Literature Review - Other Useful Info for Dissertation Writing
- Literature Review - Overview
- Part One - Literature Survey
- Literature Survey
- Efficient Ways Of Searching The Literature
- Where to Hunt
- Other Useful Info
- Citations And Notes
- Errors Of Judgment
- Planning Checklist
Which form of recording will be most suitable is influenced by your location,
your skills, your facilities, the expense, and the time available. If you are
using a book or journal in a library, you may find it most feasible to take
hand-written notes. Or if the library has photocopying facilities for patrons’
use, you may choose to photocopy passages from a resource. If you have checked
a book or journal out of the library and have it at home near your computer,
you can enter quotations or summaries of passages by keying them with your word-processing
program.If you need to quote extensive portions of a book chapter or article
and then use those quotations as part of your thesis or dissertation, you will
find that a scanner which utilizes an OCR (optical character recognition) program
is a great boon. Although photocopying a document furnishes you an exact copy
of that document, it does not allow you to enter the document directly into
your dissertation. But by placing the source of the quotation - book, magazine,
or photocopied item - in a scanner attached to your computer, and utilizing
an OCR program, you can copy pages and save them in the word-processing program
you are using. You are then able to treat that material the same as you would
if you had typed it into the computer yourself. The quoted material can be edited
or moved around however you wish.Sometimes you may find it convenient to orally
enter summaries or quotations into a tape recorder. One advantage is that speaking
is usually faster than writing. Obviously, using a tape recorder requires that
you be in a situation in which your talk doesn’t disturb others, and the location
needs to be free from noise that would muddle the recording.You can save yourself
time and grief if, at the outset of your project, you prepare (a) the bibliographic
style you intend to use in the final version of your project, (b) the manner
in which you will cite references and add notes, and (c) a coding system for
indicating where in your project you plan to utilize selections from the professional
literature.Bibliographic style: For the final version of your thesis or dissertation,
there are several popular ways of citing the literature resources you have used.
One way is to place all of your references in an alphabetical list at the end
of your document. Sometimes this list is labeled Bibliography and contains sources
that you consulted, even ones that you do not cite specifically in the body
of your work. Or the list may be titled References and limited to items that
you refer to in your document.Here are two of the standard forms for listing
references. The first is from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association ( 1994) and is commonly used for works in the fields of psychology,
sociology, economics, education, and political science. Book: Washington
G., & Lincoln A. ( 1999). Past presidents’ personalities. Philadelphia:
B. Franklin’s Press.
Journal article: Marx K. ( 1998). "Sociology in the Third Reich".
New European Social Thought, 14 ( 3), 123-142.
The second, from the Chicago Manual of Style ( 1993), is often used for studies in the humanities. It sometimes is also found in educational and certain social-science publications.
Book: Raleigh Walter. A Complete History of the World. London: The Tower
Press ( 62nd ed.), 1999.
Joumal article: Johnson Ben. "W. Shakespeare and the Kate who kissed".
Elizabethan Archives, 8 ( 1604): 67-82.
