1. LITERATURE REVIEW · 2017-10-05 · RESEARCH PROPOSAL RESEARCH REPORT 1. LITERATURE REVIEW Types...

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LITERTURE REVIEW

CITATION AND REFERENCING

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

RESEARCH REPORT

1. LITERATURE REVIEW

Types of Literature

Research journals

In doing literature search, students need to look out for scholarly journals. These scholarly

journals report original scientific and analytical studies in specialised academic discipline. They

are peer reviewed, that is, they have been evaluated by other researchers before being published.

These researchers who are experts in their field suggest possible changes, and recommend to the

editor of the journals whether or not to publish the article.

Popular literature (Magazines and Newspapers)

Popular literature is written by journalist, who are employed by the magazine or newspaper for

which they write. Journalist cover news and current events in a field, write profiles of peoples,

places, or events, and express political opinions. Some examples are the Ghanaian Times,

Newsweek, Times Magazine, the Daily Graphic, Daily Guide, Heritage, Places and People

(P&P), Chronicle, etc.

Books

Books are usually bigger than journal articles and may be written by one person or in

collaboration with others. Books take a longer time to get from research to publication, but cover

a wide range of topics, or cover a topic much more thoroughly, than articles or conference

presentations. Books published by University Press houses usually go through some sort of peer

review process.

Dissertations/Theses

Undergraduate and graduate students who have worked on various topics produce

dissertations/theses at the end of their programmes. Usually only the library and/or departments

at the University where the work was done have copies of the dissertation/theses. The Balme

Library has some of the dissertations/theses. Also, there are abstracts electronically stored of

about 5,139 theses (excluding those which were recently submitted to the Graduate and Research

School).


Conference presentations

These may include many academic organisations which have organised conferences where

scholars read papers, or presented the results of their work. To give a presentation, scholars must

submit a proposal which is reviewed by those sponsoring the conference. Unless a presentation is

published elsewhere apart from the conference sponsors, it is difficult to find a copy, or even to

know what was presented.

Conference Papers/Association Papers/Working Papers

These papers are presented at a conference, but not yet accepted for publication. There may also

be works in progress where researchers may ask the public not to cite. They may be published

works made available by academic associations. Scholarly journal articles often have an abstract,

a descriptive summary of the article contents, before the main text of the article. Scholarly

journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies. These bibliographies

are generally lengthy and cite other scholarly writings. Articles are written by a scholar in the

field or by someone who has done research in the field. The main purpose of a scholarly journal

is to report on original research or experiment in order to make such information available to the

scientific community.

What is a Literature Review?

Before we deal with what a literature review is, shall we look at this scenario? Joseph is planning

to design a study on ‘Use of E-learning in Teaching and Learning at University of Ghana’. As he

thinks about translating his ideas into a specific question, he is confronted with two issues. First,

he must find out what others have written about the topic by reviewing scholarly literature. As

Joseph reads widely about the topic, he is able to narrow his topic. Reading widely what others

have written on the topic of interest is what we describe as literature review. A re-view, simply

means to ‘to look again’. Reviewing the accumulated knowledge about a topic is the early step in

the research process. According to Neuman (2000) a literature review is based on this very

assumption that knowledge accumulates and that people learn from and build on what other have

done.

Goals of a Literature Review

Neuman (2003) has identified four goals of a literature review. These are:

To demonstrate a familiarity with the body of knowledge and establish credibility. A

review tells a reader that the researcher knows the research in an area and knows the

major issues. A good review increases a reader’s confidence in the researcher’s

professional competence, ability, and background.

To show the path of prior research and how a current project is linked to it. A review

outlines the direction of research on a question and shows the development of knowledge.

A good review places the study in context and demonstrates its relevance by making

connections to a body of knowledge.

To integrate and summarise what is known in an area. A review pulls together and

synthesises different results. A good review points out areas where prior studies agree,


where they disagree, and where major questions remain. It collects what is known up to a

point in time and indicates direction for future research.

To learn from others and stimulate new ideas. A review tells what others have found so

that a researcher can benefit from the efforts of others. A good review identifies and

suggests hypotheses for replication. It reveals procedures, techniques, and research

designs worth copying so that a researcher can better focus hypotheses and gain new

insights.

In our search for materials, we should not just use any material. Some writers have suggested

some criteria which should serve as a guide to the appropriate sources of relevant material. The

following are worth considering: (Dunn, 1999)

(http://www.rgu.ac.uk/library/howtopage.cfm?pge=25989 [accessed 7/8/2008] :

Are the materials relevant to the topic? Do they relate to the question we are

trying to answer?

Are we using material from peer reviewed journals and books?

Are the materials from primary sources? Are you reading the original research

investigations or from other secondary sources?

Is the material of an appropriate age e.g. is it too old to still be valid or too new

to be backed up with proper research?

According to Caulley (1992) the literature review should:

Compare and contrast different authors’ views on an issue

Group authors who draw similar conclusions

Criticise aspects of methodology

Note areas in which authors are in disagreement

Highlight exemplary studies

Highlight gaps in research

Conclude by summarising what the literature says.

Where to Find Research Literature

Scholarly journals

Books

Dissertations

Government documents

Policy reports and presented papers

Electronic databases. The Internet has also become the major source of

information.


How to conduct a Literature Review

Define and Refine Your Topic

To begin a literature review, it is always advisable to have a well-written research question and a

plan. Having the research question written down, can prevent waste of one’s precious time at the

library and behind the computer.

Taking notes

As one gathers so much information, one needs a system for taking notes. As you gather the

information, you could write the sources as well as the content of the materials in a note-book. If

you have a laptop or a desktop computer, open a document in word and type in nicely the

information. Sometimes you may want to photocopy the material. It is advisable to keep a file in

which the articles are well protected. Make sure you do not leave out the references of the

articles or books that you review.

Structure of the Literature Review

Now that we know the goals and types of literature to review, how do we structure our reviews?

Every literature review must have an

introduction

body, and

conclusion.

Introduction: In the introduction, you define the topic, together with your reason for selecting

the topic. You could also point out overall trends, gaps, particular themes that have emerged, and,

therefore, the reason for the research.

Body: this is where you discuss your sources. Here are some ways in which you could organise

the body of the review:

Chronologically: Discussion of information in order of publication date or by trend, showing the

evolution of an argument. This approach has also been described as discussion of the

research/articles ordered according to an historical or development context.

Thematically: the review is divided into sections representing the categories or conceptual

subjects of the topic. If we have a topic as: Study of the effects of globalisation on information

management: Implications for Information Studies, then some of the themes may be the history

of information in Ghana, globalisation and information management, data warehousing, World

Wide Web, Intranets, information networking, implications for information studies.

Conclusion: summarise the major contributions, by evaluating the current position, and pointing

out flaws in methodology, gaps in the research, contradictions, and areas for further study.


How to Read Journal Articles

Literature reviews involve a lot of reading. Since you will be coming across many journal

articles and books, you need to develop good reading skills. As we review literature, Neuman

(2003) has suggested some of the things that we should be doing:

Read with a clear purpose or goal in mind. Your goal for reading is to find out if

the literature is relevant to your research problem

Skim the article before reading it all. For books just go through the table of

contents. For articles, what can you learn from the title, abstract, summary and

conclusions, and headings?

Marshal external knowledge. What do you already know about the topic and the

methods used? How credible is the source?

Evaluate as you read the article. This means trying to find some gaps in the

work. Do findings follow the data? Is the article consistent with assumptions of

the approach it takes?

Summarise information as an abstract with the topic, the methods used, and the

findings.

Sources of Information

Primary Sources

Primary Sources provide first hand information in the original words of the creator or eye

witness. They are original materials that have not been filtered through interpretation. According

to Neuman (2003:416) primary sources may be found in archives (a place where documents are

stored), in private collection, in family closets, or museums. Published and unpublished written

documents are the most important type of primary source. Examples of primary sources:

Diaries, memoirs/autobiographies

Interviews (legal proceedings, personal, telephone, e-mail)

Letters

Original Documents (i.e. Birth certificate or a trial transcript)

Patents or Standards

Photographs, music and art work

Proceedings of meeting, conferences and symposia

Maps

Statutes and law reports


Journal articles (when discussing original ideas or reporting original works)

Newspaper articles (when written at the time of an event)

Secondary Sources

These are analyses of and interpretation of primary sources. Examples of secondary sources are:

Biographies

Commentaries

Dissertations

Indexes, Abstracts, Bibliographies

Journal Articles

Monographs

Tertiary Source

It consists of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and

secondary sources.

Examples of tertiary sources:

Almanacs – They are a collection of dates, facts and figures. They are used to

confirm a data, fact or figure. For example, the World Almanac.

Encyclopaedias – They provide introductory information such as a definition,

description, and brief history. It includes a bibliography at the end of each topic.

Fact books – They may provide comprehensive information on student’s

admissions, faculties and staff of universities, whilst another fact book such as

the World Fact Book may provide latest Demography World News from the

most comprehensive global news network on the internet.

Textbooks – They are manuals of instruction or standard books in any branch of

study. They are produced according to the demand of educational institutions.

Although most textbooks are only published in printed format, some are now

available as e-books or electronic books.

Dictionaries – They are reference books containing an alphabetical list of words

with information about them.

Atlases – They are collections of maps providing geographic and/or spatial

information.


2. CITATION, REFERENCING AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

There is a general mix up or referencing with bibliography; though the purposes are different. A

bibliography is the listing of the works that are relevant to the topic of research interest arranged

in alphabetical order of the last names of authors. A reference list is a subset of the

bibliography, which includes details of all the citations used in literature survey and elsewhere in

the report, arranged again, in the alphabetical order of the last names of authors. These citations

have the goals of crediting the author and enabling the reader to find the works cited.

Giving references in the report or thesis is a must, whereas the bibliography is additional

information and is certainly optional. There should be no mixing up of the meanings.

There are different modes of referencing being followed by different disciplines. Find out what

mode is followed in your discipline. For example, psychologists follow the publication manual

of American Psychological Association (APA), and sociologists follow guidelines given in the

manual of American Sociological Association. Similarly other subjects follow their professional

associations. Each of these manuals specifies, with examples, how books, journals, newspapers,

dissertations, and other materials are to be referenced in manuscripts. Whichever the style you

pick up, follow it consistently. Since APA format is followed for referencing in many journals

we shall present that here as a specimen. All the citations mentioned in the research report should

find a place in the References section at the end of the report.

Book by a single author Leshin, C. B. (1997). Management on the World Wide Web. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-

Hall.

Start with the last name, put a comma and then initials with full stop. It is followed by the year of

publication in parentheses with a full stop. Then we have the title of the publication; all in small

words (unless there is some name which has to be with capital letter as it is in this title) and in

italics. Put full stop at the end. It is followed by place of publication with a colon at the end.

After the colon give the name of the publisher. Second line of the reference should be indented

by giving five spaces. Give two spaces for separating the references.

Book by more than one author Cornett, M., Wiley, B. J., & Sankar, S. (1998). The pleasures of nurturing. London:

McMunster Publishing.

It is the same as the previous one except there is the use of & separating the last author from its

preceding one. See it is not written `and' but being used as symbol `&.'


Edited book It is a book of readings or called Reader, which contains sections/articles written by a number of

authors. These articles may have been published earlier in different journals/books or these may

have been specially written for this book. Such a book has an editor or editors who collected

these articles, edited them and published.

Pennathur, A., Leong, F. T., & Schuster, K. (Eds.) (1998). Style and substance of thinking. New

York: Wilson Press.

Here, after the names of the editors, the word editors is abbreviated as "Eds." and put in

parentheses. Other instructions remain the same.

Chapter in an edited book This is an article written by single or multiple authors and is printed in the edited book.

Riley, T., & Brecht, M. L. (1998). The success in mentoring process. In R. Williams (Ed.)

Mentoring and career success. pp. 129-150. New York: Wilson Press.

We start with the name(s) of the author(s); same instructions. Then the title of the article

published in this edited book. The title is in small letters except the letter of the first word. It is

not to be put in italics or in bold. Give full stop at the end of the title. Then we tell about the

book and its editor in which it was published. Here the editor's name does not start with the last

name, but is kept straight as initials and then the last name. It is followed by the title of the book

which is in italics. After the title we specify the pages of the book on which this article appeared.

The rest is the same i.e. place of publication and the publisher.

Journal Article Jeanquart, S., & Peluchette, J. (1997). Role of computers in distance education. Journal of

Computing, 43 (3), 72-85.

The title of the article is in small letters. The name of the journal is in italics. Such professional

journals are well known in the academic community, therefore, the place of publication and the

publisher is not given. Instead, it volume and number in the volume is given. All the issues

published in one year are one volume. There could be number of issues in a volume. Both the

volumes and issues are numbered. In this example 43 is the volume and 3 given in the

parentheses is the number in this volume. It is followed by the pages on which this article was

published.

Conference Proceedings publications Gardener, H. N. (2005). Population policy of Ghana. In Z. Samuels (Ed.), Proceedings of the

Third Conference on Research and Population, (pp. 100-107). Islamabad: Population

Council.

Doctoral Dissertation Chaudhary, M.A. (2004). Medical advances and quality of life. Unpublished doctoral

Dissertation, Virtual University


Paper presented at conference Quarshie, Q. A. (2005, May 16). Practical tips for efficient management. Paper presented at

The annual meeting of Entrepreneurs, Lahore.

It is possible that the proceeding of a conference have not been published. The researcher got

hold of a paper that was presented at the conference and wanted to do it citation. Here along with

the year of the conference, the date is also given. Title of the paper is in italics. Then give some

information about owners of the conference, followed by place where the conference was held.

Unpublished Manuscript Kashoor, M. A. (2005). Training and development in the `90s. Unpublished manuscript,

University of London.

Newspaper Article The Ghana Medical Association on Strike. (2005, May 16). The Daily Graphic, p. 4.

Referencing Electronic Sources Ahmad, B. (2005). Technology and immediacy of information. [On line]

Available http://www.bnet.act.com Just giving the site on the internet is not sufficient. It is

necessary that the name of the author and title of the writing should be given. Internet site is

actually in place of the publisher and the place of publication.

Referencing and Quotation in Literature Review Cite all references in the body of the report using the author-year method of citation; that is, the

last name of the author(s) and the year of publication are given at the appropriate places.

Examples of this are as follows:

a. Rashid (2005) has shown that ...

b. In recent studies of dual earner families (Khalid, 2004; Hameed, 2005) it has been concluded

that ....

c. In 2004 Maryam compared dual earner and dual career families and found that ....

As can be seen from the above, if the name of the author appears as part of the narrative as in the

case of (a), the year of publication alone has to be cited in parentheses. Note that in case (b), both

the author and the year are cited in parentheses, separated by comma. If the year and the author

are part of the textual discussion as in (c) above, the use of parentheses is not warranted

Note also the following: 1. Within the same paragraph, you need not include the year after the first citation so long as the

study cannot be confused with other studies cited in the article. An example of this is: Gutek

(1985) published her findings in the book titled Sex and the Workplace. Gutek indicated ...

2. When the work is authored by two individuals, always cite both names every time the

reference occurs in the text.

http://www.bnet.act.com/


3. When a work has more than two authors but fewer than six authors, cite all authors the first

time the reference occurs, and subsequently include only the last name of the first author

followed by "et al." as per example below:

Sekaran, U., Martin, T., Trafton, N., and Osborn R. N. (1980) found that ... (first citation)

Sekaran et al. (1980) found ... (subsequent citations).

4. When a work is authored by six or more individuals cite only the last name of the first author

followed by `et al.' and the year for the first and subsequent citations. Join the names in a

multiple-author citation in running text by the word "and." In parenthetical material, in tables,

and in reference list, join the names by an ampersand (&). Examples are given below:

a. As Tucker and Snell (1989) pointed out ...

b. As has been pointed out (Tucker & Snell, 1989) ...

5. When a work has no author, cite in the text the first two or three words of the article title. Use

double quotation marks around the title of the article. For example, while referring to the

newspaper article, the text might be read as: While examining unions ("with GM pact," 1990).

6. When a work's author is designated as "Anonymous," cite in the text, the word Anonymous

followed by a comma and the date: (Anonymous, 1979). In the reference list, an anonymous

work is alphabetized by the word Anonymous

7. When the same author has several works published in the same year, cite them in the same

order as they occur in the reference list, with the in-press citations coming last. For example:

Research on the mental health of dual-career family members (Sekaran, 1985a, 1985b, 1985c,

1999, in press) indicates ...

8. When more than one author has to be cited in the text, these should be in alphabetical order of

the first author's last name, and the citations should be separated by semicolons as per the

following illustration:

In the job design literature (Aldag & Brief, 1976; Alderfer, 1972; Beatty, 1982;

Jeanquart, 1998) ...

Personal communication through letters, memos, telephone conversations, and the like, should

be cited in the text only and not included in the reference list since these are not retrievable data.

In the text, provide the initials as well as the last name of the communicator together with date,

as in the following example:

R. Quarshie (personal communication, November 15, 2006) feels ...


Quotations in Text Quotations should be given exactly as they appear in the source. The original wording,

punctuation, spellings, and italics must be preserved even if they are erroneous. The citation of

the source of direct quotation should always include the page number(s) as well as the reference.

Use double quotation marks for quotations in the text. Use single quotation marks to identify the

material that was enclosed in double quotation marks in the original source. If you want to

emphasize certain words in the quotation, underline them and immediately after the underlined

words, insert within brackets the words: italics added. Use three ellipsis points (...) to indicate

that you have omitted material from the original source. If the quotation is more than 40 words,

set in a free-standing style starting on a new line and indenting the left margin a further five

spaces. Type the entire quotation double spaced on the new margin, indenting the first line of

paragraphs from the new margin. If you intend publishing an article in which you have quoted

extensively from a copyright work, it is important that you seek written permission from the

owner of the copyright. Make sure that you also footnote the permission obtained with respect to

the quoted material. Failure to do so may result in unpleasant consequences, including legal

action taken through copyright protection law.

3. RESEARCH PROPOSAL

What is a research proposal?

Various writers have defined research proposal differently. Neuman (2003) defines a research

proposal as a document that presents a plan for a project to reviewers for evaluation. Usually,

undergraduate students are expected to write research proposals before they start writing their

long essays. Since it is a plan, it gives supervisors an idea about the researcher, that, he or she is

capable of successfully conducting the proposed research project. Your supervisor will have

more confidence that a well planned and written project proposal will have a higher rate of

success than a badly written and ill-planned proposal. So how do we plan and write good

proposals? We shall answer this question by looking at the components or what goes into

research proposals.

Components of a Research Proposal

Various components have been suggested by different writers. A critical assessment of these

components reveal some common features which I have outlined below and which will be

discussed in detailed.

Title

Introduction or background to the research problem

Statement of the problem

Purpose of the study

Research objectives/questions or hypotheses


Methodology

Significance of Study

Identify a theoretical or conceptual framework

Limitations

Organisation of Chapters

References

Title / Topic

The title tells everyone what you are going to do in the study. In it, you should have the

independent and dependent variables. The title should be very concise. This means that we

should remove words that will not be of any significance. For example, instead of having a title

as “A study of Information Literacy and Students’ Access to Computers”, the title could be

stated as “Information Literacy and Student’s Access to Computers”.

Introduction or background to the study

The introduction provides the background information for the research proposal. It provides

figures and facts of the problem you are investigating. For a student to write a good background

to the study, the student needs to do extensive literature search. The more knowledge you have

about the topic the easier it is for you to establish the need for the research. Assuming you are

writing on the topic: Information Literacy and University of Ghana Students, you should:

create reader interest in the topic,

lay the broad foundation for the problem that leads to the study,

place the study within the larger context of the scholarly literature, and

reach out to a specific audience. (Creswell, 1994, p. 42)

Statement of the Problem

When the background to the study has been firmly established, the next thing is the statement of

the problem. The problem is what will be taken to the field to find answers to. Some writers have

described the problem as a “situation in need of a solution, improvement, or alteration” (Adebo,

1974, p. 53; cited in Burns and Groves, 1993) or a discrepancy between the way things are and

the way they ought to be (Diers, 1979, p.12). The problem identifies an area of concern for a

particular population and often indicates the concepts to be studied. The statement of the

problem is usually in a question form. For example:

Does access to computers improve students’ information literacy?


What are the effects of information resources on the psycho-social

functioning of students of University of Ghana?

Purpose of study

The purpose of a study might be to identify, describe, explore, explain, or predict a solution to

a situation. If the purpose statement starts with phrases as “the purpose of this study is “to

identify…,” or “to describe…,” it is understood that little is known about the phenomenon, and

the purpose of the study will be to identify and/or describe the phenomenon as it exists in nature

(exploratory or descriptive study). If a cause-and-effect relationship is the focus of the study, the

statement may read: “The purpose of this study is “to determine…” To be able to write a good

purpose statement, Creswell (2003) explains that we should always start the purpose with words

such as “purpose”, or “intent”. For example:

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between access to computers and

information literacy of students. Since very little is known about access to computers and

information literacy of students the study will sample 100 students at various levels and compare

and contrast their levels of information literacy using the survey research and analysing their

responses through inferential statistics.

Objectives / Research questions and hypotheses

According to Burns & Grove (1999) research objectives, questions and hypotheses are

formulated to bridge the gap between the more abstractly stated research problem and purpose

and the study design and plan for data collection and analysis. Objectives, questions, and

hypotheses are narrower in focus than the purpose and often specify only one or two research

variables, identify the relationship between the variables, and indicate the population to be

studied.

Research objectives - Objectives are derived from the statement of the problem to be able to

address the issue. In order to achieve this, objectives have some characteristics which the

researcher needs to understand. Objectives should be measurable, specific, achievable, realistic,

and time-bound. For researchers to be able to measure their objectives, they need to use action

verbs. Some of the familiar actions verbs are: to evaluate, to verify, to examine, to describe, to

determine, to analyse, to compare, to calculate, to establish etc. Often students use verbs such

as: to appreciate, to find and to understand which are difficult to measure. For example:

To measure test score of students who participated in the learning exercise.

To establish the relationship between access to computers and students’

information literacy.

To verify the effects of access to computers and level of information literacy.

Research questions – research questions are also direct rewordings of the objectives, phrased in

a declarative form. The question form has the advantage of simplicity and directness. Questions

invite an answer and help to focus the researcher’s and the reader’s attention on the kinds of data

that would have to be collected to provide that answer. For example, if our research objective is:


To establish the relationship between access to computers and students’

information literacy.

Some of the research questions may be as follows:

Is there a relationship between access to computers and information literacy?

Does high level of information literacy among students related to their access to

computers?

Are there differences in levels of students’ information literacy and their access

to computers?

Design a Methodology

In every research, the investigator or researcher must make a number of decisions about the

methods to be used to address the research question and carefully plan for the actual collection of

data.

Selecting a Research Design

The research design is the overall plan for obtaining answers to the questions being studied and

for handling some of the difficulties encountered during the research process. The design

normally specifies which of the various types of research approach will be adopted.

There are several types of research grouped under two major types known as quantitative and

qualitative research.

Quantitative research is used to collect hard data, in the form of numbers. The quantitative

research tests for relationship between variables. Examples of quantitative research are

experimental, quasi-experimental and survey research.

Qualitative research is used to collect soft data, in the form of impressions, words, sentences,

photos, symbols etc. Examples of qualitative research are ethnography and case study.

Population and Sample

Researchers need to specify the characteristics of the population and the sampling procedure.

The population is all elements (individuals, objects, or substances) that meet certain criteria for

inclusion in a given universe (Kerlinger, 1986; cited in Burns & Grove, 1999). Creswell (2003)

has noted that when we are identifying the population, we should state the size, if the size can be

determined. This means that we should have access to a sampling frame, that is, the list of

potential respondents in the population. After identifying the population, we should determine

the sample.

A sample is subset of the population that is selected for a particular study, and the members of a

sample are the subjects (Burns and Grove, 1999). The sample is selected through the sampling

process. Quantitative research uses random sampling in order to generalise the findings from the

sample to the population, whilst qualitative research uses purposive or non-random sampling.


Data Collection or Instrumentation

According to Burns & Grove (1999:48) “data collection is the precise, systematic gathering of

information relevant to the research purpose or specific objectives, questions, or hypotheses of a

study.” Dempsey and Dempsey (2000) have also stated that data-collection techniques or tools

are used to collect relevant research data. Indeed, there are several methods or tools for data

collection, but the choice of these methods is based on the type of research one is conducting. In

quantitative research, issues of validity and reliability are crucial and therefore, researchers have

to deal with them. Quantitative researchers may use one or two techniques to gather data (such as

test, questionnaire and structured interview schedule). With to qualitative research, the methods

may include collection of documents, observation and interview (Rossman & Marshall, 1995;

Merriam, 2000).

Significance of Study

The significance of the study is very important and students need to pay attention to it. Although

the significance of study looks like the introduction it is different in that it establishes what

works have been done on the topic, the gaps that these works failed to address and how the

present study will bridge these gaps. The significance of the study answers the questions:

Why is your study important?

To whom is it important?

What benefit(s) will occur if your study is done?

The significance of study demonstrates the research’s contribution to new

knowledge, policy and practice.

Identify a Theoretical or Conceptual Framework

Do you remember that we said theory is central to research and that any research needs to

establish that we have some theories to test or develop? In this section, the student needs to

review the theories that are relevant to the topic. Students must understand that the theoretical

framework is used often when we want to test theories, whilst conceptual frameworks deal with

concepts identified in a study and more relevant for the development of theories.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is conducted to reduce, organise, and give meaning to the data (Burns & Grove,

1999). Nsowah-Nuamah (2005) sees data analysis as the process of extracting from the given

data, relevant information, from which a summarised and comprehensible numerical description

can be formulated. Data analysis in quantitative research rely more on descriptive and inferential

analyses. The analyses are more statistical and sophisticated. Qualitative researchers often

present a more general plan for data analysis.

Organisation of Chapters

The organisations of chapters are critical in research proposal because they give us some

indication of how you are going to structure you long essay.


References

We have talked about the need for references. One need not forget to include one.

4. RESEARCH REPORT

Why a research report

One of the steps of the research process all researchers go through is communicating research

results to other members of the scientific community. One way of communicating is through a

research report. Neuman (2003:469) defines a research report as “a written document (or oral

presentation based on a written document) that communicates the methods and findings of a

research project to others”. Neuman (2003) further argues that the research report is more than a

summary of findings; it is a record of the research process. There are several reasons why we

write research reports. Some of the reasons are:

Research reports tell what the researcher has done, and what he/she discovered

Research reports bind the scientific community

They meet the obligation to an organisation that has paid for the research

Tell the general public about one’s research findings

Components of a Research Report

There are various components of a research report. The components we shall discuss in this

section are:

Title

Abstract

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussions

Conclusions

References

Sections of a research report

Title – Every research must have a title. The title is usually concise and usually has the variables

of interest to the researcher. We have noted that the title also helps you search for material on the

internet. We should avoid phrases such as "A study of ..." or "An investigation to determine ..."


Abstract - The abstract which appears first is usually written last. It is the summary of the whole

study. It is usually about a page. It serves two major purposes: it helps a person decide whether

to read the paper, and it provides the reader with a framework for understanding the paper if

they decide to read it. It usually includes the description of the problem, the research design,

population and sample. It also includes the data collection methods and analysis, findings and

recommendations.

Introduction – It is in the introduction that you sate the problem of the study and the rationale

for the study. In this section, the writer explains the significance of the research by showing how

different researchers have approached the same problem in terms of methods and theories.

Neuman (2003) has noted that the introduction sections usually include a context literature

review and link the problem to a theory. The section also includes the purpose of the study and

objectives as well as hypotheses.

Method - The method section has been described as very significant in research reports since

they tell how the study was done and the contribution of the study to knowledge. Neuman (2003)

has identified the following questions as useful when dealing with the methods section. These

are:

What type of study (e.g., experiment, survey, and case study) was conducted?

Exactly how data were collected (e.g., study design, type of survey, time and

location of data collection, experimental design used)?

How were variables measured? Are the measures reliable and valid?

What is the sample? How many subjects or respondents are involved in the

study? How were they selected?

How were ethical issues and specific concerns of the design dealt with?

Results - Present a summary of what you found in the results section. This section does not

discuss, or interpret the data. For most research reports, the results should provide the summary

details about data analysis. Do not use all the graphs that you have developed. Some may not be

useful. It is always important that only graphs which explain your work are used.

Discussion – In the discussion section, the researcher gives a reader concise, unambiguous

interpretation of research results. You want to make meaning of the results, that is, were there

relationships among the variables? If there were, were they positive or negative? Relate your

discussions with previous studies on the topic to support what you have found in terms of

relationships or divergences.

Conclusions – The conclusion section is based on the discussions of the study. Sometimes

students conclude relying on information not related to the study. This is not allowed in research.

Your conclusions must be based on your findings and your discussions. When concluding,

identify areas which your study did not cover adequately for others to investigate in future.

References - There should be a one-to-one match between the references cited in the report and

the references listed in the reference section.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW · 2017-10-05 · RESEARCH PROPOSAL RESEARCH REPORT 1. LITERATURE REVIEW Types...

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