Setting the topic in context

To grow, the seed must be placed within an appropriate context - a pot and some soil.

For your topic to grow there must also be a context and this is influenced by existing knowledge. Other influences include your work and study environment, your interaction with colleagues, peers and supervisors, and current opinions and attitudes towards your discipline. The role of the literature review is to analyse the existing literature and give justification as to how your research will fit into the existing body of knowledge.  "This means that the literature review provides the general understanding which gives meaning to the discussion of findings, conclusions, and recommendations.  This allows the author to demonstrate how his research is linked to prior efforts and how it extends our understanding of this general line of scholarly inquiry". (Muskal 2000)

When placing your topic in context it is often useful to think about the following:

• what is the scope of the topic?
• what is the purpose of the research?
• who is the intended audience?
• what is the time period?
• what is the geographical coverage?
• what are the relevant/related disciplines?


The following researchers discuss how to place a topic in context (click on the image to view):

Dr Steve McKillup  Behavioural Ecologist, Senior Lecturer in Biology, School of Biological & Environmental Science

Dr Daniela Stehlik  Associate Professor of Sociology School of Psychology & Sociology Director of Centre for Social Science Research

Just like the seed:

A limited context may result in stunted growth

 

A wide context will result in uncontrollable and undirected overgrowth

Reference: Muskal, F 2000, Guidelines for the Literature Review Paper [http://jarl.cs.uop.edu/education/muskal/lit.html] (accessed 13 November 2002)

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