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Clean Your Tools! A Review of Guidebooks for Academic Writing

Are you intimidated by the review of the literature section of your project? Is it hard to figure out what to include and why?  You can get around that if you imagine yourself in an ordinary conversation.

Entering a Conversation
How do you enter a conversation? When you are new to a group of people, does it take a long time to find your voice? When some of the people are more well-known than you are, do your words get stuck in your mouth? When you are interested in the conversation and have something to contribute, is it hard to figure out how to start? Do you sometimes feel you blurt out a thought?

I bet your apprehensions about writing your review of the literature are similar! So use the same strategies! In ordinary conversation, how do you speak up?

Conversation Strategies
Here are some strategies you probably use as you make your way in a conversation:
  • Listen quietly awhile to the tone of the conversation and then say something:  “This dog park controversy you are talking about….where I used to live there was one and an issue there was …”
  • Frame your agenda as a question: “Does anyone know a good novel about a dog?”
  • Pick up on a comment and extend it: “You said you have a little dog, and I think they are getting much more popular than ten years ago.”
  • Refer to a resource you find useful: “The dog-training books written by Carol Lea Benjamin are my favorites because…..”
  • Ask for advice about your plans: “I’m traveling by car with my dog; what kind of crate should I choose?”
  • Challenge someone’s opinion: “You claim off-leash dogs in a secure area are dangerous, but the evidence demonstrates…..”
A Conversation Among Scholars
The review of the literature in academic writing represents a conversation, an ongoing exchange among scholars. You have gathered the scholars together for your own purpose: you have a particular agenda and a set of questions to ask. You are asking for their sense of the importance of your question, for their analysis of your key topic, and for their advice on the best method for you to use. You might be asking them for their opinion in order to argue with them that yours is better, or you might invite two to debate each other.
Two of our favorite guides to academic writing, Peg Boyle Single in Demystifying Dissertation Writing (Stylus, 2009) and Wendy Laura Belcher in Writing your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks (Sage 2010) use the concept of a conversation among scholars.  Both describe very useful ways to engage in the scholarly conversation as you develop your own writing project.

Manners of Speaking
Have you noticed that people speak differently in different conversational settings? A casual encounter may require that you introduce one person to another.  In some environments, people are addressed by first names, in others, by a title or just through body language. A discussion following a presentation may be quite circumspect when the discussion involves the presenter, in contrast to a more volatile reaction among your friends alone. A conversation among people of similar social circumstances may involve private references to things everyone takes for granted. If a strong opinion leader is in the group, people may direct many of their comments to that person.

As you find your voice in a group, you begin to understand how people speak in that group. It is just the same as you join the conversation among scholars. Your discipline, the nature of the publication, the type of article, and your planned use of the source all will influence the voice you adopt as you write. Your entry point, the statement you want to make in this particular piece of writing, may lead to a very different tone in one article than in another.

Eavesdrop!
As in any other conversation, you begin by listening to what others say. You select reading based on topics, methods, or controversies related to your primary question. You identify key issues and important voices. If you are very fortunate, you might be able to engage a conversation not only metaphorically but also literally. Single reports the experience of a student who wrote to the author of an article and began a correspondence of great value.

Belcher suggests telling a friend about a debate you overheard, as a way to identify the main voices and arguments. You can also eavesdrop on an entire field by reviewing introductory texts (Single (35) as you consider where your own interest might fit into the conversation.

Of course, you will be polite! You will avoid insulting, belittling, gossiping, and complaining. Belcher makes us laugh when she says, “You wouldn’t walk into a room and portentously announce descriptive information (e.g., Midnight’s Children was published in 1981 or South African elections were held in 1994). Everyone in the room already knows this basic information.” )

Find Your Own Voice!
Reflect on your conversation strategies and consider:
  • What is your own argument? Why are you citing these particular sources? What questions do you anticipate the sources will answer?
  • What is the general tone of the conversation about your topic? Is it controversial, well-established, cross-disciplinary?
  • Who is making a point that you want to amplify in your own project?
  • What established sources are you building upon, questioning, or contradicting in this writing?
  • What methods will you be applying to your own project?
  • How does your analysis differ from that of another participant in the conversation?
And make it a dynamic, stimulating conversation!

Written by Susanne Morgan, Ph.D.

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Resources:
  • Single, Peg Boyle, Demystifying Dissertation Writing: A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text, Stylus, 2009
  • Belcher, Wendy Laura,Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks:
    A Guide to Academic Publishing Success,
    Sage Publications. 2009.

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