What are the perceptions of students in health-related undergraduate programs of the health beliefs and / or behaviours of their peers (e.g. food, alcohol consumption, smoking
Order Description
Literature Review needs to be critical – not just a précis (or overview) of what has been written.
From your previous studies, you should by now have a working knowledge of how to approach a literature review. You will have commenced gathering various articles together and read them. You may intuitively have organised some of the ideas emerging from your reading.
For the purposes of this assessment you should take these steps:
1. Use credible databases and keyword searches to find literature that relates to your research question.
a. Use Google Scholar, Findit@Flinders, or other databases relating to your question.
2. There is a HLTH 3102 libguide to help you with your search
a. Click on this link https://flinders.libguides.com/HLTH3102
3. Contact the librarian Nikki May if you need additional support with using research databases and searching for literature.
4. Sort your literature into various themes as part of a critical analysis.
a. Construct a table like these below. Consider including this table as part of
your assessment submission to show your tutor how you came to sort your literature
As you develop your table, you will notice similar themes emerge from your reading. a. Consider the following themes
i. The location of the research (nationally, internationally?)
ii. What methodology has previously been undertaken (qualitative or
quantitative or mixed methods?)
iii. What data collection methods have been used by the researchers
(survey, interview, focus groups etc?)
iv. What theoretical approaches did the researchers use to apply or
explain their findings? Was this consistent across all the articles?
v. Is there agreement or disagreement across the articles for the
findings?
vi. Is there agreement or disagreement across the articles for the
implications or recommendations?
Once you have finalised your reading and table construction, you will be able to determine the structure of your paragraphs. Structuring your paragraphs according
As you have only 500 words for your literature review, this would lend itself to say only 3 or 4 paragraphs at the most, with each paragraph being 150 to 175 words.
Each paragraph must commence with a strong, overarching topic sentence.
Consider the following examples:
Two qualitative methodologies have used to describe the relationship of dogs living in close proximity to other animals: Heiddegerian phenomenology and ethnography.
The qualitative studies describing the relationship of dogs living closely with other animals have been located world wide. Studies have been conducted in the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and the UK. However, only one study to date has investigated the Australian based experience of dogs.
A variety of qualitative data collection methods have been used to describe the lived experience of dogs living in close proximity to other animals. These have included face to face interviewing, observation, participation and focus groups.
A variety of dog breeds and other animals were interviewed as part of the studies.
The co-existence of dogs with other animals remains contentious from the findings of the qualitative research.
You can see by the example following, how the topic sentences are formulated from those emergent ideas from your reading table.
Include also a reference list in your submission.
Extra tips – the Literature Review needs to be :
? Informative – so that the reader learns something new about the articles
? Keep to the facts by taking on a serious and objective tone
? Critical – doesn’t mean being nasty
? Make a claim and then back it up with evidence from the text or other texts
? It is ok to compare and contrast your articles
? You could start with one author and then a) look for the same or similar thing in
another article and b) ask if there are similarities or differences
? Be focused on specific things – don’t be too broad.