Oxford University Press | Online Resource Centre

Choose your answers from a-d by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 1

Why do you need to review the existing literature?

a) To make sure you have a long list of references

b) Because without it, you could never reach the required word-count

c) To find out what is already known about your area of interest

d) To help in your general studying

Question 2

To read critically means:

a) Taking an opposing point of view to the ideas and opinions expressed

b) Skimming through the material because most of it is just padding

c) Evaluating what you read in terms of your own research questions

d) Being negative about something before you read it

Question 3

Which two of the following are legitimate frameworks for setting out a literature review: 1. Constructing inter-textual coherence, 2. Deconstruction of textual coherence, 3. Problematizing the situation, 4. Resolving discovered problems?

a) 1 and 2

b) 2 and 3

c) 1 and 3

d) 2 and 4

Question 4

A systematic literature review is:

a) One which starts in your own library, then goes to on-line databases and, finally, to the internet

b) A replicable, scientific and transparent process

c) One which gives equal attention to the principal contributors to the area

d) A responsible, professional process of time-management for research

Question 5

What is meta-analysis?

a) A technique of correcting for the errors in individual studies within a survey of a large number of studies, to demonstrate the effect of a particular variable

b) A process of secondary-data gathering to assemble all the possibilities for a variable's effects

c) A substitute for original research, which is justified by constraints of time or money

d) A specialized step in a computer software program (SPSS e.g.)

Question 6

What is meta-ethnography?

a) A technique for reviewing literature based exclusively on ethnographic studies

b) A technique for synthesizing interpretations drawn from a number of separate qualitative studies of the same phenomena

c) A process used to make generalizations from a range of qualitative studies

d) A process of surveying only that literature contained within a single library

Question 7

What is a narrative literature review?

a) An historically-based review, starting with the earliest contributions to the field

b) A review based exclusively on stories about companies, in book and case-study form

c) A paraphrase style of reviewing which does not require referencing

d) An initial impression of the topic which you will understand more fully as you conduct your research

Question 8

When accessing the internet, which of these steps is the most essential?

a) Recording the full URL

b) Noting the access dates

c) Downloading material to be referenced

d) They are all equally important

Question 9

According to the Harvard referencing convention, which is the correct reference?

a) Bryman, A. (2008, 3e) Social Research Methods, Oxford; Oxford University Press

b) Bryman (2008, second edition), Oxford University Press

c) Bryman, Alan, Social Research Methods (2008: OUP)

d) Bryman, A. Social Research Methods (2008)

Question 10

Which of the following statements about plagiarism is most accurate?

a) It is so easy to "copy and paste" from the internet that everyone does it nowadays. If a proper reference is given, where is the harm in that?

b) How can we say for sure where our own ideas come from exactly? If we tried to give a reference for everything we could never hope to succeed.

c) Any suggestion that we have written what another actually wrote is morally wrong. Anyway, the whole point of a literature review is to show what we have read and what we thought about it.

d) Plagiarism is such an awful crime that those found guilty should be obliged to wear a scarlet "P" on their clothing.

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 04.

Chapter 04

Instructions