Chap 2

• Review of Related Literature


  A great way of knowing if there is already prior research done on a particular topic
• Process of compiling, classifying and evaluating what other researchers have written on a certain topic


  Identifies gaps in the current research and the areas that still need further investigation
• The Review Should


  • Show the summary of what is known and not known about the topic
  • Discuss opposing and connecting areas in the literature
  • Identify questions that could further enrich the research
  • Indicate how familiar you are about your research topic
• Sources of RRL


  • Articles published in scholarly journals, laws and constitution, books and other general reference materials
  • Grey literature such as working papers, conference proceedings and reports from seminars, manuscripts, monographs and memoirs, official reports from the government as well as records of schools
  • Common sources are libraries,government offices, electronic journals and corporations, and international institutions
• Books comprise a central part of any bibliography
• Journals provide you with the most up-to-date information, even though there is a gap of two to three years between the completion of a research project and the publication in a journal
• Citation (Appreciation Credit: Respect)


  It is necessary to use when the researcher paraphrases statements of another researcher; summarizes the ideas of another researcher; quoting what was written by another researcher and makes references to ideas or theories of another researcher. Citing these sources acknowledges the source of the ideas and provides due credit. Not doing so would be unethical, as this would be considered as intellectual theft or plagiarism.
• Characteristics of the Materials cited


  • Materials must be as recent as possible, maybe 10 years back
  • Materials must be as objective and unbiased as possible
  • Materials must be relevant to the study
  • Coherence principle must be observed in writing literature review
• Reference is an important part of a research paper. It must be consistent and easy to read across different papers. Different subjects prefer to use different formats.
• Referencing


  A method used to demonstrate to the readers that you have conducted a thorough and appropriate literature search and reading
• Different Styles in Citing Related Literature


  • APA Style (American Psychological Association)
  • MLA style (Modern Language Association)
• APA Style


  An author/date-based style. This means emphasis is placed on the author and the date of a piece of work to uniquely identify it. Most of the education researches and social sciences use APA referencing.
• MLA style


  Most often applied to the arts and humanities, particularly in the USA. It is arguably the most well used of all of the citation styles.
• In-text Citation


  • Direct Quotation – used quotation marks around the quote and include page number
  • Indirect Quotation/Paraphrasing – no quotation marks