My first literature review article was that entitled “Literature Reviews” source base from University of North Carolina.
- A literature review discusses the published information dealing with a particluar subject in a specific time.
- It can also be a summary of sources.
- It can also give a new interpretation of old material thus giving a new insight to the material.
A key point to writing these literature reviews is narrowing your topic. Once you have a narrowed down topic you can have a more precise and definitive area to study. The article brought up a good point when relating whether your source is current or not because sometimes your source needs to be current if it is in the sciences or the like because information can change. You would like to have the most updated information you can possibly find.
The point of a literature review is just not to list what is in each paragraph or summarize the article but to realize how each idea is intertwined and connected with one another. Think of it as critical reading nonetheless thrilling. You must find a theme to focus on when presenting your lit review from the authors perspective of how they are presenting the information to the reader. There is three different types of themes: thematic, chronological and metholodgical. All have different styles which the reader must use to revert back to the lit review.
The second article I found was titled, “The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It”
I enjoyed this article much better because it told you the significance of the lit review much more indepth. It started out by saying this:
Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas
- information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
- critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.
It then broke down the literature review into four aspects in which it must contain:
1. be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are devloping.
2. synthesize results into a summary of what is and what is not known
3. identify areas of controversy in the literature
4. formulate questions that need further research
Each of these are important because it shows the different areas of which the lit review needs to cover. The article then goes on to provide questions of which we need to ask ourselves about what the author is trying to convey in their research. These questions provide thought to the reader that will allow us to outline the article with our own thoughts and research.
As the reader and creator of the lit review we should realize that the lit review is an organized process that clearly defines and states each aspect of the article and not just listing after listing beginning each paragraph with the authors name; that would be redundant. We need to identify the trends, theory and present themes when reading the articles to get a clearer understanding of the material.
Works Cited
Literature Reviews. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Web. 25 Feb. 2010.<http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html>.
Taylor, Dena. “The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It.” University of Toronto. Web. 27 Feb. 2010. http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review.
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Before I begin:
1.) The purpose of this lit-review is to help me better understand the material in which I have been reading. I have sincerely been lack-a-dasical in my efforts of reading and the more I continue to read here in the library the better planned out my paper becomes. It is starting to feel less anxious and more exciting to get more involved within my paper. I think it is different from the other sections of this paper because it does so purposefully make you get to know more about your topic by not just summarizing your reading but showing how youa re going to use the information that you have been looking at all this while.
2.) I want to grasp a true audience at the end of my paper. I would like people to become interested in what I am trying to talk about. I want for myself to become more clearly defined as to what I am talking about myself in this research paper. I want it to be neat and organized instead of chaotic thoughts slapped onto paper.
3.) I now know who my target audience finally has become the adolescents like myself lost in this world today. It could also pertain to older generations who were once or are still lost in finding their self whether it be through a spiritual journey or personal. We are all obtaining the act of finding ourselves.
After The Fact:
1.) I actually enjoyed this lit-review because it really did make me become more grown with my topic and clearer throughout the research. I still have more to edit and research but right now I am happier that its starting to come together. I think the same facts will help the reader as well.
2.) I think I accomplished my own personal goals. I pertained my paper to the ages of 16-24 and I think I can still do better with organization but I don’t necessarily think that is bad of right now because I just have ideas floating around. However, it is shaping up better now.
3.) The audience is better set now and I think it is more grasping than my intro was. It gave more factual data as well because I actually did read more.
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Brock Kawana
Professor Harrison
English 202
15 March 2010
Finding Ourselves: The Immaculate Realization
In constructing my research paper I have come across many different types of articles. At first the thought of finding one’s self led me to believe that it would have to involve some aspect of religion and a greater higher being much like the reading in Siddhartha. However, I have realized that my instincts were wrong and that there are many different ways in which we can come to this immaculate realization.
After discussions with family members, teachers and students from all types of backgrounds it seems to be my hypothesis that when it comes to this age of roughly 16-24 some of us as individuals start to question our beliefs. As humans we can learn from one another. We act out as our own personal Dr. Phil’s to others thus going off our own personal experiences. “Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form is nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth (Schmich).”
In my own thinking, I want to know more about the world, more about this God person I have been told about since I could comprehend words and just a general knowledge about life. It is a thought that has fascinated philosophers for thousands of years and that’s just it; their all ideas no one can really prove. When it comes to anything dealing with religion we cannot say what is correct and incorrect because none of us were there to see it. This is why it is simply stated as faith.
When I started to read a journal article entitled, Journal of Personality, I began to start to see the stereotype of religious faith that the author was presenting. In a case study it had shown that friendly and disciplined people are attracted to religion (Wink). As soon as I read this it infuriated me in my own right because I do not consider myself to be a big religious person. I am saying that after I had just gone to church this past Sunday for the first time in eight years; it was quite the experience. However, the article threw a curveball when the author stated that it could be religion itself that makes these very same people more disciplined and friendly (Wink). This was an interesting thought because it is not the type of people going to these religions but the religions working on these very same people.
These religious people have to be open to the experience of finding their spiritual identity. Nevertheless, people must also be open to the experience of identity when not using religion. The same journal reference talked about how humans can use non-church related or a combination of both in the act of a revelation. The openness to the experience should positively correlate with the path to finding our spiritual identities (Wink).
When it comes to religion the common result of belief is to have faith. So, my question is why would not finding our own selves take faith as well? When I began to read more positive articles that were guided among words by professional speakers I began to fall in love with Scott Ginsberg’s message that he was trying to tell the world. That life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself (Ginsberg). I think that embodies my research and not contradicts it as some may say from the title. We find ourselves through what we make of our own selves in our own separate from each other’s journeys. Our journeys may cross paths at points in times but we must remember that myself and everybody else are living our own lives and nobody can take that away from us.
When I came across the book Siddhartha last semester I felt as though I was supposed to read it almost as if there was a reason Marlen gave it to our class. It told spiritual journey of a Brahmin man who leaves his family and starts a new life of his own. The complete essence of the book is beautiful. It is what I am trying to sum up for you in this research paper. The story of Siddhartha was not about the Buddha itself, however it was about finding the Buddha in you (Sarkar). This is my own personal belief in what we all should be attempting to find in our lives. The Buddha itself explains that happiness is the main goal to achieve. To achieve happiness however you must create a world of happiness around you, thus others have to happy too.
Being raised in a Catholic-Christian nearly all white suburban town has led me to completely want to change my views upon the religion aspect. I started to read into Buddhism and what it does for its followers. I think this could help people in my same shoes. I think our parents picked our religion for us when we were younger but now that we are older and matured we have the ability to decide what to believe in.
There are three main practices of Buddhism religion: Sila, which applies to good conduct virtue and morality (Henry). The second main training would be Samadhi, which helps with concentration, meditation and mental development (Henry). Finally, the third practice relates to discernment, insight, wisdom and enlightenment which is titled Prajna (Henry). This also relates to the eight-fold path and the four noble truths of the Buddhist faith. In order to end our own suffering we must follow the eight-fold path (Henry). It will lead us to peace of mind and to our own selves within us.
As humans, we are what we become. We can blame it on how we were raised, where we came from or the people around us but all of those factors to the person you will become now made you themselves. We can only go so far on our own. We must learn to learn from each other. We all have a story to tell with our own experiences.
Works Cited
Gaines, Patrice. “Finding Inner Peace Through a Window of Hope.” National Catholic Reporter. Apr. 2002: Vol. 38, Issue 25, p. 32. EBSCOhost.
Ginsberg, Scott “Life Isn’t About Finding Yourself, It’s About Creating Yourself.” Life Isn’t About Finding Yourself, It’s About Creating Yourself. 3 Jan. 2006 EzineArticles.com. 17 Feb. 2010
Henry, Julie. Info Guru. Weblong. 15 Dec. 2009. Catalogs.com
<http://www.catalogs.com/info/spirituality/basic-beliefs-of-buddhism.html>
Sarkar, Eisha “Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.” Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. 19 Jan. 2010 EzineArticles.com. 17 Feb. 2010 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Siddhartha-by-Hermann-Hesse&id=3601257>.
Schmich, Mary. Wear Sunscreen. Chicago Tirbune: 1997. 1 June.
<http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/mary-schmich.html>.
Wink, Paul; Ciciolla, Lucia; Dillon, Michelle; Allison, Tracy. “Journal of Personality”. Sociological Collection. Oct. 2007: Vol. 75, Issue 5, p.1051-1070. Academic Search Complete. EBSCOhost.
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Before:
The purpose of this methods section is for me to organize more data about my topic from other people as well as myself. It is useful because it shows the vast different opinions of people alike and different. I want to have a great set of questions so that my patients, I guess I would call them, will have a better understanding of what I am trying to achieve through these surveys. I hope my people I plan on giving this to will read this and answer the questions truthfully. It is a big part to this research I am conducting.
Brock Kawana
Professor Harrison
English 202
23 March 2010
Methods
After nit-picking around my topic for weeks upon weeks and trying to find the words I was looking for. I finally have done just that. My main thesis point now constitutes how we use the monomyth, hero’s adventure, throughout our daily lives. After taking Literature 121 last semester with Marlen, without even realizing it, I guess this topic of the hero’s adventure subconsciously stuck in the back of my head when thinking of this research topic. I had a dream the other day that I was in a conference room with Marlen and Andrew and we were just talking about my topic and I kept reiterating about finding your true inner-self and how happiness is life. Then it hit me when I awoke they just kept saying it was all about the monomyth. I do not know if the dream was symbolic or what, but it seemed to speak to me in a whole new way because I feel more passionate again about my topic.
My main point in this hero’s journey is that freedom to live is the final act in the seven-teen stages of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. This research deals with an autoethnographical approach to myself. This is due to the fact that it is my own journey that I am telling through my own eyes thus it is in first person. So, for my research methodology I will obtain my own thoughts throughout my journal that I had kept during this adventure and also I could interview others who were with me during that period in time. Even more, I would like to get the point across that we are always on a journey as one ceases another journey will start right back up again; even if we do not know it ourselves. I could ask those very same people questions of how they felt themselves during that time? What they did to help themselves? I am not the only one who was on a journey. We all have our own journeys which takes me into my next point.
I think it would also be important for me to interview other students as well being my friends or even more perfect is the students in Literature 121 because they are learning about this now too. I want to find out their journeys and what they did to overcome it and how we can learn from one another. I could also get personal and ask if they involve a higher being in their journeys. Even more so I want them to explain each main point of the stages from the departure, to the belly of the whale, and the ultimate boon each foreshadowing their own significance. A good way to protect these participants is by doing it anonymous. I do not need their name but more of their experience.
I figure I am going to do this in more of a creative project rather than the fifteen page research format. I think this idea is just begging for a mult-media project because that is all that is running through my mind as the more involved I become into this project. I want to be able to show all seventeen steps of the monomyth and how we can relate to them as humans living on this earth.
After: I feel as though there are a lot of ideas running through my head and instead of talking about them I would rather go do them right now while my mind is intrigued and excited. I think my paper just got a whole hell of a lot bettter with these ideas and it will be pretty cool to see how people answer the surveys and to analyze myself in this project. I am excited.
