3c. Draft the Specific Background

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Section Summary	Specific background
Length:	≈8 pages for draft
	≈6 pages for final version
Section titles:	Effects of Factor
Position:	After the General background; before the Closing paragraph
Main question to answer:	How does each factor affect your sub-process? How do the factors interact?
Reading strategy:	Look in Results and Discussion of experimental articles
Organization:	Three parts:
	Effects of Factor 1
	Effects of Factor 2
	Interactions of Factor 1 and Factor 2

The “specific background” section of the Lit Review is usually the next (after the general background) first full two or three pages, in which the author describes, giving many sources, how the factors being studied affect the sub-process that was chosen. Since you are studying two factors, this part of the Lit Review will have three parts: Effects of Factor 1 on your sub-process , Effects of Factor 2 on your sub-process, and Interactions of factor 1 and Factor 2.

Goals. Your main goal in this section is to prepare the reader to understand your research problem in more detail. In this section, you need to describe how your factors affect your sub-process specifically. How does the process change when the factor changes? What is known about this? By reviewing these facts, you show the reader that you are well informed and show that your research problem is something reasonable to study.

Reading Strategy. Work on the “definitely read” part of your Specific background pile of materials. When you are writing about the specific effects of your factor, focus on the results section and discussions from each article. Your job is to summarize and synthesize as many important results as you can. The article abstract will often give you a quick idea of what the main results were. Initially, you’ll skip all the other parts of the articles.

When you talk about controversial issues, you will need to identify why they are controversial: different theories or different data? You can compare the introductions of conflicting studies to see what the theoretical differences are and you can compare the methods sections to see whether the different results come from different methods. Controversies are good for a Lit Review: they show that the problem is important enough to generate conflicting research and they hold out the promise that maybe your data will help decide the issue.

Organization and what to talk about. You are studying the effects of more than one factor, so make sure that you discuss each one independently. Then include an extra section about the “interactions” – what happens when both of the factors are studied at the same time. Does one factor interfere with the other? Does it catalyze or accelerate the other? Are they independent?

Focus on talking about the facts, not the authors or the studies. Using the author-inside citation style will help.

Consider, for example, whether the factor marijuana use affects the sub-process of processing numbers in working memory. For a question like this, research articles will focus on either different amounts or ways of measuring the factor (here, marijuana use) or on different aspects of the sub-process (here, processing numbers). You can organize your review by one or the other: sections on infrequent, more regular, or constant marijuana use, or high, medium, or low doses of marijuana, for example. Alternatively, one section on adding, subtracting, or multiplying numbers, if this is what the articles studied. The clearer you organize this information, the more professional you will look.

See Sample Specific Background sections.
See Hints for Writing a Specific Background section.

Read this topic next:

[Karina]

Nothing is linked for read this topic next :)

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Thanks. I'll add it soon.

[Michelle Woo]

I'm having issues finding articles specifically about cannabis and semantic memory or even cannabis and long term memory, would articles on cannabis and cognition be acceptable research for the lit review?

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

They may have something on memory in them.
You'll need to check.