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# Conducting and writing a literature review
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There are two eliments to a literature review.
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The first is conducting the review, and the second is to write it up _in context_ of your project.
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The process of how you review(ed) literature is completely different from how you write and structure your literature review chapter.
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## Conducting a literature review
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To conduct a literature review you first have to be familiar with the available resources and library services of the University of Pretoria.
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Make sure to attend at least one library introduction session, or schedule a meeting with an information specialist if you are a registered student.
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Consult the following documents when starting the literature review:
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* [_Writing a literature review for an applied master's degree_](http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=od_working_papers).
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* [_How to read a paper_](http://ccr.sigcomm.org/online/files/p83-keshavA.pdf).
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* [_How to read a scientific paper_](http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj/courses/HowToReadSciArticle.pdf).
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Use a [bibTeX manager](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management) for saving article references, and be on the lookout for "export as bibTeX" or similar options when viewing articles online, as well as on google-scholar.
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The option will save the complete bibTeX reference in a file or as plain text, which can then be confienently copied into your bibTeX manager and easily imported and cited in LaTeX.
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Correctly using LaTeX and the bibTeX manager will save you _a lot_ of effort in correctly citing documents and including a bibliography in your document.
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## Writing a litrature review
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There is a working paper from Optimisation Group titled [_Writing the literature review_](/uploads/abcad276f7e89a885fe736cbb287f5ba/wpWillemse2017WritingLiteratureReview.pdf) that gives a few tips on how to write a literature review chapter of a dissertation or a thesis.
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It touches on what is required from the chapter, how it is typically structured, common mistakes, and how to improve it.
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It does not give advice on how to conduct a literature review.
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This is well covered in books and resources on doing research and on writing a dissertation.
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Very useful advice on writing the review can also be found in [_Writing a literature review for an applied master's degree_](http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=od_working_papers).
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More technical information on citation styles and referencing using LaTeX can be found in the the excelent [LaTeX wiki-book](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management#BibTeX).
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PS. Should any of the above links no longer work, the original pdf documents can be found in this project repository. |
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