Know your field

The literature review is important for getting to know your field and examining this from multiple perspectives. Work with your material, considering it from different angles so that you develop a good understanding of what and who are important in your subject, and why. The higher the level of your work, and the longer it is, the more attention you should give to this.
Consider your field from the following angles. Check off  each once you have considered its relevance fully in relation to your project.
■	Origins
Undertake a preliminary broad survey of the material on the topic you have selected, tracing research on the topic and or specific issues back to their origins.
■	Who or what started research into this area?
■	What did they establish as important
foundation points, facts or theories?
■	What issues were raised by the research that
are still relevant today?

■	Breadth
Read widely around the subject, selecting texts that represent well the various perspectives taken by experts in this area.
Make a chart to show how these relate to each
other or a table to compare and contrast them.

■	Recurrent issues
Note recurrent themes and issues that might have
a bearing on your own project.
■	What are the recurrent issues or debates?
■	What are the main points of disagreement
between experts and why do these arise?
■	Who disagrees with whom, and why?
■	How has research into these issues taken
forward our understanding of them over time?
■	Whose position seems to be most respected in
recent articles or reviews? Do you agree?
■	
Schools of thought
Note how the issues in the field are treated by the key schools of thought in your discipline.
■	What are the main schools of thought in your
field?
■	What differentiates these? Are their differences mainly about ideology? Theory? Method?
Politics? Other things?
■	What position is taken on key issues by those
who favour each of the main schools of
thought?
■	How do different schools of thought address the main issues that relate to your project?
■	Which positions on the issues do you find the
more convincing, and why?

■	Journals
■	Find out the specialist journals that cover
material relevant to your chosen topic.
■	Do any journals focus more on research for one school of thought rather than another?
■	Browse abstracts of a range of journal articles.
■	Identify relevant articles to read in full.
■	People
Find out the leading figures writing on issues relevant to your selected topic – those whose primary research, theories or writings are regarded by academics as essential to know about, even
if you do not read their work in detail. These are often referred to as ‘seminal works’. (See page 108)
■	Who are they and what did each contribute?
■	Which schools of thought are represented by
their position?
■	What do others find to be strengths or limitations in the research of each?
■	How does the work of various researchers relate
to that of others, (see p111 on how this can be displayed visually using tools such as Elicit).