PRACTICAL RESEARCH 2

Chapter 3: LEARNING FROM OTHER STUDIES AND 2. There should be no pressure on individuals to
REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
Purposes of the Review of Related Literature
It is necessary for you to review information, facts,
data available, or theories that have some relationship with
your hypothesis which you posed in your stated problem or
research question. Reviewing the literature requires the
ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating
relevant material to synthesizing information from various
sources from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating,
and citation skills. Literature may be defined as written
works collectively, especially, those enduring importance,
exhibiting creative imagination and artistic skill which are
written in a particular period, language, and subject.
Functions of Review of Related Literature
1. to provide justification of the study
2. to identify gaps, problems and needs of related studies
3. to provide rationale of the study as well as the reasons of
conducting the study
4. to have basis that will be used to support findings of the
study
Characteristics of the Materials Cited
1. The materials must be recent as possible, may be 10
years back.
2. Materials must be as objective and unbiased as possible.
3. Materials must be relevant to the study.
4. Coherence principle must be observed in writing
literature review.
Citation Style Guide
Reference is an important part of a research paper. It must
be consistent and easy to read across the different papers.
There are predefined styles stating how to set them out-
these are called citation styles. Referencing is a method
used to demonstrate to the readers that you have
conducted a thorough and appropriate literature search
and reading.
participate.
Incentives to take part should generally not be
provided. If an incentive is used it needs to be only a token,
and not enough to encourage someone to participate who
would really prefer not to take part.
3. Respect individual autonomy.
Autonomy means the freedom to decide what to
do. Even when someone has signed a Consent Form, they
must be made aware that they are free to withdraw from
the study anytime, without giving a reason. They must also
be able to request that the data they have given be
removed from the study.
4. Avoid Causing Harm.
The duty of the researcher is not to cause harm.
The researcher must make sure that the principle of
voluntary participation is observed in situations where
there is an interaction with subjects.
5. Maintain anonymity and confidentiality.
Making data ‘anonymous’ means removing the
contributor’s name. however, you will often need to take
more than this basic step to protect a participant’s identity.
6. Take particular care in research with vulnerable group.
Think about vulnerability in its widest sense. Care is
clearly needed in research with young children, and with
people with disability, or minors. However, others may be
vulnerable in certain contexts, for example: students,
employees, dependents, or people with particular traits
that could be subject to prejudice.
Plagiarism
It is the most widely recognized and one of the
serious violations of contract between the reader and the
writer. Plagiarism is an act of quoting or copying the exact
word of the writer and passing the quoted words off as
your own words.

1. APA (American Psychological Association) – is 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.
2. MLA (Modern Language Association) – is most often
applied by the arts and humanities, particularly in the USA.
It is arguably the most well used of all of the citation styles.
3. Harvard – is very similar to APA. Where APA is primarily
used in the USA, Harvard referencing is the most well used
referencing style in the UK and Australia, and is encouraged
for use with the humanities.
4. Vancouver – this is mainly used in medical and scientific
papers.
5. Chicago and Turabian – these are two separate styles but
are very similar, just like Harvard and APA. These are widely
used for History and Economics.

Basic Principle of Ethical Practice

1. Obtained informed consent from participants.
Informed consent must be given to the research
participants before they will be subjected for the research.
In the case of minors, parents or guardian must be fully
aware of the said activity. For native speakers, informed
consent may be translated in their dialect.