1. Critically Reviewing the Literature
KOWNAYN University
Critically Reviewing the Literature

2. Critically Reviewing the Literature: Outline
Introduction: Definition, Purpose
Why Do You Need to Review the Literature for Your Research Project?
A Good Literature Review Helps the Researcher to …
Sources of Information for Literature Review
Requirements of Good Literature Review
8 Steps for Effective Literature Review
Literature Review Process
Chapter Contents of Literature Review
Tools and Techniques for Literature Review
What Are the Examiners Looking for?
Plagiarism Issues

3. Introduction: Definition, Purpose
reviewing the literature is one of requirements of scientific research,
because the researcher must understand the issues and facts surrounding the problem at hand.
In order to understand the problem at hand, the researcher must read several articles, books etc that relate to the issue under investigation

4. Introduction: Definition, Purpose Cont…
Definition: literature review is the systemic identification, location, retrieval, analysis, and evaluation of documents containing information that are related to the research problem.
Purpose: it is to help the researcher develop a through understanding and insight into previous works and trends that have been recorded pertaining to the research problem.
(Oso and Onen, 2008)

5. Why Do You Need to Review the Literature for Your Research Project?
A review of the literature has the following functions:
to justify your choice of research question, theoretical or conceptual framework, and method;
to establish the importance of the topic;
to provide background information needed to understand the study;
to show readers you are familiar with significant and/or up-to-date research relevant to the topic;
to establish your study as one link in a chain of research that is developing knowledge in your field.
(Monash University, 2010)

6. A Good Literature Review Helps the Researcher
Critically Reviewing the Literature helps the researcher as follows:
Identify what has already been done that relates to the research problem
Identify and recognize those who have already worked on the problem
Reveal contributions, weaknesses and gaps to be filled as a way of contribution

7. Sources of Information for Literature Review
Preliminary sources (general sources): these are the references that the researcher consults first to help him/her locate other sources related to the research problem
Table of contents
Indices
Abstracts
Primary sources: these are direct descriptions of an occurrence by an individual who actually experienced or witnessed the accident. They are publications in which persons who carried out the research report their findings.
Journals
Reports
Dissertations
Theses
Conference papers
Secondary sources: these refer to publications in which authors describe the works of others.
Textbook

8. Requirements of Good Literature Review
Should be relevant: relates to variables raised in the purpose, objectives, hypotheses and research questions of the study
Should be analytical instead of narrative
Appropriate citations and referencing style – APA style
Priority and focus
Never say that your area is so new that no research exists

9. 8 Steps for Effective Literature Review
Borg (1987) provides eight steps for effective literature review:
defining the research problem
review secondary sources – provides an introduction to the problem and help define it in more precise terms
formulate search words
select and skim through the most appropriate preliminary sources
search the preliminary sources for the most relevant primary sources
read the relevant primary sources in more detail now, taking notes by use of note cards
organize the notes
write the report

10. Literature Review Process
Reviewing the literature has the following process:
problem statement/research objectives/questions
define parameters (language of publication, subject area, business sector, geographical area, publication period and type of literature – see Box 3.7 )
generate and refine keywords
conduct search
obtain literature
evaluate
record
draft
(see figure 3.1, p. 60 Saunders et al., 2009)

11. Chapter Contents of Literature Review
Chapter II – Literature Review: May contain the following sections:
Introduction
Literature on the independent variable
Literature on the dependent variable
Summary and
Conclusion

12. Tools and Techniques for Literature Review
Use notebook for recording your reading of literature review
Take your note following to provide the required information:
the problem
hypotheses/objectives/questions
procedures – methodologies used:
methods of data collection
participants and how they were selected
type of instruments used
findings/results
conclusions
(Oso and Onen, 2008)

13. Tool for Reviewing the Literature
Author, year, topic and source of the article
Objective(s)
Main methods
Main results
Limitations and future researches
Main assertions

14. What Are the Examiners Looking for?
A review of the literature should:
set up a theoretical framework for your research;
show your reader that you:
have a clear understanding of the key concepts/ideas/studies/ models related to your topic;
know about the history of your research area and any related controversies;
can discuss these ideas in a context appropriate for your own investigation;
can evaluate the work of others;
clarify important definitions/terminology;
develop the research space you will also indicate in the Introduction and Abstract;
narrow the problem, and make the study feasible.
(Monash University, 2010)

15. Plagiarism Issues Definition: Example: The original author wrote:
Plagiarism means taking the ideas or words from other writers without acknowledging them.
Along with fabricating results, it is considered to be one of the worst academic sins!
When you submit your thesis you must be very confident that all sources are acknowledged; hence the Declaration Statement.
This is why you must use a method of note taking which allows you to easily distinguish your own work from that of others.
Example: The original author wrote:
"[Microsoft's chairman has explained the] company's strategy to make Windows the universal client operating system in the enterprise."

16. Plagiarism Issues Cont…
The student wrote:
The company's strategy is to make Windows the universal client operating system in the enterprise by the Window Open Services Architecture (WOSA) [Semich, 1992].
The student has copied word for word from the original author's article. Although the student acknowledged the author, he didn't put the passage in quotation marks or adequately paraphrase the original wording. This is still not acceptable, and may be considered plagiarism.
(Monash University, 2010)

17. Plagiarism Issues Cont…
Park (2003) lists four common forms of plagiarism, which are commonly found in universities:
Stealing material from another and passing it off as your own.
Submitting a paper written by someone else and passing it off as your own.
Copying section of material from one or more source texts, supplying proper documentation but leaving out quotation marks, thus giving the impression that the material has been paraphrased rather than directly quoted.
Paraphrasing material from one or more source texts without supplying appropriate documentation.
(see Saunders et al., 2009, p.97-8)

18. Discussion – Literature Review
Q & A