Selecting material to include

Clarify your purpose
To help manage the quantity of material you are working with, make decisions as you go along about what to read, note and include, for what purpose and at what depth.
1	Purpose. How, specifically, will you draw upon it in your research? In which section of your report or dissertation will you refer to it?
2	Depth of coverage. How much will you write about it? Just briefly in passing, such as part of a list of citations? A line or two? In depth?

Using the checklist below
If it isn’t immediately obvious why, how and where you would make use of material, browse through the following checklist to focus your decision-making.
It isn’t likely that you would need to use this checklist for everything you read. The left-hand column helps decide how you would use it; the right-hand column how much to include.

Checklist: How would I use this material?	
1 Purpose
Indicate	all uses that apply.
I would use this material to:
1	■ indicate a key phase in the development of previous research in my
field
2	■ draw attention to developments in, or limitations of, the theoretical base
3	■ identify developments or limitations in the methodologies used for
researching the topic
4	■ show how my own research will draw on insights from its
methodology or make use of its methods
5	■ make reference to its findings
6	■ demonstrate how it has contributed to the evidence base that I am
drawing upon
7	■ draw upon its critique of relevant research, methods, theory, or
interpretations of findings
8	■ show how it contributed to the general understanding of issues
relevant to my project
9	■ replicate the work or test out an aspect of the research for myself
10	■ build further on that research in a particular way
11	■ illustrate a point that I am trying to make
12	■ indicate how it supports, or contradicts, my own findings or conclusions.	2 Depth of coverage?
I would make reference to this piece of material …
■	Just in
passing?
■	In about a sentence?
■	As a short
paragraph?
■	In several paragraphs?	
Add any other ways you would use it.