some shortcomings in their writing, which are simply listed and not analyzed. For example, in the literature review of some dissertations, only A, B, C, D, etc. Be listed and do nothing. From this kind of literature review, it is also difficult for the author to clearly deduce the problems he wants to study based on the simply listed literature, and the readers (mainly the paper review experts and members of the defense Committee) can't see the internal logic of the literature evolution on which the author is based. Without deducing the research question, there will be no inevitable internal connection between the follow-up research and the literature review, which will inevitably lead to the "two skins" relationship between the literature review and the research question, forming a "parallel line" distribution of the paper's framework structure, thus seriously undermining the internal logical consistency of the paper.
02. Literature review lacks authority.
This is the most common phenomenon in graduate thesis writing. Although there are literature reviews in many graduate dissertations, they simply list some so-called documents that lack authority and classics, not academic documents. This kind of literature review shows that the author's reading level is too low, and his reading is far from the academic frontier. At the same time, it also shows that the author has no ability to distinguish between good and bad literature. From the quantity and quality of the literature cited by the author, we can accurately observe the stage and height of the author's scholarship. Low-level literature review will inevitably restrict the writing level of dissertation.
03. Literature review and research questions do not match.
This problem often appears in such fashionable topics as "E research based on A, B, C and D" or "B research in A period-from the analysis angle of C, D, E and F". Originally, the research focus of "E research based on A, B, C and D" was "E" instead of "A, B, C and D", but the author's literature review was "A, B, C and D". A Study of B in A Period —— Based on the Analysis Perspective of C, D, E and F, its research focus is "B" instead of "A" or "C, D, E and F", while the author's literature review is "A" or "C, D, E and F". Obviously, this kind of literature review is completely wrong and creates unnecessary trouble for itself. If you want to study "E" or "B", you can directly write "E" research or "B" research. There is absolutely no need to paste a, b, c, d or a with c, d, e and f on the topic. Isn't this self-trapping? Of course, some authors may think that this can limit the writing scope of the paper, make the writing ideas of the paper clearer, and further avoid the accusation that the topic of the paper is too large. This is possible, but not inevitable. If you don't do it well, it will only increase trouble, cause unnecessary confusion, and make you in a hurry and can't see one thing clearly. In any case, the mismatch between literature review and research questions obviously violates the principle of "obeying the theme" in literature review writing. At the same time, it will lead to two kinds of results: one is to base the thesis writing on mistakes that should not be established; Second, the focus of thesis writing will shift, resulting in confusion of research topics and thesis structure.
04. A variety of literature reviews coexist.
Another problem closely related to the mismatch between literature review and research questions is that some dissertations have unreasonable writing conditions in which multiple literature reviews coexist. This is entirely caused by the divergence of topics. Due to the divergence of topics, it is very easy to cause a difficult pattern of coexistence of various literature reviews. For example, the topic of "E research based on A, B, C and D" often leads to the coexistence of A, B, C, D and E in literature review. In fact, the focus of E research based on A, B, C and D is E, and literature review only needs E.. Writing a, b, c and d is completely unnecessary. Of course, this is a problem caused by the divergence of topics. Further discussion overflows the research scope of literature review, so let's put it here first.
05. There are too many or too few literature reviews.
The scale of literature review is also one of the headaches in graduate thesis writing. On the one hand, many graduate students suffer from too few research documents, and the literature review writing can not meet the quantitative requirements stipulated by the school; On the other hand, there are too many painful research documents for graduate students, which are overwhelmed by a vast number of documents. For the former, it is a question of expanding the amount of literature reading; For the latter, it is a question of literature selection. Expanding reading requires continuous accumulation of materials, and the selection of documents requires the author to follow the principle of subject writing, remove the rough and extract the essence from the accumulated documents, and discard the false and retain the true. Naturally, under the premise of meeting the clear quantitative requirements of the school, there is no strict quantitative limit on the number of literature reviews, and its scale is more or less, and the author can grasp it according to the needs of the research objectives of the subject.
In a word, literature review plays an extremely important role in graduate thesis writing and belongs to the category of theoretical research. As far as its nature is concerned, it is a "re-study" and a "research study" of previous research results. This level of "re-research" and "research research" determines the author's research achievements and the level of writing research papers, which should be highly valued.