So What's the Deal with 'Data' When I'm Writing My Literature Review?
Data can be confusing when it comes to your literature review. Does your literature review have data? Do you deal with data when you are writing it? If your literature review has to be an analysis rather than a description -- which it does -- what are you analyzing, exactly? Today's blog is about these questions. First, though, let's offer a definition of data. Data , in a broad sense, is any information we collect systematically to answer a question. In research, we usually think of data as the stuff we deal with in our analysis and results chapters. That is, data is what we have elicited from our participants, be they texts or people, to answer our research question. This is sometimes called our primary data and it is of course crucial and essential. But collecting and analyzing data also applies when you are doing your literature review. While we tend to think of literature reviews as a very long exercise in reading, you are doing much more than ...