The Literature Reviewing & Writing

(Prof. Mohammad Jantan, 2006)

Titien Siwi Hartayu

What is Research ?
Careful search or inquiry for; endeavour to discover new facts, procedures, methods and techniques by the scientific study of a subject, course of critical investigation
(Concise Oxford Dictionary)

How do I do True Research?

Start with your question for research Write down your aim clearly Plan the specific procedure you will follow Divide your problem into manageable subproblems Create the tentative constructs called hypotheses to guide you Decide what measurable data you need to test the hypotheses Repeat until all uncertainty is removed

What is Lit. Rev. ?

Systematic identification, location, and analysis of documents containing information related to the research problem Secondary data to support your work A classification and evaluation of what accredited scholars and researchers have written on a topic, organized according to a guiding concept such as your research objective, thesis, or the problem/issue you wish to address

A Lit.Rev. Does the following :

Be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research questions you are developing Synthesize results into a summary of what is and what is not known Identify areas of controversy in the literature Formulate/develope questions that need further research

What is ....
An account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers Your purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are

Research Literature...
Is a potential mountain lookout identifying : What Knowledge is well verified ? What should be considered tentative? What is without foundation? New theories that better organize disparate knowledge and better predict the future Pointers to the unknowns that would benefit further research

Research Literature....
Is a potential snake pit fill with Wishful thinking Retorics Speculation Invalid findings from poorly designed studies Duplications of attemps to mislead Whether the research literature helps you gain perspective of the problem or clouds your vision will depend on how you search, how you citique and how well you integrate previous individual studies

Function as.....
Justifications for your study it determines what has already been done that relates to your work, and what needs to be done-the knowledge gap Insurance that important variables are not left out Rational for your hypotheses Rational for your research strategies Rational for instruments & approaches to be used Facilitating discussions

Its purpose
Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in previous research Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous study Point the way forward for further research Place ones original work in the context of existing literature

Good Lit.Rev. Ensures that...

Important variables are not left out Facilitate the development of the theoretical framework and hypotheses Testability and replicability of findings are enhanced Problem statement can be made with precision and clarity Not running the risk of reinventing the wheel Problem investigated by the scientific community as relevant and significant

Lit. Rev. Provides...

Details about the motivation for the work The scene for the work to be described A description of what others have done thus a benchmark for the current work A comprehensive discussion of critical major ideas right up about not including your brilliant idea (to demonstrate originality) A demonstration of your mastery of the subject matter

Lit. Rev. Provides...

Tips : Include only relevant ones (you have read and understand) Organize by IDEAS not publications
To ensure flow and coherence To lead on to your theoretical

Do not simply paraphrase or quote contents

Why?
To identify gaps in the literature To avoid reinventing the wheel To carry on where others have already reached To identify other people working in the same fields To increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject area To identify seminal works in your area

Why? ....(cont.)
To provide the intellectual context for your own work, enabling you to position your project relative to others To identify opposing views To put your work perspective To demonstrate that you can access previous work in an area To identify information and ideas that may be relevant To identify methods that could be relevant to your project

Scope...
Common complaint : Either you dont know when to stop or dont produce enough to be taken seriously Guidelines
Bigger does not mean better Heavily researched areas require smaller focus New research areas require wider scope
Misconception: worth of a problem is related to the amount of literature available

STOP!!
Why should I read research?? Answer... You have to learn what other people have done and how they have done it

How should I read Research?

Read research critically Critical means
Reading with skill to critisise, with deliberate attempts being made to find faults

How to read critically?

1. Do not believe anybody
Cultivate a wheolesome disrespect for authority and foster independent judgment Maintain a mistrust of all intellectuals Assume that the author is someone you dislike or distrust

2. Correlate what you read with your knowledge and experience

Dont be overly influenced by what you read, It may prevent new ideas!!

How to read critically...

3. Maintain a healthy scepticism
Ask if the material is true for this country and this period (time) Look at all sentences which seem true and question them Instead of wasting time building theories and what we assume to be true, cast a critical eye on all assumptions and see if the facts support them

How to read critical...

4. Challenge all assumptions As soon as an idea is accepted, its time to reject it! 5. Kknowledge has piled up critically, with little regards to compatibilities Accumulated in size impressively but one that lacks clear coherence or methodological integrity Lore is the body of rules that a discipline has accumulated by accident (a good place to look for research question) 6. Keep an open mind Be prepared that your ideas may be wrong

Solve This Problem...

Without picking up your pencil, how can you connect all the nine dots by drawing only four straight lines?

The Solution...

What have I changed/ challenged?

Undertaking Lit.Rev.
Development of the Lit.Rev. Requires 4 stages:
Problem formulation Literature search Data Evaluation Aanalysis and Interpretation

Steps in Lit.Rev.
Searching

Assessing/Abstracting

Integrating

Searching for Research Literature How and Where

What is a good search?
Purpose : MA Vs. Ph.D Difficulty : Too narrow Vs. Too broad

Search Tools
Web search engines Databases Proquest, Science Direct, ISTOR ect.

Searching....
Targeting the search
Define your topic identify synonyms, key words Determine the search tool Keep careful notes of the exact searches that you specified with each tool Scan the abstracts of the hits If initial results are not satisfactory, refine and return Snowball your search Complex searches Domain of search

Evaluation of Lit.Rev.
Is it comprehensive? Are they relevant? Are the sources primary ones? How critical is the analysis compared and contrasted? How cherent is the review write up? Is there a discussion of the implications of the review?

Making Sense of Literature: Strategy 1

First Pass:
Filling the background in a general way; Identifying scope; Appreciating the controversies; Familiarising with the major players Tactics: Supervisor & Recent review; Too much & Too little; Quality of Literature

Distinguishing Scholarly Journals From Other Periodicals

Four Categories of Literature
Scholarly Substantive news/general interest Popular Sensational

Scholarly is defined as
Concerning with academic study, especially research Exhibiting the methods and attitudes of a scholar Having the manner and appearance of a scholar

Quality of Literature
Is the problem clearly spelled out? Are results presented new? Was the research influential? How large a sample was used? How convencing is the argument made? How were the results analysed? What perspective are they coming from? Are the generalizations justified? What is the significance of the research? What are the assumptions behind the research? Is the methodology well justified? Iis the theoretical basis transparent?

Making Sense of The Literature: Strategy 1

Second Pass:
Gaining more expertise Becoming more focused Greater detail

Making Sense of The Literature: Strategy 1

Final Pass:
You are able to identify points or issues that lead directy to your research

Poor Review/ Writing

Series of paragraphs of the kind :
Green (1975) discovered....; In 1978, Black conducted experiments and discovered that.....; Later Brown (1980) illustrated this in....;

Demontrates neither understanding nor the ability to evaluate literature

Poor Review/ Writing

Series of paragraphs of the kind:
There seems to be generate agreement on X (for example, White 1987, Brown 1980, Black 1978, Green 1975) but Green sees X as a consequence of Y, while Black (1978 puts X and Y as...While Greens work has some limitation in that it... Its main value lies in...)

The above forces you to make judgments and distinguish your thoughts from assessments made by others

Strategy for Writing

Example : An important instance in which all of these challenges converge occurs with the concept of Y in description of the system.......
Specific problem considered for the research

Strategy for Writing..

Without doubt, one of the most widely discuss of these...is...Like most fundamental issues in A, this question leads to chalenges at several levels of thought. At the philosophical level this issue poses question about... At the mathematical level many questions are raised about the completeness and logical consistency...
Moving to specify issues at various levels

Element of Lit.Rev.
Overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration Division of works under review into categories Explanation of ho each work is similar to and how varies from others Conclusions

Strategy For Writing

General wider view to the specific Example:
Despite the undisputed success of X, many important problems and questions remain unanswered (see for example A 1973): the measuring process cannot be satisfactorily satisfied formally; there are great mathematical stumbing blocks to attempt to make X consistent with the assumptions of.... just to name a few. Introductory portion

Writing the Lit.Rev.

You are more likely to write it a number of times Focusing your Lit.Rev.
Initially looks like a survey Final version based on your conceptualization of your work

Organizing your Lit.Rev. Chronological ordering is usually not the best to achieve the above There is no correct way to organize it depends on your study

Organizing your Lit.Rev

It is not an add on but an absolutely integral part to he whole work Must be written
Within the context of the field With readers expectations of where your work fits Provide justification of why you are doing what you are doing Establish your theoretical framework and methodology

Writing the Lit.Rev.

It must be defined by a guiding concept
Your research objectives Your problem and issue Your argumentative thesis

It is NOT just a descriptive list of the material or set of summaries It should demonstrate your skills in two areas: Information seeking, and Critical appraisal

For Example of Lit.Rev. Writing

Focus group discussion is a type of qualitative research method, a semi-structured personto-group interview, typically in small groups, that can be used to explore a specific set of issues, the beliefs, needs, concerns, and motivations of a group of people (Grbich, 1999; Krueger, 1994; Sephard et al., 1989).

Example 2

To participate in the planning and implementation of their health care, patients need to improve their knowledge about their health. Consequently, education is needed at a general level to give people a better understanding about caring for their health. Such education should be rooted in the principles of adult learning, including an appropriate mix of didactic information giving active learning, problem-based learning and skills development, as well as group teaching sessions (Loveman et al., 2003; WHO, 2003). Therefore, the CBIA strategy has the potential to be developed as a model of public education for many health issues including controlling diabetes mellitus.