Name: Cagadas, Grace S. Gr. & Sec.

: 11 (ERD1)
Date: February 13, 2020 Teacher: Sir Rodolfo Ramos Cabiles

Part of the Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
Without doubt, there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of articles, thesis, dissertations, reports
and books in the area you are planning to study. Obviously, you are not expected to read all of
them. Hence, you have to limit the scope of sources you need to read and yet have a good
overview of the area of study. Also, you do not have much 'space' to report all the works. You
have to decide which among the abundant works you should include in this section of Chapter
2. Perhaps the following guidelines will help:
 Give priority to research-based works in referred journals, research reports, doctoral theses,
masters dissertations and conference papers.
 Select research-based works that are closely related to your research questions or
hypotheses.
FIRST - Create several categories or sub-headings which invariably would be closely aligned
to the research questions. e.g. 'Gender and Leadership Styles'; 'Age and Leadership Styles'.
SECOND - Create a template using MS Word (1-2 pages per article) or MSExcel or the
traditional 'note card' to make notes for each article you read:
 Title
 Author (s)
 Source: journal / report - volume (number), pages
 Introduction - purpose, theoretical framework, literature review, research question, hypotheses
 Methodology - research design, data collection methods, sample, processes.
 Findings - data analysis, data presented, research questions / hypotheses answered
 Conclusion - assertion of the researcher, discussion, recommendation
THIRD - after having done the above for all the articles, reports, theses, dissertations and
papers you have read, GROUP them into the categories - e.g. all articles which you reviewed
related to the sub-heading or category 'Gender and Leadership Styles' are grouped under this
sub-heading.
 Check to see if the articles are up-to-date

 You have included enough of current works - typically the last 5 years

 Also include seminal or landmark works if they are relevant in shaping your study

FOURTH - earlier you critically evaluated the articles individually and in isolation - now that
you have grouped several articles in one category, you should compare the studies within a
category focusing on similar and conflicting findings. For example, under the category of
'Democratic Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction' some studies showed that democratic
leadership styles resulted in greater job satisfaction among staff while in other studies there was
no relationship.
FIFTH - since you have grouped the articles into several categories, you can now compare the
articles across categories. Now you have a 'big picture' of the studies reviwed:
 Detect concurrence of findings, conflict in findings or no differences at all.
 Identify the trends and patterns that emerge and how they relate to your problem statement
and research questions.
 Discuss how the studies are related to the theoretical framework
 Highlight gaps in the research studies in each category and what needs further investigation
The following are some tips for organisation of your review:
 Use linking words such as the following: similarly, in addition, also, again, more importantly,
however, on the other hand, conversely, nevertheless
 Avoid using. Wilson (1990) says ......but instead use an appropriate verb which more accurately
reflects the authors viewpoint, such as "argues", "claims" or "states".
 Quotes are used to emphasise a point or if what the author said cannot be rewritten in your
own words.
 Sometimes quotes are used to quote terms coined by the author.

 When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's message or
viewpoint accurately in your own words.
Keeping your own voice - Even though you are presenting the views of others, you should
maintain your own voice by starting and ending a paragraph with your own words.
Chapter 2 Parts Example
Name: Cagadas, Grace S. Gr. & Sec.: 11 (ERD1)
Date: February 13, 2020 Teacher: Sir Rodolfo Ramos Cabiles

Part of the Chapter 3

1. Preamble/Introduction:
It is encouraged that you begin this chapter or section reiterating the purpose of the
study and the components of the chapter in a few paragraphs.

Example: "The purpose of the study ......................This chapter covers the research
design and methodology, including sampling, population, establishing rigour during and
after data collection, ethical considerations and data analysis".

2. Research Design
In some institutions the 'Research Design' sub-section is not required. The advantage of
this sub-section is that you are able to tell the reader form the on-set whether you study
is experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, causal-comparative, survey,
ethnography, case study, narrative analysis, grounded theory, genetic method or mixed
methods. Be specific. Highlight a rationale for your research method (qualitative,
quantitative, or mixed) and appropriateness. Show how the design you have chosen will
help to accomplish the goals of the study. This section should not be a textbook
description of various research methods [This often happens in research proposals].

3. Data Collection
If you are planning to use a qualitative approach, your data collection techniques would
necessarily be:
Observations - explain in sufficient detail how you plan to use this technique to collect
data.
Interviews - explain in sufficient detail how you plan to use this technique in collecting
data.
Document Analysis / Artifacts analysis
If you are planning to use a quantitative approach, your data collection would
necessarily be:
Questionnaire
Tests - achievement tests
Checklist - interview protocol, observation checklist
Psychometric tests - attitude scale, aptitude scale, personality inventories, interest
inventories, etc.
In a quantitative study, the instruments used to collect data may be created by the
researcher or based on an existing instrument. If the instrument is researcher created,
the process used to select the questions should be described and justified. If an existing
instrument is used, the background of the instrument is described including who
originated it and what measures were used to validate it. If a Likert scale is used, the
scale should be described. Instruments should be placed in an appendix, not in the body
of the text. Most quantitative studies include both a demographic survey to develop a
picture of the participants, and an interview protocol.

4. Sample / Informants / Subjects / Participants

This section describes the population you are studying and the process of selecting the
sample. Unless the population is extremely small, a sample usually will be drawn from
the population. The sample should be adequate enough to provide a manageable volume
of data, but the sample must accurately represent the population if any valid inferences
are to be drawn from the sample results.
Chapter 3 Parts Example