energy travel and human movement

energy optimisation shows itself at every level nd every layer.
As in the bubble structure, where we have previously shown that if we create a minimal path structure, the energy would flow through it and get absorbed or redirected elsewhere, so the humans can be absorbed and or redirected subconsciously at parts which we would want them to. Thus we could create extremely private areas in the middle of the city.

Is there adifference between the fluid dynamics and energy flow?
We need to answer this question prior to making assumptions on the similarity of the two.
Is energy flow reliant upon the gravitational pull. Fluid dynamics for sure is reliant up it.

So, if we observe energy minimisation at every level, than we can.
Is energy minimization and or optimisation the same as the path of least resistance?
it depends which way you consider it. If we are to understand energy minimisation based on certain key local parameters then it is true, if however we look at the global parameters then energy minimisation may take a different shape.

How are we to determine the parameters. What are the guiding principles? we are optimising the shape based on which criteria? what is important? are w to take everything as important? Perhaps we could look at each parameter individually and understand their viscosity. How far can we pull them before they break? By understanding each parameters viscosity we are able to generate a form which can adjsut overtime on different shapes based on the viscosity of its parameters.

Dynamic viscosity- a definition of.
Dynamic viscosity of a particular shape is the shapes ability to adjust to a particular force acting upon it and absorb and redirect it without suffering any negative deformation.

Urban rules and regulations should cater for such Dynamic viscosity, they should be able to absorb and redirect any force hit upon it during a course of time.

Can we anayse the systems in cities in this respect? can we analyse how balanced have been the rules and regulations, the economic policies, the political views, the restoration policies and so on in respect to thiese forces acting upon an urban condition?

Something has to give and what gives and or pushes up is either a price, or a building or quality of life which in return kills the area

aligning structures and energy minimisation

Humans. A very interesting breed. Led by the sense of insecurity, or is it insecurity, is it perhaps economy. Minimising the energy required to get from point A to point B. Why is it that some people will have great difficulties to achieve anything at the place they were born, and yet be extremely successful and lead at another place. Can this occurrence be seen as an analogy from the biological world, or perhaps chemical world. Or is it as initially stated a work of energy minimisation, a path of least resistance.
Based on the life's experience thus far, I have no doubt that what is at work, at every level, is the mechanism for energy minimization, energy economy. I have shifted my thoughts from calling it insecurity, as have done until now, to calling it energy economy, or energy minimisation.

Nation Building. This has happened as energy minimisation process to help the powerful protect their wealth. This geneses has become the guiding process and system that has helped other standard/normal people.
When being objective, everyone interests are taken into account. When you strip ut the nations, religions, etc... to people, then everyone would be welcome or is welcome.
The genesis of the formation of the American constitution determined the path of the history of its people.
What can we understand and or predict from countries constitutions? what can we find out if we only read the beginings of various countries constitution.


Luftrat kombetare, pasioni kombetar. A lot larger. Creation of the nationhood unified larger parts and many more people.


Nation Idea, created new turbulences, new wars along the nations lines.

writing tips

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/tutor/problems/structure.shtml

scaffold

Intellect

Peter Elbow – free writing – writing without teachers

Write about the streets of your city

Prishtina, a city of chaos,

The streets are filled with lots of rubbish, through out by everyone and everywhere.

Buildings on the side of the streets have their windows broken, the spaces allowed for green zones have no greens on it, no grass nothing, apart from a lot of rubbish and mud.

Cars, cars, cars, streets are filled with cars, kids have nowhere to play, the dedicated play filled have turned into parking spaces, they are now filled with cars. There is no pedestrian zone, again all is filled with cars.

People find it very difficult to navigate through the streets of Ulpiana, an urban zone within the city of Prishtina.

Mothers with their children are constantly endangered while moving through the streets of Prishtina. Bikers are non exitent, as there is no respect nor priority for anyone in the streets except for the cars.

Aspahlt has started crumbling, there are big holes.

Good conditions for writing.

Writing, not my greatest forte. I guess this is a payback from the childhood days when I did not want to waste anytime reading, I was out there playing football. Now I find it quite difficult to write, It is getting better though, this course, it feel that it will crack my writing problem. I can already sense it.

When do I write best. Well I guess it has to be one of those late quite noghts with a mellow music on the beakground, when I feel that everyone else is sleeping and there is nothing else for me to do bt to concentrate on myself my own reading and writing, my own research my own world.

I guess a glass of wine, or a glass of wisky helps to, to put me on that chilled mode, chiled groovy dimension, when I sense a warming up in the back of my head, sometimes I get a high, as I am actually getting one now.

It is a great feeling to see and feel that you are getting over of your fear of writing, fear of presenting your own ideas with your own words.

I do not have this fear.

What writing have you done on your thesis or what writing would you like to do on your thesis.

My thesis presents the idea of finding ways, creating evaluating systems whereby a community can be quantified and taken as an important parameter in generative architecture and Urban Planning.

Various research has been carried out in Generative Architecture and Urban Planning, myself included.

There is a process which architects and Urban planners undergo when carrying out any architectural and Urban planning design. Various parameters are taken into consideration in a predominantly linear fashion. All these parameters are looked at one after the other, they are tested againsta each other and the final outsome I than proposed as a solution. What generative architecture and Urban planning does is that it takes into account all these paramateres at the same time, in one go, throws them against eachother and proposes an outcome.

Up until now, a very important parameter, which is community has not realy been taken into consideration. What my research will try and recover is how we can evaluate the community in mid. .Urban planning and Architecture

Get a companion who coaches you / Jehona

Serial Writing

‘bige’ vs ‘snack’ writing

You need to schedule your writing in a day, so that you can produce good writing.

Try and become a snack writer, so that you write a bit everyday. Produce a paragraph everyday, perhaps spend about an hour of writing everyday.

‘’Motivation comes most reliably in the wake of regular involvement.’’ (Boice 1994: 236)

See what is realistic on your working week to write. It does not matter what you are writing, it will all come together. The early stuff may be the most important stuff. The most informal stuff may be the best stuff.

BLOG on your research, write about white you are doing regularly, if you are doing your case study then do it on your blog, it will help you.

Perhaps, I could start writing about the Shed idea, about the house idea.

Daily walk has an energising effect, to connect you to your practice of writing.

Or have a date with yourself once a week. To give something back to yourself. Give yourself a treat, especially if you are working.

Write a contract with yourself.

Hemingway used to leave a sentence unfinished, and then start finishing the next day.

Write about where things are in your computer.

There are two systems that I currently use to store my stuff, actually 3.

The one that works best s the structured on in the office, here everything is structured and I have to follow the structure as it does link to other users, they have to find things just as easy as I would have if I was looking for these files.

The second system which is my own personal one but still linked to my time in the office is my Rama file on the z drive. This is where I create new folders as they emerge from day to day. I havechapter/files and within them everything to do with that chater, or so I think.

The Third and the most chaotic one is my desltop, I though things on my desktop, as I regard them to be temporary or this is the place where I find them immediately when I need to look for them or do a presentation somewhere or show something to someone. I find that once the desktop is filled up, I create a folder called desktop with a date in it, and through everything from the desktop into this folder. When the cleaning time comes I then through these files into a folder called Rama on my C drive, this is where I know for sure that I wil most probably find everything that I have ever done. These folders exist bring the life of my computer, if during this period of time I di not find it necessary to find any of these files then I regard them as not so important and therefore they can be deleted, I low them to fade away.

A piece of software called PAPERS.

Get all the quotes onto a spreadsheets, as you are reading about them, add your thoughts about the quote.

Mindmeister is a good tool to organise your thoughts around a structure.

Scaffolding an argument

· Decide on the main point

· Define terms, elaborate

o It is important how exactly you define the terms

· Illustrate your point

o Through case studies analyses, qaunty quality point

· Discuss illustrations, examples, stats or evidence: show how they say what you say

o Illustrate how your examples are backing up your point (illustrations, we are not talking about pictures, you can use pictures however). Do not overload your chapter files with pictures.

Every paragraph should do the above…..

Paragraph

Chapter

Thesis

Fractal self similar structure

Main weaknesses are at the paragraph level, paragraph structures.

Thesis is just a bigger project same principles apply as in paragraph writing.

Examiners should know why you are using visuals if you are going to do so, so that they do not think you are waffling.

5min:

Scaffold an argument in note or bullet form around something non thesis related that you have a strong opinion about.

· Decide on the main point

Community as a parameter for Generative architecture and Urban Planning

· Decide on the main point

o Public Good - Community as a parameter for Generative architecture and Urban Planning

· Define terms, elaborate

o Every development has to take into account the community as a parameter in order to be regarded as a public good. Various Developments tend to take into account only the price of the square meter. The banks finance projects that make economical sense on paper. The supply and demand is the main driving aspect, as long as this make sense the bank and the Urban planning department will allow the development of a project. In developing countries Communities are very rarely taken into account. Many times they are destroyed with the act of changing the existing conditions and proposing or adding something new. We have to start evaluating the community and bringing it in as an important if not the most important parameter.

· Illustrate your point

o Through case studies analyses, q

o In Prishtina, many existing streets which were populated with two story houses have been totally destroyed an instead of them we now have 12 story buildings. The existing community was not taken into account. The department of Town planning has the largest burden of wrongdoing, as it has not taken any action to stop these occurrences. The normal procedure would be for the developer to apply for a licence at the department of Town planning. The department would then write to the nighours within the development letting them know that an application has been made and if there is any cause against the development ten they have a period of 2 weeks to complain.

· Discuss illustrations, examples, stats or evidence: show how they say what you say

o Illustrate how your examples are backing up your point (illustrations, we are not talking about pictures, you can use pictures however). Do not overload your chapter files with pictures.

o We have carried out field research whre we have discussed the above matters with the neighbours of these developments. They all express major frustration and fill totally abandoned, scared and nowhere to turn to. They now have no choice but to follow the same trend, sell their property and move elsewhere while another developer gets in develops and create a monstrous project which does not take into account the human factr, urban condition, community, andy environmental paramterers and so on. The only parameter that has been taken into consideration and has been maximizes is the cost of m2

Sentences are thoughts. Pargraphs are the full expression of ideas, the unitof composition, the coverage of the individual topics.

You have to finish your point, or complete thought.

Sentences that are way to long are not great. Nor are the very short paragraphs.

Go with the flow do your binge writing but then go back and fix it up.

Paragraph structure

1. Topic Sentence

2. Elaborate / define your terms

3. Give examples / evidence illustrations

4. Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

It is not a great idea to write a one sentence paragraph. It fills to the reader that you have not got a full grasp of the idea. Same goes for a very long pargraph.

Vickenstein and filozofical investigations which are done in very short sentences is an interesting example.

Expand and elaborate the paragraph, which should nicely lead to the next paragraph. Make sure that there is a flow between the paragraph. Make a transition between one flow into another flro of ideas.

Outlining paragraphs

1. Write a list of the points you want to cover

2. Look at your list: are any of these actually more then one point?

3. Can you drop any points?

4. Are they in the write order

5. Write a paragraph on each one.

You need t make a point which is explicit to the reader. It is not enough to be implicit to the writer.

Ask yourself what are you trying to say? And say it.

You write presuming your reader has no knowledge, but do not think they are idiots.

Break down your writing goals into manageable increments.

Snack/binge

· What are you setting out to do?

o Topic Sentence

§ I would like to create My PHD research will be dealing with the Public Good as a Parameter for Generative Architecture and Urban Planning

o Elaborate / define your terms

§ When designing systems to generate urban planning and architecture, several parameters are taking into account. Urban planning takes into account, economics, demographics, political agenda, and the cities vision as whole. Architectural design takes into account location, orientation, vicinity to road, vicinity to other building, environmental parameters such as light and sunlight, seasons, function and program. Marketing research is also a part of the design element,. starting from the site location, context, orientation, vicinity to various transportation systems, schools etc. The Urban Code is very important, it has to therefore be taken into account. The Urban Code is a linear process wh

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· How are you setting out to do it?

o Our offices approach to design is based largely on the generative methodology, whereby we aim to look at the social phenomena and try to generate or design a programmatic code, or a digital description or representation of it. This digital description becomes a code and/or a parameter within an application. Applications are made of several parameters, starting from Urban planning Codes to Material and/or structural performances or capabilities.

o Topic Sentence

o Elaborate / define your terms

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· Why are you choosing this approach?

I have chosen this approach as it tends to take into account all the systems/parameters at the same time, whereby giving solutions by mixing all the paramateres in parallel, not in a linear fashion as we generally tend to do if we follow tranditional ways of designing.

o Topic Sentence

o Elaborate / define your terms

o Give examples / evidence illustrations

o Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

· What are your research questions?

How do you evaluate or define a public good. How do you quantify a qualitative quality?

· How does your method fit the questions?

· Which topics do you need to cover to explain your methods.

Topic Sentence

Elaborate / define your terms

Give examples / evidence illustrations

Say how your example makes the point(s) in your topic sentence.

Second Draft should make about 85% of your writing.

· Have you spent or time of your

Write diligently all the time, if possible. Be as clear and as polished as possible. Try not to have any rubbish on the page, everything that you have in your bunch of writing to be as best as possible.

The more intentional you are about it the better the structure.

Keep track of the hours that you write. Log them in.

Outliars a book about geniuses . 10000 hours of becoming an expert.

14 / 10 / 08

Chris Hale

An intervention has to be a true experiment.

If you trust the methodology you can trust the outcome.

Coacheing and facilitation aspect was quite fulfilling and good in terms of creating a framework around what we are about to engage with and how we would go on about doing it.

Start at the end and work backwards.

The planning aspect, or having to plan, the whole PHD as the project management aspect, when you are constantly chiseling for the new….

3 assesments.

How to design a research process?

Check UEL +, UEL connect staff,

Practice based PHD is the one where literature review is the least important.

Could I b reviewing designs. Perhaps I could be reviewing generative research tools that we have carried out so far, what are the difficulties.

I could ask A and P to describe what have they carried out, what are the parameters of their works, what are the difficulties, how do they see that the product can be better.

With regards to the shed aspec t the following questions may be of relevance.

o What is the definition of shed

o How would you use the shed.

o How many other ways can shed be used?

o What are the minimum sizes of the shed?

o What are the maximum sizes of the shed?

o What are the characteristics of the shed?

o Looking from outside into the shed, what do you see?

o Looking from inside and out of the shed what do you see? Draw or describe if possible.

o What sort of materials would you use or expect for a shed?

o What other questions do you think could be relevant related to the shed design?

o If you were to think of a shed as a swiss knife and then related to your chosen field of research, how would your shed look like? Would you call it a shed?

o If you were to think of your shed as an i-phone, how would your shed look like?

We now move on the house design

· What are the key components, and or requirements for a liveable house?

A PHD on how to carry out a PHD as a CEO of a company?

Symbolic interaction?

Ant stills lags

Critical appraisal of the research other people have created.

You need to find out where the propositions are based upon.

Is it derived from sound interpretation of actual research, it does not matter what method has been used.

In a critical review you have to say if proper research is evidence based.

You are expected to asses if any publication is derived from a proper or any kind of research.

If it has not derived from any research, it is than an idea that is not based on research, it may or may not be true, but has not been proven either way.

Inductive is generaly a qualitative approach

Deductive can be both.

Is it a speculative piece, is it a theoretical statement? Is it based on evidence, and if so is evidence trustworthy in the first place?

Symbolic interactionism

Take the wine making analogy as a method for research review.

1. Data / evidence acquired from application of research methods

If we are trying to evaluate and make sense of research we could develop a framework for understanding it by using a concept map,

Tha map might contain concepts such as

a. Purpose of research

b. Types of research

c. Kinds of research questions

d. Methodological assumptions

e. Related literature/public output

f. Scale and scope of research and so on

This kind of framework allows us to develop an overview of the topic/idea

Critical writing

BOOK ‘ interpreting qualitative data’’ david silverman

BOOK’ the limitations of social research’’ Martin Shipman

What is your target within next 6 months?

Work backwards and identify everything you need to do, find out if the target is feasible or not.

Annual review, registration, external markers, etc, what are they? They are given, expectation of outputs.

Six months from now where are you supposed to be?

Registration is supposed to happen in the first 6months if you are full time.

How long are you expecting to spend on your PHD?

Check so that it is not going to take forever. There should be a sequence of things that has to happen in order for you to achieve the target.

A literature review is great if you have got the literature. Getting the literature will take quite an amount of time.

Do a quck draft version of the next ix months,

Afternoon

Things that you have to do have other subthings.

Murphys Law, if things cn go wrong they will.

If you are going to choose a methodology,

Things take effort, organisation takes effort. You have to get a good text book on methods.

You have to do a lot of learning befre you make some of these decisions.

This module is supposed to be a process and context.

Every research is taken within a context.

Pre-existing knowledge is context. You do not compile a literature review just for the sake of it. It should aid you and serve you in your life. What you are expected to do is challenge what you take for granted. Through the process of reading you become aware of what the real state of knowledge is in your field.

Start identifying the contexts within which your research exists?

What is the context of research? Places which surround you on your research.

i.e., institutional, academic, social

In what way these contexts bare upon your research? Provide incentives for people you will be carrying out surveys with. Manipulate the contexts.

My research is about contexts, so I will have to find out how I carry out limitations to the context analyses in order to devise close to universal parameters that is able to be treated as appropriate in various contexts.

Research may have to be more focused and stream lined, it may have to take an amended discourse in order to take into account the trustworthy data.

Supervisor….

What are the different factors that may have a baring on your research

What is the weight of the baring?

What is the total list we need to think about?

Does it have an impact on you or not and in what way, and with what implication on you or a research or PHD.

Get a composite list of Contexts.

The easiest way of describing what generative architecture is the flower growing and the context it grows in.

Or designing a grain

15 / 10 / 2009

This research differs from that research, without saying I, getting I and the emotional out of writing and research.

What are the methods that will evalidate my research.

Separating the thesis from the research process,

The positivist ?

I cannot be separated from the research methods.

How do you start a similar dialogue with yourself, after these two weeks.

Presentation on Tuesday is one of the three assignments. ……. . . . . . .

It’s good to spend some time with Paul. I guess it is good send the reports.

Literature Reviews

What this handout is about

This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Introduction

OK. You've got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, settle down in your chair, and get ready to issue a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" as you leaf through the pages. "Literature review" done. Right?

Wrong! The "literature" of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. "Literature" could be anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources.

What is a literature review, then?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?

While the main focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument, the focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others. The academic research paper also covers a range of sources, but it is usually a select number of sources, because the emphasis is on the argument. Likewise, a literature review can also have an "argument," but it is not as important as covering a number of sources. In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review section. But it is the aspect of the study (the argument or the sources) that is emphasized that determines what type of document it is.

Why do we write literature reviews?

Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper's investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.

Who writes these things, anyway?

Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself.

top

Let's get to it! What should I do before writing the literature review?

Clarify

If your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from your instructor:

• Roughly how many sources should you include?
• What types of sources (books, journal articles, websites)?
• Should you summarize, synthesize, or critique your sources by discussing a common theme or issue?
• Should you evaluate your sources?
• Should you provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history?

Find models

Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize your final review. You can simply put the word "review" in your search engine along with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the Internet or in an electronic database. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read are also excellent entry points into your own research.

Narrow your topic

There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most areas of study. The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the material. Your instructor will probably not expect you to read everything that's out there on the topic, but you'll make your job easier if you first limit your scope.

And don't forget to tap into your professor's (or other professors') knowledge in the field. Ask your professor questions such as: "If you had to read only one book from the 70's on topic X, what would it be?" Questions such as this help you to find and determine quickly the most seminal pieces in the field.

Consider whether your sources are current

Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Information even two years old could be obsolete. However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have changed through the years or within a certain time period. Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to consider what is "hot" and what is not.

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Strategies for writing the literature review

Find a focus

A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. This means that you will not just simply list your sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time. No. As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider instead what themes or issues connect your sources together. Do they present one or different solutions? Is there an aspect of the field that is missing? How well do they present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate theory? Do they reveal a trend in the field? A raging debate? Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review.

Construct a working thesis statement

Then use the focus you've found to construct a thesis statement. Yes! Literature reviews have thesis statements as well! However, your thesis statement will not necessarily argue for a position or an opinion; rather it will argue for a particular perspective on the material. Some sample thesis statements for literature reviews are as follows:

The current trend in treatment for congestive heart failure combines surgery and medicine.

More and more cultural studies scholars are accepting popular media as a subject worthy of academic consideration.

See our handout for more information on how to construct thesis statements.

Consider organization

You've got a focus, and you've narrowed it down to a thesis statement. Now what is the most effective way of presenting the information? What are the most important topics, subtopics, etc., that your review needs to include? And in what order should you present them? Develop an organization for your review at both a global and local level:

First, cover the basic categories

Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper.

Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational pattern.

Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for more information on each).

Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed?

Organizing the body

Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider how you will present the sources themselves within the body of your paper. Create an organizational method to focus this section even further.

To help you come up with an overall organizational framework for your review, consider the following scenario and then three typical ways of organizing the sources into a review:

You've decided to focus your literature review on materials dealing with sperm whales. This is because you've just finished reading Moby Dick, and you wonder if that whale's portrayal is really real. You start with some articles about the physiology of sperm whales in biology journals written in the 1980's. But these articles refer to some British biological studies performed on whales in the early 18th century. So you check those out. Then you look up a book written in 1968 with information on how sperm whales have been portrayed in other forms of art, such as in Alaskan poetry, in French painting, or on whale bone, as the whale hunters in the late 19th century used to do. This makes you wonder about American whaling methods during the time portrayed in Moby Dick, so you find some academic articles published in the last five years on how accurately Herman Melville portrayed the whaling scene in his novel.

Chronological

If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials above according to when they were published. For instance, first you would talk about the British biological studies of the 18th century, then about Moby Dick, published in 1851, then the book on sperm whales in other art (1968), and finally the biology articles (1980s) and the recent articles on American whaling of the 19th century. But there is relatively no continuity among subjects here. And notice that even though the sources on sperm whales in other art and on American whaling are written recently, they are about other subjects/objects that were created much earlier. Thus, the review loses its chronological focus.

By publication

Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on biological studies of sperm whales if the progression revealed a change in dissection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.

By trend

A better way to organize the above sources chronologically is to examine the sources under another trend, such as the history of whaling. Then your review would have subsections according to eras within this period. For instance, the review might examine whaling from pre-1600-1699, 1700-1799, and 1800-1899. Under this method, you would combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby Dick itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart.

Thematic

Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For instance, the sperm whale review could focus on the development of the harpoon for whale hunting. While the study focuses on one topic, harpoon technology, it will still be organized chronologically. The only difference here between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: the development of the harpoon or the harpoon technology.

But more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might examine how they are portrayed as "evil" in cultural documents. The subsections might include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors misunderstood. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made.

Methodological

A methodological approach differs from the two above in that the focusing factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the "methods" of the researcher or writer. For the sperm whale project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in American, British, and French art work. Or the review might focus on the economic impact of whaling on a community. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Once you've decided on the organizational method for the body of the review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out. They should arise out of your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period. A thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.

Sometimes, though, you might need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. Put in only what is necessary. Here are a few other sections you might want to consider:

Current Situation: Information necessary to understand the topic or focus of the literature review.

History: The chronological progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.

Methods and/or Standards: The criteria you used to select the sources in your literature review or the way in which you present your information. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals.

Questions for Further Research: What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

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Begin composing

Once you've settled on a general pattern of organization, you're ready to write each section. There are a few guidelines you should follow during the writing stage as well. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:

However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (Gastil, 1990). Hamilton (1988) asked students to complete sentences that required them to fill in pronouns that agreed with gender-neutral antecedents such as "writer," "pedestrian," and "persons." The students were asked to describe any image they had when writing the sentence. Hamilton found that people imagined 3.3 men to each woman in the masculine "generic" condition and 1.5 men per woman in the unbiased condition. Thus, while ambient sexism accounted for some of the masculine bias, sexist language amplified the effect. (Source: Erika Falk and Jordan Mills, "Why Sexist Language Affects Persuasion: The Role of Homophily, Intended Audience, and Offense," Women and Language19:2.

Use evidence

In the example above, the writers refer to several other sources when making their point. A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid.

Be selective

Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review's focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological.

Use quotes sparingly

Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. Some short quotes here and there are okay, though, if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Notice that Falk and Mills do quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, check with your instructor.

Summarize and synthesize

Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. The authors here recapitulate important features of Hamilton's study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to their own work.

Keep your own voice

While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice (the writer's) should remain front and center. Notice that Falk and Mills weave references to other sources into their own text, but they still maintain their own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with their own ideas and their own words. The sources support what Falk and Mills are saying.

Use caution when paraphrasing

When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. In the preceding example, Falk and Mills either directly refer in the text to the author of their source, such as Hamilton, or they provide ample notation in the text when the ideas they are mentioning are not their own, for example, Gastil's. For more information, please see our handout on plagiarism.

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Revise, revise, revise

Draft in hand? Now you're ready to revise. Spending a lot of time revising is a wise idea, because your main objective is to present the material, not the argument. So check over your review again to make sure it follows the assignment and/or your outline. Then, just as you would for most other academic forms of writing, rewrite or rework the language of your review so that you've presented your information in the most concise manner possible. Be sure to use terminology familiar to your audience; get rid of unnecessary jargon or slang. Finally, double check that you've documented your sources and formatted the review appropriately for your discipline. For tips on the revising and editing process, see our handout on revising drafts.

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Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing the original version of this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout's topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find the latest publications on this topic. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Anson, Chris M. and Robert A. Schwegler, The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. Second edition. New York: Longman, 2000.

Jones, Robert, Patrick Bizzaro, and Cynthia Selfe. The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing in the Disciplines. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997.

Lamb, Sandra E. How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You'll Ever Write. Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 1998.

Rosen, Leonard J. and Laurence Behrens. The Allyn and Bacon Handbook. Fourth edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002.

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great source for literature review thinking

http://info.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/literature.htm?PHPSESSID=valse85tc1v1d95pdmc9bgdur2&

how to write a literature review?

http://info.emeraldinsight.com/authors/guides/literature.htm?part=2

original source: http://www.uccs.edu/~smarshal/id26.htm Additional Guidelines for Literature Review Reasons for Literature Review: 1. Can help Identify a Testable Hypothesis Once you have identified a broad problem area - practical or theoretical - the next step is to review the literature on the topic. Examining both the theoretical and research literature on a topic usually will help you narrow your topic and identify a testable hypothesis. If you are having trouble with a research hypothesis, you can: a. Replicate a study: A case in which you will try to mimic the original study in all important respects; purpose of study to see if the same types of results will emerge. b. Modified Replication: a replication with some major modification such as examining a new population or using an improved measurement technique. c. Study Designed to Solve a Conflict: Published reviews of research often point out such conflicts and offer possible explanations of them. d. Arrive at a New Idea: After reviewing the research, you may arrive at a creative idea that is not a direct extension of existing research. This is rare for a novice researcher. 2. Identifying Measuring Tools (Instruments) You may identify instruments that were used successfully by other researchers and, also, avoid those found to be seriously flawed. 3. Helps to Avoid Dead-Ends: Your research idea may have already been thoroughly investigated and shown to be not useful. 4. Aids in Writing Research Reports: Paying pay careful attention to the style and organization used by authors of published research, you will learn about organization and structure of written reports. 5. Helps with Citations: If you are researching in a Sociological or Social Science journal or article, you can gain useful information regarding the proper format for citations in your area of study. 6. Helps to Demonstrate Relevance of your Hypothesis: A proper literature review enables you to show those who are reviewing your research that you were able to locate research relevant to your hypothesis, to use it in planning your research, and to cite it appropriately in your review of literature.

Writing Literature Reviews - Additional Thoughts 1. Usually best to begin by naming and describing your broad problem area. This would include conceptual definitions of major terms if you believe your audience may not know their meanings. 2. Good to establish the importance of your topic. You can do this by showing that your topic was important enough to be investigated by others: Vispoel and Austin (1995). A recent electronic search of the PsycLIT data base suggests that, in the past 5 years alone, authors of nearly 2,000 published articles and reports drew on some facet of attribution theory (i.e., the word root attribution appearing in the title or text) in attempting to examine motivation- related effect. . . . Numerous critiques, syntheses, and meta-analyses of attribution research further attest to the breadth and depth of literature in this area.. . . (p.378) You may also establish the importance of a topic by citing statistics that indicate how many people are affected by a particular problem (for example, how many cases of rape were reported last year) or how many people are in the population of interest (for example, how many children enrolled in special classes for the gifted). 3. Next, write a topic-by-topic description of relevant research, and provide major and minor subheadings to guide a reader through a long literature review. For example, some of the major and minor- subheadings used by Urdan and Machr (1995) in their review of research on social goals in achievement are: The Nature of Goals (Defining Goals Within Achievement Goals Theory, Other Definitions of Goals, Focus on Two Goals), Social Goals: Their Nature, Consequences, and Antecedents (Direct Examinations of Social Goals, Consequences of Pursuing Social Goals, Antecedents of Social Goals, Summary) 4. Best to group references together when they have something in common. Also, point out conflicts in the literature. These principles are followed by Urdan and Machr (1995). Research has demonstrated that conformity to peers is typically stronger during adolescence than during childhood (Berndt, 1979; Coleman, 1961; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). Coleman argued that conformity to peers is stronger than conformity to parents during adolescence, but that claim has been qualified (Berndt, 1979; Epstein 1983) and disputed (Berndt & Park, 1989) by others. For example, Epstein (1983) found that. . . . (p. 227) 5. Should indicate the results of the research you are citing and not just describe the research methodology. In fact, it is often not necessary to discuss methodology; should you elect not to do so, your readers are likely to assume that you believe it was reasonably strong. However, if you hold the opposite belief, you might wish to point out specific weaknesses with statements such as: �In a preliminary pilot study with 14 registered nurses as subjects, Doe and Smith (1996) found. . . .�

Partial Literature Reviews from Several Papers EXAMPLE 1 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE This chapter will briefly review specific factors that are relevant to educational aspirations and/or deviant behavior. Researchers as well as theorists continue to strive for answers to such questions as, Who are juvenile delinquents? Are there special characteristics associated with delinquents? Do delinquents vary among themselves; and if so, How do they differ? Although multiple predictive variables tend to reoccur throughout much of the research, many theorists do acknowledge that not any one variable, or theory, exclusively explains all of delinquent behavior. Using several current studies of delinquency, we will discuss common social factors that are associated with delinquent behavior: Social structural factors include age, gender, and ethnicity; social bond factors include school, family, economics, and religion; and the social psychological factor includes purpose of life. Social Structural Factors Age One of the strongest, but not inclusive, variables used to explain delinquent behavior is that of age. When Gottfredson and Hirschi (1986) examined all offenders, they found that the relationship between crime and age is such that the tendency to commit criminal acts reaches a peak in the middle to late teens and then declines rapidly throughout life (U.S. Department of Justice, 1985b:346). Furthermore, based on data sources from England, Wales, France and the United States over the past 150 years, they (1985) contend that: 1) the frequency of criminal acts rapidly rise through the teen years, 2) twenty years old is the age at which criminal behavior peaks. (This continues through all social structural factors)... Social Bond Factors ...Within the life-course tradition, Moffitt (1993) theorizes that the ALs develop "strong attachments to work and family for the same reason they desist from delinquency: Youthful delinquency followed by adult bonding to work and family constitute a sequence of normal developmental stages (for males)." Furthermore, other research of criminal behavior suggests the same conclusion of maturation (see Empey and Erickson, 1972; Murray and Cox, 1979). Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that "maturational reform is so pervasively observed, even among serious delinquents that it is the dominant explanation of change in criminal activity during the teen years" (1986:221)... EXAMPLE 2 Criminal History ...The connection between crime and substance abuse is well documented, but nowhere is it more obvious than in data on recidivism rates. Statistics show that the more prior convictions an individual has, the more likely it is that the individual is a drug or alcohol abuser (Belenko & Peugh, 1998). Among state prison populations, 41 percent of first offenders are regular substance users, compared with 63 percent of inmates who have two prior convictions and 81 percent of those who have five or more convictions. Some 39 percent of regular substance users in state prisons have two or more prior incarcerations, compared with only 21 percent of state inmates who are not regular substance users (Belenko & Peugh, 1998). Policies Another contributing factor to prison overcrowding is �get tough� policies that can range from tougher laws such as Three Strikes laws to mandatory sentencing for specific crimes. In many states, most notably California (Vitello, 1997), Three Strikes laws have been established to give judges and/or prosecutors more sentencing power when dealing with repeat offenders. Some states have a type of graduated scale for implementation of Three Strikes laws, in that the second felony conviction can net an offender a sentence which is double that of the recommended sentence of a first conviction (Vitello, 1997). Typically, a third felony conviction can, and often does, land a repeat offender in prison for life. These longer sentences and mandatory life sentences can have a definite effect on prison populations for years to come. Drugs It is difficult to talk about �get tough� policies without going back to the issue of drug abuse. For years, federal, state and local officials have consistently stepped up law enforcement, prosecution and punishment in response to citizen concerns about crime and violence (CASA 1998). Beginning with the heroin epidemic of the 1970�s and continuing through the crack-cocaine explosion in the 1980's... EXAMPLE 3 Literature Review Much of the research discussed the role of women in the Catholic Church since it is a current topic of controversy within the faith. Other articles examined and discussed the roles of women in various Protestant faiths. These topics will be dealt with in a later section of the literature review. Importantly, one of the articles, �Gender and Religious Work� (Heyer-Gray, 2000) went beyond an explanation of the roles of women and dealt with why the role of women in the church is an important topic. The author of the article, Heyer-Gray, examined the roles of women in the church as related to feminism and how the roles of women within a larger framework are devalued. This is a very important topic to consider since according to Michael Kimmel, gender is �. . . one of the primary axes around which social life is organized� (Kimmel, 1993 :vii). Heyer-Gray examined how religious work is �gendered� and how it is important in discussions of the goals of feminist movements (2000). Heyer-Gray, highlighted three key feminist themes that she felt were areas of concern in the roles of women in various churches (2000). Her first concern was �...rendering visible those kinds of work that in fact sustain our everyday worlds�our households, our communities, our churches�but that are often difficult to �see� or discern even occasionally for those who actually do the work (Heyer-Gray, 2000)...

Grading Grid

for Research Project

Total 175 points toward Total of 700 for the Course

CONTENT (60%)

Literature sources

Conceptualization & operationalization of concepts

Develop hypothesis & follow it through to end

Limitations of study

Sampling techniques - what you did and what you would do given time/money\

All "For this Report" notations

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS (15%)

Univariate analysis (5 variables)

Bivariate analysis (2 tables/charts/graphs)

SECTION STRUCTURE (15%)

Headings when appropriate

Synthesis of Sources for Literature Review

Tables/Charts/Graphs - proper formatting

Citations/Reference format

Appendix - Survey and Codebook

Overall presentation

GRAMMAR / PUNCTUATION (10%)

Proper quotes/citation within text - direct and indirect

Grammatical issues (punctuation, spelling, etc.)

POINTS GIVEN FOR EXCEPTIONAL WORK

WORK THAT EXCEEDS MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

1 points will be awarded for each of the section groupings shown below. You have the opportunity to earn an additional 3 points toward total project points.

Sections: Introduction & Literature Review

Methods & Results

Discussion & Conclusions