“西部学术节”第二季第三期

主题：文献综述在研究文本中的结构和作用

时间：4月13日 19:00-20:30 

主讲专家：香港城市大学 Becky Kwan 副教授 

主要内容：
  “If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” 
(Issac Newton, 1676)
  Issac Newton’s famous quote captures powerfully one distinguishing feature of academic studies as endeavors built on the scholarship of predecessors that is often manifested in what is collectively referred to as the literature review (LR) in various forms of high-stakes research communication such as the research proposal, the journal article or the postgraduate thesis. Despite its centrality, the LR is often misunderstood by inexperienced writers, which leads to ill-formed writing that is challenged by gatekeepers. Drawing on my previous studies of LRs in research writing (Kwan, 2006; Kwan, Chan & Lam, 2012; Kwan, 2021; Chan & Kwan, 2022, 2024) as well as my experience as a research writing instructor, a thesis examiner and a reviewer for various international journals, I will explicate and illustrate in this lecture what it means to review the literature in a research text, how an LR can be structured in ways to fulfil its purposes, and what gate-keepers tend to look for in this highly sophisticated section of writing.