Module-2

Research Problem: Research problem is a statement about an area of concern:

• a condition to be improved. OR

• a difficulty to be eliminated. OR

• a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature. OR

• in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate
investigation.

Selecting the research problem:

A problem must spring from the researcher’s mind like a plant springing from its own seed.

• Overdone subject should not become the choice.

• Controversial subject should not become the choice of an average researcher.

• Too narrow or too vague (unclear meaning) problems should be avoided.

• Selected research should be familiar and feasible.

• Qualification, training, cost and time must be consider.

• Problem must be followed by preliminary study.

Necessity of Defining the Problem:

Problem clearly stated problem half solved. This statement signifies necessity of defining the
problem.

Technique Involved in Defining a Problem:

For better understanding the research problem following techniques are used.

• Statement of the problem in a general way

• Understanding the nature of the problem
• Surveying the available literature
• Developing the ideas through discussions
• Rephrasing the research problem

An Illustration:

Literature Review:

A literature review has three primary functions. It helps you to:

 1. Bring clarity and focus to your research problem;
2.Iimprove your methodology; and
3. Broaden your knowledge in your particular research area.

Bring clarity and focus to your research problem:

The literature review involves a paradox. On the one hand, you cannot effectively undertake a
literature search without some idea of the problem you wish to investigate. On the other, the literature
review can plan an extremely important role in shaping your research problem because the process of
reviewing the literature helps you to understand the subject area better and thus helps you to
conceptualize your research problem clearly and precisely. It also helps you to understand the
relationship between your research problem and the body of knowledge in the area.
Improve your methodology:
Going through the literature acquaints you with the methodologies that have been used by others to
find answers to research questions similar to the one you are investigating. A literature review tells you
if others have used procedures and methods similar to the ones that you are proposing, which
procedures and methods have worked well for them, and what problems they have encountered. By
becoming aware of any problems and pitfalls, you will be better positioned to select a methodology
that is capable of providing valid answers to your research questions. This will increase your
confidence in the methodology you plan to use and will equip you to defend its use.
Broaden your knowledge in your particular research area:
The most important function of the literature review is to ensure you read widely around the subject
area in which you intend to conduct your research project. It is important that you know what other
researchers have found in regard to the same or similar questions, what theories and models have been
put forward, and what gaps exist in the relevant body of knowledge. The literature review also helps
you to understand how the findings of your study fit into the existing body of knowledge. Finally, a
thorough literature review helps to ensure that you are an expert in your area of study.
Enabling contextual findings:

Contextual Inquiry is an ethnographic (relating to the scientific) research method that helps to
understand what people do and why they do it. The method was created as a way of capturing work's
complexities: information flow, the cultural qualities of a working environment, and the sequence of
routine tasks. contextual search attempts to increase the precision of resultsbased on how valuable they
are to individual users.

How to review the literature/Reviewing the selected literature/ Writing A Literature Review:

Purpose of the Literature Review

 It gives readers easy access to research on a particular topic by selecting high quality articles or studies
that are relevant, meaningful, important and valid and summarizing them into one complete report.
 It provides an excellent starting point for researchers beginning to do research in a new area by forcing
them to summarize, evaluate, and compare original research in that specific area.
 It ensures that researchers do not duplicate work that has already been done.
 It can provide clues as to where future research is heading or recommend areas on which to focus.
 It highlights key findings.
 It identifies inconsistencies, gaps and contradictions in the literature.
 It provides a constructive analysis of the methodologies and approaches of other researchers.
Content of the Review

Introduction

The introduction explains the focus and establishes the importance of the subject. It discusses what
kind of work has been done on the topic and identifies any controversies within the field or any recent
research which has raised questions about earlier assumptions. It may provide background or history. It
concludes with a purpose or thesis statement. In a stand-alone literature review, this statement will sum
up and evaluate the state of the art in this field of research; in a review that is an introduction or
preparatory to a thesis or research report, it will suggest how the review findings will lead to the
research the writer proposes to undertake.

Body

Often divided by headings/subheadings, the body summarizes and evaluates the current state of
knowledge in the field. It notes major themes or topics, the most important trends, and any findings
about which researchers agree or disagree. If the review is preliminary to your own thesis or research
project, its purpose is to make an argument that will justify your proposed research. Therefore, it will
discuss only that research which leads directly to your own project.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes all the evidence presented and shows its significance. If the review is an
introduction to your own research, it highlights gaps and indicates how previous research leads to your
own research project and chosen methodology. If the review is a stand-alone assignment for a course,
it should suggest any practical applications of the research as well as the implications and possibilities
for future research.
Searcing the existing literature:

A literature review summarises, interprets, and critically evaluates existing"literature" (or published
material) in order to establish current knowledge of a subject.

Interdisciplinarians face much greater difficulties here than disciplinarians. First, the scope of the
literature search is generally greater because of the interest in complex problems. Second, library and
online catalogues are organized around disciplines, and thus interdisciplinarians will need to master the
terminology employed within each relevant discipline if they are not to miss important works. Perhaps
the best advice to give the interdisciplinarian here is that no search strategy is perfect. The use of
multiple strategies is thus recommended:

 Subject searching is highly recommended, but requires the researcher to identify appropriate
subject headings. These may differ by discipline. Since books are usually only identified in
terms of a handful of subjects at most, subject searching will not identify all relevant works.
 Keyword searching is easier, but there is a greater risk that important works will be missed
simply because different terminology is employed in certain disciplines.
 The above strategies work best for books. For articles, there are various online databases that
can be searched. Some are general, others specific to disciplines. Most university libraries will
provide an overview of the databases that can be searched.
 Full text searching is increasingly possible. The advantage is that one can find works that
address one’s topic in the text but not at such length that the topic is reflected in title, abstract
 or subject headings. While some view full text searching as a panacea for the challenges of
interdisciplinary literature searches, the problem of different terminology in different
disciplines still remains.
 Consulting experts in disciplines not represented in the research team is time-consuming but
can not only identify works that other strategies might miss but aid in placing these in context.
 Consulting experts outside the academy will be crucial if the research process will embrace
non-academic insights, for these are often difficult or impossible to identify through library
search strategies.
 Browsing the shelves near works that have been identified by other strategies will often
uncover new works that are relevant.
 Following citation trails (backward through the work’s list of references, or forward by
consulting citation indices) can also be valuable. In doing so we have access to the results of
other scholars’ search strategies. But important works may have been missed by others.

When the interdisciplinarian proceeds to reading works, it is important to keep track not only of the
insights generated by a work, but also of its disciplinary perspective, theories and methods employed,
data utilized, concepts employed, and phenomena and relationships studied. This will facilitate
evaluation of these insights. The researcher will find that some authors are less clear than they should
be about some of these elements.

Developing theoretical framework:

A theoretical framework consists of concepts and, together with their definitions and reference to
relevant scholarly literature, existing theory that is used for your particular study. The theoretical
framework must demonstrate an understanding of theories and concepts that are relevant to the topic of
your research paper and that relate to the broader areas of knowledge being considered.
The theoretical framework is most often not something readily found within the literature. You must
review course readings and pertinent research studies for theories and analytic models that are relevant
to the research problem you are investigating. The selection of a theory should depend on its
appropriateness, ease of application, and explanatory power.
Some strategies to develop of an effective theoretical framework:

1. Examine your thesis title and research problem. The research problem anchors your entire
study and forms the basis from which you construct your theoretical framework.
2. Brainstorm about what you consider to be the key variables in your research. Answer the
question, "What factors contribute to the presumed effect?"
3. Review related literature to find how scholars have addressed your research problem. Identify
the assumptions from which the author(s) addressed the problem.
4. List the constructs and variables that might be relevant to your study. Group these variables
into independent and dependent categories.
5. Review key social science theories that are introduced to you in your course readings and
choose the theory that can best explain the relationships between the key variables in your
study.
6. Discuss the assumptions or propositions of this theory and point out their relevance to your
research.

A theoretical framework is used to limit the scope of the relevant data by focusing on specific variables
and defining the specific viewpoint [framework] that the researcher will take in analyzing and
interpreting the data to be gathered. It also facilitates the understanding of concepts and variables
according to given definitions and builds new knowledge by validating or challenging theoretical
assumptions.

Developing conceptual framework:

Before studying the application of conceptual framework, we need to first define it. It can be defined
as a ‘visual’ presentation of key variables, factors or concepts and their relationship among each other
which have been or have to be studied in the research either graphically or in some other narrative
form (Miles and Huberman, 1994).

Conceptual Framework is like pre-planning wherein we define what the research will include.
However, the position of conceptual framework within Qualitative and Quantitative Research varies.
The table below explains the difference in position.

In case of quantitative research, the researcher defines the research problem and key variables which
will be used to resolve the problem. However, in case of qualitative research inductive position is
applicable wherein the researcher seeks to build up theory. In such a situation, existing theories can be
misleading and therefore the conceptual framework emerges after the research is complete.

However, here researchers generally have an idea of what will feature in the study which could be
treated as a tentative framework which would give an idea, however can be changed over the period of
time.

How to develop conceptual framework?

There are several inputs which are essential when working on a conceptual framework. The two main
elements are;

Experiential Knowledge: technical knowledge, research background and personal experience.

Literature Review: related theory, related research and other theories and research related to the topic.

The key steps for development of conceptual framework are:

 Identify the key variables used in the subject area of your study.
 Draw out key variables within something you have already written about the subject area i.e.
literature review.
 Take one key variable and then brainstorm all the possible things related to the key variable.
 After all the variables have been defined, focus on number of relationships they can form with
each other to determine the inter-relationships between all.
 It can be presented in the form of; flow diagrams, tree diagrams, mind maps or even shape
based diagrams. Below are some examples for better understanding:

Flow chart

Conceptual framework is essential to bring focus within the content and also acts as a link between
literature, methodology and results.

Steps To Writing A Literature Review:

1. Find a Working Topic

Look at your specific area of study. Think about what interests you, and what is fertile ground for
study. Talk to your professor, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the
field.
 2. Review the Literature

 Using keywords, search a computer database. It is best to use at least two databases relevant to your
discipline
 Remember that the reference lists of recent articles and reviews can lead to valuable papers
 Make certain that you also include any studies contrary to your point of view

3. Focus Your Topic Narrowly and Select Papers Accordingly

Consider the following:

 What interests you?

 What interests others?
 What time span of research will you consider?

Choose an area of research that is due for a review.

4. Read the Selected Articles Thoroughly and Evaluate Them

 What assumptions do most/some researchers seem to be making?

 What methodologies do they use? what testing procedures, subjects, material tested?
 Evaluate and synthesize the research findings and conclusions drawn
 Note experts in the field: names/labs that are frequently referenced
 Note conflicting theories, results, methodologies
 Watch for popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time

5. Organize the Selected Papers By Looking For Patterns and By Developing Subtopics

Note things such as:

 Findings that are common/contested

 Two or three important trends in the research
 The most influential theories

6. Develop a Working Thesis

Write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major
trends and developments you see in the research that has been done on your subject.

7. Organize Your Own Paper Based on the Findings From Steps 4 & 5

Develop headings/subheadings. If your literature review is extensive, find a large table surface, and on
it place post-it notes or filing cards to organize all your findings into categories. Move them around if
you decide that (a) they fit better under different headings, or (b) you need to establish new topic
headings.
 8. Write the Body of the Paper

Follow the plan you have developed above, making certain that each section links logically to the one
before and after, and that you have divided your sections by themes or subtopics, not by reporting the
work of individual theorists or researchers.

9. Look At What You Have Written; Focus On Analysis, Not Description

Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. If you were to read only these sentences, would you find
that your paper presented a clear position, logically developed, from beginning to end? If, for example,
you find that each paragraph begins with a researcher's name, it might indicate that, instead of
evaluating and comparing the research literature from an analytical point of view, you have simply
described what research has been done. This is one of the most common problems with student
literature reviews. So if your paper still does not appear to be defined by a central, guiding concept, or
if it does not critically analyse the literature selected, then you should make a new outline based on
what you have said in each section and paragraph of the paper, and decide whether you need to add
information, to delete off-topic information, or to restructure the paper entirely.

For example, look at the following two passages and note that Student A is merely describing the
literature and Student B takes a more analytical and evaluative approach, by comparing and
contrasting. You can also see that this evaluative approach is well signalled by linguistic markers
indicating logical connections (words such as "however," "moreover") and phrases such as
"substantiates the claim that," which indicate supporting evidence and Student B's ability to synthesize
knowledge.

Finishing Touches: Revising and Editing Your Work

 Read your work out loud. That way you will be better able to identify where you need punctuation
marks to signal pauses or divisions within sentences, where you have made grammatical errors, or
where your sentences are unclear.
 Since the purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that the writer is familiar with the important
professional literature on the chosen subject, check to make certain that you have covered all of the
important, up-to-date, and pertinent texts. In the sciences and some of the social sciences it is
important that your literature be quite recent; this is not so important in the humanities.
 Make certain that all of the citations and references are correct and that you are referencing in the
appropriate style for your discipline. If you are uncertain which style to use, ask your professor.
 Check to make sure that you have not plagiarized either by failing to cite a source of information, or by
using words quoted directly from a source. (Usually if you take three or more words directly from
another source, you should put those words within quotation marks, and cite the page.)
 Text should be written in a clear and concise academic style; it should not be descriptive in nature or
use the language of everyday speech.
 There should be no grammatical or spelling errors.
 Sentences should flow smoothly and logically.
 In a paper in the sciences, or in some of the social sciences, the use of subheadings to organize the
review is recommended.