ENVM7003 Chap.3 Literature Review and the Project Rationale
Literature Review and the Project Rationale
The course states the purpose of a review bluntly. A review is not a roll-call of what each author wrote; it exists to show the shape of the work already done and the space your study could occupy. That single sentence separates the two drafts markers see. One is a queue of paragraphs each opening with a surname.
The other is organised by idea, and names appear inside sentences as support.
The workflow has eight steps across two stages. Finding literature: define the topic or question, identify search terms with synonyms, search current refereed work and reports from bodies with standing while logging the databases and combinations you tried, and select on title and abstract against an inclusion rule written before you apply it.
Reading and writing: take structured notes, group sources by idea, disagreement or method rather than article by article, synthesise what the literature collectively shows, and review every section against the question. Time is lost in the first stage and marks are won in the second.
The rationale that results makes four moves in a handful of sentences: what is agreed, what is measured rather than asserted, where the evidence is thin, and what this project therefore does.
What this chapter covers
- 01
3.1 What a review is for, and the draft that gives itself away
- 02
3.2 Stage one: defining terms, searching and selecting
- 03
3.3 Stage two: structured notes and grouping by idea
- 04
3.4 Concept mapping to surface themes and disagreements
- 05
3.5 Writing a rationale that names the gap in four moves
Six sources into one rationale paragraph
- +2Build a matrix, not a summary. Sources down the side; the themes you care about across the top; each cell marked as addressed, asserted or absent.
- +2Read down a column to find the gap. Only one source explains why trust erodes, and it sits outside the setting the project is about.
- +2Read across a row to find the limit of one source. A study that measures behaviour without measuring trust cannot support a claim about the link between them.
- +2Write the agreement first. Trust is consistently reported as a driver of sorting behaviour, and two of the six measure that link rather than asserting it.
- +2Close on what this project does. No source in the set explains the reasoning behind distrust in a form a council could use, which is the gap this project addresses.
Key terms
- Synthesis
- Writing that states what a body of literature collectively shows, comparing studies and naming patterns and disagreements, rather than reporting each study in turn.
- Inclusion rule
- The stated basis on which a source is kept or discarded during screening. Written before screening it is a method; written afterwards it is a justification.
- Concept map
- A branching diagram with the question at the centre and findings hung off sub-questions. The branch carrying findings that disagree is usually the most productive theme.
- Structured note
- A reading note recording the claim, the evidence behind it, the setting and the method, so that notes can be sorted later. A highlighted document cannot be sorted.
- Research gap
- A question the assembled literature does not answer, identified by reading across the set rather than by an author declaring that more research is needed.
- Search record
- A log of the databases, keywords and combinations used. It makes the search reproducible and is quotable evidence in the reflective workbook.
- Citation ranking
- Ordering results by how often a work has been cited. It finds the anchor works in a field quickly and is not a measure of quality.
Literature Review and the Project Rationale FAQ
How many sources does a project rationale need?
The course does not set a number for the group report, but it gives a useful calibration elsewhere: roughly four to eight readings support a single reflective workbook entry. A rationale resting on three sources is thin by that standard, and one citing thirty without grouping them is unsynthesised rather than thorough.
How do I stop my literature review reading like a list?
Change what opens each paragraph. If the first words are an author's name, the paragraph is organised around the source. Group your notes by claim, disagreement or method first, then write one paragraph per group with the citations arriving mid-sentence as support.
Where do I start searching?
Open with current refereed articles, scholarly books and reports from bodies with standing, combining the main concepts from your question with their synonyms. Databases let you bound a time period, which separates a settled finding from a current one, and a citation index will show you which works the field keeps returning to.
Does the rationale go before or after the method in the report?
Before. The report brief sequences it as problem, then question and aims, then a concise literature-informed rationale, then the design and methods. That order is not cosmetic: the rationale is what makes the method defensible, so a design justified without it reads as a preference rather than a decision.
Assessment move
Do the search in one bounded session with the clock visible, and keep the search record as you go rather than reconstructing it. Then stop searching and start sorting. Most groups over-invest in the first stage because it feels productive and under-invest in the grouping step, which is where the marks are.
A useful stopping rule: when three consecutive searches return sources you have already read, the field has closed around your question and the remaining time belongs to synthesis.
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