Category: Literature Review
Penning Down a Technical Paper: Know How to Structure the Epitome of your Research
30/10/2019
The ability to convey the significant idea of a study is the key to success in the research journey. However, due to reasons such as writers’ block, inadequate knowledge about the writing guidelines, etc. scholars often fail to pour out their thoughts in a technical paper. Although writing a technical paper is a painstaking process, it isn’t too complicated once you are aware of how and what needs to be included in the paper.
A technical paper must reconstruct the investigation process and give an in-depth understanding of the research concept to the reader.
- Typically, a technical paper should be structured as a journal publication and must begin with a read-worthy abstract section. An abstract condenses the critical ideas into a single or a few paragraphs (depending on the length of the paper). This section includes a summary of the investigation and the crucial findings of your study. Explain to your reader the scope of your study and why is it relevant. Lastly, conclude the section by providing a list of index keywords.
- An abstract is followed by an introduction chapter. This section delivers a twofold purpose. That is, it provides the background of your study while establishing its importance and provides an outline & summary of the paper, telling readers as to what they can expect from the paper. While writing the background of your study, ensure to incorporate the latest trends & promising developments in your field of study. If you have included new terminologies, explain them. This chapter also includes a detailed description of the problem statement, solutions and the research approach used. Conclude the section by describing the outline of your paper and the elements in each section.
- The literature review section must follow the introduction chapter. This section has two purposes. First, it provides a list of related works and secondly, gives a critique of the methods in the literature which are required to build the significance of your study. Here, incorporate only those references that are relevant to your study. Also, present how the previous developments form the basis of your study. Providing references shows that you have knowledge pertaining to the topic and your capability to perform the research.
- The fourth section is the system model. Here define the hypothesis and assumption on which the research problem is stated. Remember, the more valid are the assumptions, the more acceptable is your study. Besides assumptions, provide the evidence to support your argument and figures to demonstrate the parameters of the system model.
- Next include the major section of the technical paper, the methodology section or the experimentation/simulation. Here, state the conditions and parameters of the experimental environment or simulations. Additionally, explain the procedure, tools/equipment, algorithms, etc. used to perform the experiment. If you have deviated from standard procedure, explain the changes made. If required, you can include key points to establish the validity of the research method used.
- The first chapter is the result section. As the name suggests, this chapter will include the significant findings of your research. While present the results, round off the numerical value to the nearest significant number. Ensure to eliminate the outliers of the data and results that are of no value. Present the findings using labeled graphs, figures, charts or tables. Represent the set of data points explicitly and draw smooth curves. You can also include scale bars for micrographs to enable the readers to view the details you are explaining.
- In the discussion, section explains the meaning of the results, their reliability & consistency, how the findings back the existing theories and their contribution to your field of study. You can either include this section separately or combine it with the result section.
- In the final chapter briefly explain the summary of your paper and the conclusions of your study. This section should logically follow the result & discussion section and serve two purposes. Firstly, it must elaborate on the impact of using a specific research method, the significance of your study and its limitations.
Besides paying attention to the concepts to be included in each section, focus on non-technical words, acronyms or abbreviations, jargon, sentence structure, and other writing ethics.
Literature Review Errors: How to Avoid Them While Writing
13/10/2018
When a research committee has approved your proposal, the next step is a literature review. A literature review can be developed in two steps:
- A critical evaluation of existing research papers, scholarly articles/journal articles, white papers, government records or any other theory in relation to the research problem that you choose for further investigation. This step mainly involved identifying the research gap.
- Refining, segregating and comparing the literature as per your research objectives.
A basic laying out of two seemingly-simple steps mentioned above itself seems a daunting task. It is obvious that it is easier said than done, and some ‘errors’ are bound to be committed by you while writing a literature review chapter for your PhD thesis.
Your Writing Lacks Synthesis
When you write a literature review, the first thing you have to bear in mind is synthesising of all information that you have drawn from reviewing papers. You have to consolidate what matter was clear in previous studies, what part was obscure, and what parts were missing altogether so that readers can decipher your message explicitly.
For instance, if your topic for a literature review is ways to whittle down the rate of cybercrime, you have to mention recent citations that will be relevant to your research topic. It should include, for example, increasing rate of cybercrime over time, law enforcement, existing tools to detect crime, challenges faced by cybercrime investigation authorities etc. You would then bring one of the obscure areas into attention that would justify your research objectives.
You haven’t Critiqued the Research Adequately
A literature review does not mean consolidating what is currently known about a topic but to justify for your research work by finding limitations in earlier studies. A coherent and comprehensive critique of the literature reviewed is the key. You have to identify the limitations and drawbacks of previous research attempts and convince the committee why it’s necessary to fill research gap.
For instance, in the aforementioned topic, what preventive measures were not considered to diminish cybercrime rate in old literature, and what technological drawbacks became an impediment to improve the situation but were not identified until then. By addressing these loopholes, you can justify how addressing these issues are vital to meet objectives.
You Used Irrelevant Material
A literature review does not demonstrate what you have read; it instead reveals how a certain part of the material that you have read provides the basis for your research. For instance, in the above mentioned topic, you will include citations that somehow relates to cybercrime. If you add anything that surrounds crime but not cybercrime, your literature review will digress, and you will not be able to justify it to your research committee. In addition, it is suggested to use only the most recent (and updated) resources for literature reviewing.
Summing Up
The bottom line is to write an accurate literature review for your thesis, you should know about your research objectives and how your work is going to meet them. If you face difficulty finding relevance in previous studies that could serve the purpose of your research, don’t hesitate to consult your supervisor to catch hold of a perspective for critiquing literature to suit your research.
