研究生学术英语写作教程Unit 3 Reviewing Literature

Unit 3 Reviewing Literature

Objectives:

- Learn how to formulate a research problem - learn how to cite other people?s previous work - Try to be critical and related in your reviewing - Avoid plagiarism

Contents

- Reading and discussion: sample introduction and elements in literature review. - Language focus: tense in citation and citing verbs

- Writing practice: information prominent citation, author prominent citation, and weak author prominent citation

- Literature reviews related to your research - No plagiarism

- Classroom extension: literature review of the social effects of tourism on developing countries

1. Reading Activity

1.1 Pre-reading Task

A literature review is not just a summary of what you have read. It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of relationship among different opinions and then relates this review to the work of your own. It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to provide a theoretical framework and rationale for a research study to become a part of the introduction section, especially in term papers or journal articles. However, in a thesis or dissertation it will be an entire chapter.

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Read the sample introduction below and think about the following questions: What is the purpose of writing a literature view? What elements does an introduction include?

How do we relate other people?s previous work to our present research? How do we cite other people?s previous work?

1.2 Reading Passage

Introduction

The poor have traditionally taken the brunt of the blame for causing society?s many problems including, more recently, environmental degradation. There is a general consensus that poverty is a major cause of environmental degradation. For example, in one of the conclusions of the Bruntland Commission Report, which incidentally has been accepted as the blue print for environmental conservation, it was explicitly stated that poverty is a major cause of environmental problems and amelioration of poverty is a necessary and central condition of any effective programs addressing the environment. Following similar lines, Jalal (2010), the Asian Development Bank's chief of the environment department says, \is generally accepted that environmental degradation, rapid population growth and stagnant production are closely linked with the fast spread of acute poverty in many countries of Asia\Report, the Bank explicitly stated that, “poor families who have to meet short term needs mine the natural capital by excessive cutting of trees for firewood and failure to replace soil nutrients ” (World Bank 2011).

However, there has been a rising trend in the economic literature which disputes the conventional theory and argues that simple generalizations of this multi-dimensional problem are erroneous and that a more complex set of variables are in play (Leach and Mearns, 2012). These studies point to demographic, cultural, and institutional factors as important variables in the poverty-environmental degradation nexus. An intricate web of factors plus the existence of feedback loops from environmental degradation to poverty makes the process of identifying causality links,

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if any, between environmental degradation and poverty a difficult exercise. However, these studies have been few and isolated and it is interesting to note that until recently, there has been very little in-depth coordinated empirical research in the economics of environmental degradation-poverty causality relationships.

This brings to the purpose of this study. Both poverty and environmental degradation have been increasing in many developing countries; hence there is a pressing need first to evaluate and analyze the poverty-environmental degradation nexus, and second, to prescribe policy options to mitigate or eradicate these two problems.

The primary objective of the paper is to analyze critically the existing literature on the poverty-environmental degradation nexus and try to make \the chaos\limited to the following four main natural resources which are under serious threat of degradation in many developing countries: i) forests; ii) land; iii) water; and iv) air. Biodiversity is excluded at this point because the preliminary literature search found only scattered and inconclusive information. However, it should not be inferred that biodiversity is less important than the four resources chosen; indeed it is an area which needs particular attention in the future.

Once the natural resource sectors have been identified, a cause, impact and feedback analysis is carried out. In this manner, we hope first to identify the main agents and the degree of their contribution towards the destruction of the environment and second, the incentives or motivating factors encouraging their unsustainable activities. The impact and feedback analysis should highlight the main impacts arising from the degradation activities and the socio-economic effect these impacts have across the various income groups in the economy.

1.3 Reading Comprehension

1.3.1 List different opinions on poverty and environmental degradation

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Bruntland Commission Report, etc. on Leach and Mearns on the other side the one side 1.3.2 Decide how many elements this sample includes and how they function. Elements Functions 2. Language Focus

2.1 Tense in citation

Present tense - Authors mostly use the present tense verbs to show their opinion on another person's research, relate what other authors say or discuss the literature, theoretical concepts, methods, etc. However, the simple past and present perfect are also possible verb forms in this case. Look at these examples in the present tens …… 此处隐藏：5281字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……