Chapter 4 of 8 · 3 practices · 3 min · 3-question quiz
Do a short, honest literature review
A proposal does not need a full survey, but it must show you know what exists. Compare a handful of relevant works and explain where yours fits.
Start: Search the places researchers and practitioners actually use3 practices in this chapter
- 1Search the places researchers and practitioners actually useFor computing projects, three or four sources cover most of what you need: Google Scholar: broad, free, good for finding the most cited papers on a topic; IEEE Xplore and the ACM Digital Library…
- 2Compare existing work instead of summarising it one by oneA weak literature review is a list of summaries: "Paper A did this. Paper B did that." A useful one compares works on the points that matter for your problem and ends by showing the gap your project…
- 3Cite properly from the first draftPick the citation style your department uses (computing departments commonly ask for IEEE; some use APA) and use it from the proposal onwards. Fixing citations at the end of the year is painful and…
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