The Purpose of the Review

A systematic review of the related literature can help the

researcher in the following ways:
It can show how another researcher handled a similar problem
It can suggest a method or technique of dealing with a problem
It can introduce to the researcher eminent personalities in his
field about whose work he may not have known before
It can help the researcher to see his own study in a historical
perspective and in relation to other efforts to solve the same or
similar problems
It can provide new ideas and approaches which may not have
occurred to the researcher before
It can help the researcher to evaluate his own research efforts by
comparing it with the efforts made by others

Beginning a Search for the Related Literature

University Library for reports, books, journals and theses
Bibliography Cards
Take down bibliographical reference notes on small cards of 3 X
5 size, so that relevant information can be retrieved later easily
Indexes and Abstracts
Abstracts are summary of books, articles and other published
materials, whereas indexes are lists of important publications
according to subject
Be Careful and Systematic
Take down the notes from the library systematically and legibly
Relate your notes to your own problem
You want to find out everything from the library that is directly
relevant to the topic or problem on hand
Internet Surfing

Writing the Section on Related Literature

Have a plan
Make a plan by writing down various headings and subheadings and some points
Refer first to the well-established or classic studies, the researcher can show how
these well established studies made it possible to locate the main problem, this is
inverted pyramid approach

Emphasize the relevance

During the course of the discussion on the related literature, it is important to
emphasize the relatedness to the main problem, arguments and other ideas from the
related work should be examined in the light of the problem and connections
emphasized, mere quotations can not be useful unless their relevance is pointed out

Review the Literature

A critical analysis of others thoughts implies, recording of researchers reactions,
paraphrasing the thoughts in researchers own language, using direct, duly
acknowledged and short quotations and summary about how these various ideas can
come together in the context of the research problem

Opportunity can be taken to point out how the proposed study is going to be
different from those stated earlier, as it would help the researcher to define the
problem

Lesson-8: Exercise
Create a set of reference cards on the topic
of Research Methods with details like
date, comment, serial number, author, title
of book, publisher, year, place of
publication, journal title, volume, month,
year, pages, library where it is located, key
words, subject words, call number etc.