Notes from Bem 1995

1
Notes from Bem (1995)

• Writing a Review Article

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Writing a Review Article

• A review article.
• Should summarize previous studies in order to
  provide information about the state of current
  research.
• Should identify relations, contradictions, gaps,
  and inconsistencies in the literature.
• It should NOT merely provide summaries of
  research articles.

3
Writing a Review Article

• A review article should
• Be accessible to anybody with a reasonable level
  of reading comprehension.

4
Writing a Review Article

• When writing the review
• Write simply and directly.
• Dont try to be overly technical.
• Use common language except where precise
  terminology is necessary to convey clear meaning.
• Dont be wordy!
• Plan a coherent, conceptual structure for writing
  the review.

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Writing a Review Article

• In structuring the review
• Resist the urge to organize it chronologically.
• Resist the urge to organize it by author.
• Organize it around themes
• Competing theories.
• Points of view.
• Methodologies.
• Research génres.

6
Writing a Review Article

• When citing literature
• Decide whether the author(s) or the substance of
  the article should be emphasized, and use the
  appropriate citation style.
• Author is important Jones and Mitchell (1995)
  pointed out the importance of considering age
  when
• Substance is important Age has been identified
  as important consideration when (Jones
  Mitchell, 1995).

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Writing a Review Article

• Good writing means rewriting!
• Some ways to improve the quality of your writing
• APA Publication Manual (especially Chapter 2).
• Consult other reference works on writing.
• Give your first draft a rest.
• Read out loud (better, have someone else read it
  out loud to you).

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• End