Learning from Others and Reviewing the Literatures

A literature review also establishes your credibility as a researcher and the study itself because you have shown through a comprehensive review that you have demonstrated mastery of your topic.

Purpose:

•        Broaden the knowledge of the researcher about the topic being explored.

•        Explore more of the problem, refine and define the variables.

•        Establish the need, justification and significance of the research.

•        Gauge the feasibility of pursuing the topic.

•        Reinforce research findings.

•        Leads you to potentially useful citations that may be helpful for your study.

Steps in Literature Review

1. Identify key concepts and terms to be searched for literature.

2. Locate the literature by consulting several materials and sources.

3. Evaluate and select the literatures critically for your review.

4. Organize the literatures.

5. Write the literature review.

Locating Literature Sources

Evaluating Literatures

Reading critically is the key step in evaluating literature sources. Consider the following questions:

•        Authority: Who is the author? what is his/her credentials--what university he/she is affiliated? Is his/her area of expertise?

•        Usefulness: How this source related to your topic? How current or relevant it is to your topic?

•        Reliability: Does the information comes from a reliable, trusted source such as an academic journal?

Types of Sources

•        General references are sources that are first accessed by researchers to give them information about other sources such as research articles, professional journals, books, monographs, conference proceedings, and similar documents. The Current Index of Journals in Education is an example of this source.  

•        Primary sources are those that provide first-hand information about experts’ and other researchers’ publications. These publications contain findings that are directly communicated to the readers and interested parties. Authors’ information for future correspondences may also be found in these publications. Examples of this kind include academic and research journals published by universities and learned organizations.

•        Secondary sources are those written by authors that describe another researcher’s works. These materials or documents may contain only summaries or interpretations of the research reports rather than a complete description of them. Good secondary sources are articles on meta-analysis of studies conducted in a period of time because they can provide research gaps and overstudied areas of a research field. Secondary sources include textbooks, single-authored books, and books edited by different authors with each contributing to a collection of chapters on a single topic. 

•        Tertiary sources are books and articles based on secondary sources. It synthesizes and explains the work of others.

Approaches in Organizing Literatures

1. Chronological – (by date) arranged based on the timeline of development.

2. Continental – organization from globally to locally conducted studies.

3. Thematic/Topical – organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time.

4. Broad-to-Specific – start with a section on the general to specific issues.

Writing the Literature Review

The introduction sets the stage for the review. This is where you give an overview, define important key words, and inform readers of the limitations of the review. The body is the bulk of the review. This is the part where you lay out the groundwork and background information about your topic. It contains the discussion on the similarities and differences of findings from several articles and how they are related to the present study.

The conclusion or synthesis of the review summarizes the trend and themes that you have observed as you describe the findings from the different articles. It is in the conclusion that you identify gaps in the literature.

Difference between a CONCEPTUAL and RELATED literatures

Conceptual Literatures present scholarly writeups, concepts, and ideas that are taken from books, periodicals, newspaper, magazines, online sources, encyclopedia, dictionary, etc.

Related Literatures shows the purpose, methods, findings and recommendations made by other authors whose research is related to the present study, thus obtained from thesis, master’s thesis, dissertation, and printed or electronic research journals.

Use the following linkers…

•        To add an idea: and, furthermore, besides, finally, again, equally important, in addition, also, likewise.

•        To compare points: however, in contrast, although, nevertheless, meanwhile, by comparison, on the contrary, similarly, equally, as with, in the same way, despite this, even though.

•        To prove a theory: because, in any case, moreover, evidently, obviously, indeed, since.

•        To show exception: nevertheless, however, in spite of, sometimes, of course, yet, once in a while.

•        To give an example: for example, for instance, to illustrate, to demonstrate, in this situation, on this occasion,

•        To show sequence: first, second, third, fourth etc., then, next 

•        To show cause and effect: for, so, since, consequently, therefore, thus, hence,

•        To show contrast: however, alternatively, whereas, apart from, even so, although, while.

•        To persuade: clearly, evidently, surely, indeed, undoubtedly, certainly, decidedly, for this reason, besides, again.

•        Aguinaldo (2014) stated that…

•        Duterte (2016) mentioned that…

•        Aguinaldo and Duterte (2014) pointed that…

•        On the study conducted by Aguinaldo (2012)…

•        As said by Aguinaldo (2012), …

•        Duterte (2018) assessed the factors that…

•        Aguinaldo, et al (2020) determined the factors that…

For conceptual literatures, you may use…

Arroyo (2016) posited, cited, mentioned, explained, enumerated, said, stated, highlighted, discussed, pointed out, argued, maintained, clarified etc.

For research / related literature, you may use…     

Ramos (2014) suggested, claimed, studied, found out, recommended, concluded, reported, stated, determined, discussed, proposed, described,  specified, detailed, etc.  

Strategies to Prevent Plagiarism

Notation Techniques

Summary. Summary is one of the most used techniques for notation. The purpose of a summary is to give a condensed and objective account of the main ideas and features of a text (Vander Mey, 2007). In summarizing, you have to consider the context to which the material was written. A direct quote can be used in this technique. A summary consists of one to three paragraphs or approximately reducing the text to 50%. The goal is to omit details that are not important to your research.

In summarizing, do not forget to include the author, the title of the text, and the place of publication. Include author tags like, “According to... (name of author) or, as (name of author) explains...” This will indicate that you are summarizing their work. Be objective in summarizing. Avoid including your ideas or opinions in the text. Save your opinions at the end of the review of literature.

Precis. Pronounced as “pray-see”. Like the summary, a précis also reduces the original text. However, unlike a summary, the précis is considered as the blueprint of the text. It is a shortening of the text, in your own words, describing the text as accurately and briefly as possible. ‘The challenge in using the précis is to be factual in your writing. The mood of the material is very important in a précis. Take care not to alter the mood to which the original material was written. A standard length of a précis is one-third of the original text.

Paraphrase. A paraphrase is a restatement of a text or a passage without any attempt at reducing the original material. Its goal is to explain and clarify the text being paraphrased. No direct quotation is needed in the technique of paraphrasing. A paraphrase is more detailed compared to a summary.

In paraphrasing, review the passage to get the whole meaning of the material being paraphrased. State the ideas in your own words and define concepts as necessary. Write for clarity but don’t change the meaning of the context. Simplify your words for better understanding. Be sure to maintain accuracy and tone of the original material.

Verbatim. Of all the techniques in notations, verbatim is the simplest and easiest because it is using exactly the same words as the original text. It is a word-for-word copying of the article, usually in quotation or block quotation. This means putting the copied text in quotation marks. When you want to capture a passage of more than four or five sentences, make sure that you put it in block quotation.

Sample Summary: Hameed et al (2022) found that non-academic social media utilization has an adverse effect on students' academic performance. In addition, academic-related use and multitasking on social media do not influence students' academic engagement. It is also important to note that a lack of self-control in using social media moderates the relationship between "non-academic social media usage" and students' educational achievement.

Sample Precis: Academic performance was observed to be negatively affected by non-academic utilization of social media, meanwhile no effect was seen on the contrary. Moreover, a moderate relationship was between lack of self-control and the academic engagement of the students. (Hameed et al, 2022).

Sample Paraphrase: The findings disclosed that non-academic social media use harmed students' academic performance. Moreover, social media use for academic reasons and multitasking on social media had no effect on students' academic performance. Most importantly, a lack of social media self-control moderates the relationship between "non-academic social media usage" and students' educational achievement (Hameed et al, 2022).

CITING RELATED LITERATURES

There are various citation style standards used worldwide. Among are the following:

MLA – Modern Language Association which is commonly used by writers and students who are writing manuscripts in humanities, literatures, and language disciplines.

APA – American Psychological Association which is mainly used in the field of social sciences like psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, and other fields.

IIEE – Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers used primarily for electronics, engineering, telecommunications, computer science, and information technology reports.

CMS – Chicago Manual of Style used widely by students and by publishers of novel and trade books.

General Citation Guidelines

·        In-text citation usually follows the author-date format (Rizal, 2019).

·        In APA citation, formatting of in-text citation varies:

o   Narrative citation – intertwine the author as part of the sentence with the date of publication.

Ex: This is congruent with the findings of Cabreros and Leviste (2021)…

o   Parenthetical citation – include the author(s) and the date of publication within parenthesis.

Ex: develop students critical and analytical thinking (Soriano & Perez, 2020).

Notice that for two authors, ampersand (&) was used for parenthetical citation while it is presented in its expanded form in narrative citation.

o   Multiple citation – restates similar findings or statements of different authors in a sentence of paragraph. As shown in the example below, three authors have reported similar findings on their respective studies.

Ex: In fact, numerous studies have shown that this is heavily influenced by student’s interest in Araling Panlipunan classes (Domingo, 2018; Evangelista, 2015; Mariano, 2020).

o   Cross citation – different authors have different findings or statements that can be clustered in one category or classification.

Ex: Among the issues encountered by students in learning the topics include lack of real-life learning activities (Chavez, 2016), limited interaction (Magnaye & Mandanas, 2014), lack of immediate feedback (Gomez et al. 2020), and book-dependent discussion of the lessons (Dinglasan, 2017).

This is congruent with the findings of Cabreros and Leviste (2021) that SHS students are less engaged in political discussions. In fact, numerous studies have shown that this is heavily influenced by student’s interest in Araling Panlipunan classes (Domingo, 2018; Evangelista, 2015; Mariano, 2020).

Among the issues encountered by students in learning the topics include lack of real-life learning activities (Chavez, 2016), limited interaction (Magnaye & Mandanas, 2014), lack of immediate feedback (Gomez et al. 2020), and book-dependent discussion of the lessons (Dinglasan, 2017).

Intervention activities are proposed to improve the political engagement of the students as Araling Panlipunan is the closest subject in the curriculum that is likely to develop students critical and analytical thinking (Soriano & Perez, 2020).

References:

Amorado, R.V., and Talili, I.N. (2017). Qualitative research a practical approach. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House.

Henson, R.M., and Soriano, R.F. (2016). Practical research 1 qualitative research world of reality dissections. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House.

Clemente, R.F., Julaton, AB. E., Orleans, A.V. (2016). Science in today’s world for senior high school research in daily life 1. Quezon City: Sibs Publishing House, Inc.