Reviewing the Literature 1

Reviewing the literature One of the essential preliminary tasks when you undertake a research study is to go through the existing literature in order to acquaint yourself with the available body of knowledge in your area of interest. 2

Research literature: the evidence about the topic or question Theoretical literature: the thinking and discussion about this topic or question 3

Literature review has the following functions 1.It brings clarity and focus to your research problem 2.It improves your research methodology 3.It broadens your knowledge base in your research area 4.Contextualise your findings 4

Bringing clarity and focus to your research problem the literature review can play an important role in shaping your research problem because reviewing the literature helps you to understand the subject area better and helps you to conceptualise the research problem clearly. Also, by doing that, you learn what aspects of your subject area have been examined by others, what they have found out about these aspects, what gaps they have identified, and what suggestion they have made for further research. 5

Improving your research methodology Going through the literature acquaint you with the methodologies that have been used by others to find answers to research questions similar to the one you are investigating. It tells you if others have used procedures and methods similar to the one that you are proposing, which procedures and methods work well and what problems they have faced. By becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, you will be better positioned to select a methodology that capable of providing valid answers. 6

Broadening your knowledge base in your research area The most important function of the literature review is to ensure you read widely around the subject area. It is important to know what other researchers have found in regard to the same questions, what theories have been put and what gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge, 7

Enabling you to contextualise your findings Undertaking a literature review will enable you to compare your findings with those of others by examining how your findings fit into the existing body of knowledge, how do answers to your research questions compare with what others have found?, what contributions have you been able to make? How are your findings different from those of others? It is important to place your findings in the context of what is already known in your field of enquiry. 8

Five main stages in conducting a literature review. 1.Searching The university library is a central location for finding the literature needed for review. 9

2. Screening A.Substantive (content) screening. This applies to both types of literature as your dissertation needs to concentrates on literature centrally relevant to your topic and question. The topic and the question are your reference points for this substantive screening. 10

B. Methodological screening This applies to the research literature. Its purpose is to assess critically the methodological quality of the research that has produced the evidence and the findings. 11

3. Summarizing and documenting Summarizing is essential activity in reviewing and managing the literature. It provides for the basis for the organizing, analyzing and synthesizing the whole literature. For research reports, summaries of the main substantive points can focus on the topic and research questions, the context, the data and the findings for each piece of research. Summaries of the main methodological points can focus on the design, the sample, the data collection and the data analysis of each previous study. The task in summarizing is to shorten, without significant loss of information. 12

4. Organizing, analyzing and synthesizing. These activities help to manage the literature you read. A.Organizing the material in your literature summaries helps to develop a structure. Structure in reviewing is usually developed through main themes and sub-themes (sections and subsections) 13

B. Analyzing means breaking the literature into its constituent parts and describing how the parts relate to each other (Hart, 1998). Analyzing can be done through subjecting the methodology of a piece of research to the suggested questions. Similarly, when you comment on the methodological trends or gaps in a body of research literature, you are dealing with it analytically. 14

C. Synthesizing involves making connections between the parts identified and showing new patterns and arrangements among them. It involves consideration of the convergence and divergence of the findings, theories, methods and implications that are found in the literature. 15

5. Writing Structure is needed in the way you write your review, and this means that sections and section headings within the review are important. 16

Being critical It means not simply accepting what is written at face value, but instead subjecting it to careful analysis and evaluation. It is important to be open-minded, to be constructive and respect other people. 17

Making links between studies Agreements Similarly, author B points to… Likewise, author C makes the case that… Author D also makes this point… Again, it is possible to see how author E agrees with author D… Disagreements However, author B points to… On the other hand, author C makes the case that… Conversely, Author D argues… Nevertheless, what author E suggests… 18

Citation styles Information prominent citation Example: – For viscoelastic fluids, the behaviour of the time-dependent stresses in the transient shear flows is also very important (Boger et al., 1974). Author prominent citation Examples: – Close (1983) developed a simplified theory using an analogy between heat and mass transfer and the equivalent heat transfer only case. – Several authors have suggested that automated testing should be more readily accepted (Balcer, 1989; Stahl, 1989; Carver & Tai, 1991). 19

Active or passive voice You should use, where appropriate, both active and passive voice As a general rule, use active voice unless there is good reason not to 20

Reporting verbs Argue Assert Assume Challenge Claim Contend Contradict Describe Dispute Emphasize Establish Examine Find Maintain Note Object Observe Persuade Propose Prove Purport Recommend Refute Reject Remark Suggest Support 21

Verb tenses – Present A review of current research work, or research work of immediate relevance to your study. Example: – Schulze (2002) concludes that hydraulic rate has a significant effect on future performance. Comments, explanations and evaluative statements made by you when you are reviewing previous studies. Examples: – Therefore, this sequential approach is impractical in the real world where projects are typically large and the activities from one stage may be carried out in parallel with the activities of another stage. – The reason for this anomalous result is that the tests were done at low hydraulic rates at which the plastic packing was not completely wetted. 22

Verb tenses – Past Report the contents, findings or conclusions of past research Examples: – Haberfield (1998) showed that the velocity of many enzyme reactions was slowed down if the end product had an increased paramagnetism. – Allington (1999) found that the temperatures varied significantly over time. 23

Verb tenses – Present perfect In citations where the focus is on the research area of several authors Examples: – Several studies have provided support for the suggestion that the amount of phonological recoding that is carried out depends on orthographic depth (Frost, 1994; Smart et al, 1997; Katz & Feldman, 2001, 2002). – Joint roughness has been characterized by a number of authors (Renger, 1990; Feker & Rengers, 1997; Wu & Ali, 2000). To generalize about the extent of the previous research Examples: – Many studies have been conducted in this field. – Few researchers have examined this technique. – There has been extensive research into

25 Pitfalls Vagueness due to too much or inappropriate generalizations Limited range Insufficient information Irrelevant material Omission of contrasting view Omission of recent work