Reviewing the literature 2 - Critical reading, mapping, and writing good reviews
Reviewing the literature 2 - critical reading, mapping and writing good reviews.
The content of this workshop is aimed at ECU Higher Degree by Research students only.
The content of this workshop is aimed at ECU Higher Degree by Research students only.
Facilitator: Dr Annabel Smith, School of Arts and Humanities
Audience: Open to ECU Higher Degree by Research candidates
RPDF Domain and Skill(s): Research Skills > Literature Reviews
Audience: Open to ECU Higher Degree by Research candidates
RPDF Domain and Skill(s): Research Skills > Literature Reviews
Critical reading, mapping, and writing good reviews - This is the second of two sessions on the central research practice of situating your work within the existing literature. This session looks at writing about what you read – firstly for yourself, and then for others.
In writing for yourself, we consider some active reading and note-making strategies. We will look at examples of maps and tables some researchers use to keep track of their reading. We will also consider how to make good critical notes that keep you focussed on your own purposes in reading, relating texts to each other and to your own work. In writing literature reviews for an audience, we will look at the underlying persuasive nature of a good literature review, and the notion of ‘gaps’. We will consider how to impose order on a range of sources, practising the skills of analysis and synthesis through the use of taxonomies. The central understanding here is that the structure of your review will shift when your central focus or argument shifts – you need to try multiple ways of ordering material around your own project’s central questions.
This workshop forms part of the unit WRS6000 - Writing and Reading Skills for Researchers. All ECU higher degree by research students are welcome to attend even if you are not enrolled in WRS6000.
This workshop will take place on campus. If you’re unable to attend, please email researcher.development@ecu.edu.au to receive any available workshop resources after the event.
Thursday 28 August 2025 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (UTC+08)
Location
ECU Mount Lawley Campus, Building 21, Room 21.101
2 Bradford Street, Mount Lawley WA 6030
Contact Details