Reading Literature

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来自 Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 的课程

Academic Literacy

81 个评分

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Academic Literacy

81 个评分

课程 1（共 5 门，Specialization English for Research Publication Purposes）

This is the first course of the English for Research Publication Purposes Specialization. The course is an introduction to what you need to know about academic discourse. You’ll gain important critical reading skills to help you develop as a self-critical scientific writer. You will learn practical tools and effective strategies for increasing your academic vocabulary and grammar so that you will write well-structured coherent academic texts.

从本节课中

MODULE I: THE READING–RESEARCH–WRITING CONTINUUM

This module will help you acquire critical reading skills so that you will develop as a self-critical writer. The module covers issues related to reading discipline-specific literature, which is indispensable from developing professional expertise in writing academic texts. The focus is on fundamental concepts of scientific writing, such as logical organization and argumentation.

Reading Literature9:35

Interacting with Texts6:49

Annotated Bibliography7:33

与讲师见面

Elena Bazanova
Director of the Language Training and Testing Center
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

[MUSIC]

Literature review is an examination of published material to understand what has

already been said about a topic.

Literature review typically takes the form of an examination of

scientific literature from peer reviewed journals.

The main aim of literature review is to show that the writer insightfully

evaluated the existing published literature on a particular topic.

In order for you to show that you're familiar with the literature in the field,

you need to get used to scientific language typical of members of that field

and be able to use it yourself.

That is why you should spend at least one hour a day reading the latest

articles in your field of study.

Oxford University suggests the 5x5 principle.

According to this principle,

to develop your expertise in the field of your research, you need to get acquainted

with the so-called gold standard accepted in the topic area.

To achieve this goal, you have to define 5 peer-reviewed

journals in your field of research.

5 top 5 internationally recognized books or

collective works in your area of research.

5 top academic research centers in your area of research and

5 most famous scholars in your narrow field of research, and finally 5 top

regular international academic conferences covering your area of research.

Apart from these options,

you can accumulate knowledge in the area of your scientific interest

by reviewing some of the resources developed by Oxford University Press.

In 1995, Oxford University Press print series, Very Short Introductions.

Very Short Introductions can change the way you think about the things

that interest you, and

other perfect introduction to subjects you previously knew nothing about.

The books are written in a simple accessible language but

by well known authors in various research areas.

The books can be a starting point for writing a scientific book,

especially if you are new to the topic.

In 2003, Oxford University Press started another series, Oxford Handbooks.

Oxford Handbooks offer authoritative and

up to date surveys of original research in a particular subject area.

Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline

give critical examinations of the progress and

direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research.

These books provide scholars and credit students with compelling new perspectives

upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences.

More than 200 books of this kind have already been published.

Why should you pay focused attention to literature review and

the research article?

There are several reasons for this.

These are some of them.

It shows that the author has a thorough understanding of the topic.

Identified potential areas for research.

Identified similar work done within the area.

Identified knowledge gaps that demand further investigation

compared previous figures or findings.

Critiqued existing findings and suggested further studies.

A good literature review defines the scope of the problem,

places the current study in a historical perspective and

shows the relationship between previous research and the current research thesis.

Besides, it evaluates different research methodologies and

emphasizes key studies, compares and

contrasts different research findings on a topic while grouping together authors

with similar conclusions and noting areas in which authors are in disagreement.

Reports gaps in the previous research and

how the current study can add to the literature in general.

Concludes by summarizing what the literature says.

Critical analysis of the sources selected is the part of the review

process that provides synthesis and constructs new knowledge.

It results in a review that is more than mirroring or

what has been done previously.

Failure of the reviewer to engage critically and

systematically within the sources will likely result in a review that is

a little more than an annotated bibliography or a listing of sources.

For novice researchers, critical analysis is a difficult task,

as they may feel that they cannot critique so-called expert knowledge, but

with some practice and experience they can achieve a scholarly analysis.

Before the material is selected for review it is read in detail and

critically analyzed, sources should be scanned and sorted.

At this stage, the work with resources should serve to

familiarize the reviewer with the material selected.

Then a method of tracking each piece of literature

to be included should be developed.

Bibliographical software programs such as EndNote and Biblioscope can be helpful for

this purpose and many university libraries now provide access to RefWorks or

Refbase programs designed to help manage research projects.

What processing software can also be useful for this purpose?

Once a system for tracking sources is in place,

the next task is developing a systematic means of analyzing each source.

One method that has proven effective is the chart method where

each individual source is charted according to predominated categories.

This table provides an example of literature analysis chart for

research articles.

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