Ok

1. Contd…
• The best way is to prepare a first draft and then
polish it at the stage of data interpretation when
you will be reading your literature review again
to present your analysis in a coherent manner
with cross-references related to your literature
review.

2. Contd…
• Alternatively, research problems can be
identified by reviewing recent literature, reports,
or databases in your field.
• Often the section of “recommendations for the
future studies” provided at the end of journal
articles or doctoral dissertations suggest
potential research problems.

3. Contd…
• In addition, major reports and databases in the
field may reveal findings or data-based facts that
call for additional investigation or suggest
potential issues to be addressed.
• Looking at what theories need to be tested is
another opportunity to develop a research
problem.

4. Why Review Literature?
• Some reasons for including a literature review in
your research paper/thesis are:
1.
The basic reason for literature review is to
contextualize your research. Every academic
research project is related to a particular area
and is a link in a chain of similar research
taking place in the area.
This contextualization shows your awareness
of the work going on in your field and also
identifies the niche you wish to occupy.

5. Contd…
2.
It gives you ideas about how to classify and
present your data. When you read critically, you
can sees how writers explore the relationships
between facts and how facts and relationships
are explained.
Methods used by other writers may not be
suitable for your purposes, but they may give
you ideas about how you might categorize your
data.

6. Contd…
3.
Literature review helps you to distinguish what
has been done from what needs to be done and
how it should be done.
Readings in an area reveal gaps in the literature
and this fine tunes your research question and
subsequent research methods.

7. Contd…
4.
Literature review assists you to synthesize your
ideas and gain perspectives to look at your
research problem with different lens. Other
researchers may have looked at a similar issue
but from different angles.
This knowledge can fortify you to find your own
angle.

8. Sources of Literature Review
• One important question that new researchers
always ask is “Where do we find the material for
doing a literature review?”
• The next are the primary and secondary
sources for finding the material that you need to
read:

9. Contd…
• Articles in Journals
• Books
• Internet
• Research Reports
• Government Documents
• Abstracts
• Reviews
• Unpublished Theses
• Electronic Research Information Center/Social
Sciences Citation
• Index/Dissertation Abstracts Index

10. Managing the Literature
• The bibliography at the end of a recent article or
book can provide you with an adequate reading
list of most of the relevant material related to that
topic.
• Once the relevant literature has been located
and found through the sources suggested, the
next step is to manage it.

11. Contd…
• This requires efficient and selective reading.
Once you try locating the relevant literature, you
will discover that it is available in vast quantities.
• Now the primary task is to pick out the material
that is actually related and relevant to your
research area.

12. Contd…
• This requires you to be a proficient reader who
can get the gist of things quickly as you will have
to go through a lot of reading.
• In an article published in a journal, the first thing
to do is look at the abstract or summary of the
article.

13. Contd…
• This will give you an idea whether it is relevant
for you. In the case of a book you should look at
the list of contents, the blurb, the summaries
usually given at the end of the chapters and the
introduction.
• This will tell you quickly if any part is pertinent for
you.

14. Contd…
• The next step is to follow a clear system of
keeping track of your reading references.
• You need to create a management system that
will incorporate your sources with all relevant
details including a note about where you found
that article or book.

15. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
MA English: Semester III
CODE: ENGL 4145
Session 32-33

16. Area/s to be discussed.
• The Role of Theory.

18. Theory
• Theory is a model or framework for observation
and understanding, which shapes both what we
see and how we see it.
• Theory allows the researcher to make links
between the abstract and the concrete; the
theoretical and the empirical; thought statements
and observational statements etc.

19. Contd…
• Theory is a generalised statement that asserts a
connection between two or more types of
phenomena – any generalised explanatory
principle.
• Theory is a system of interconnected
abstractions or ideas that condenses and
organises knowledge about the world.
• Theory explains and predicts the relationship
between variables.

20. Contd…
• Theory guides research and organises its ideas. The
analogy of bricks lying around haphazardly in the
brickyard: ‘facts’ of different shapes and sizes have
no meaning unless they are drawn together in a
theoretical or conceptual framework.
• Theory becomes stronger as more supporting
evidence is gathered; and it provides a context for
predictions.
• Theory has the capacity to generate new research.
• Theory is empirically relevant and always tentative

21. Theories vs. hypotheses
• Hypotheses usually predicts the relationship
between two or more variables. Hypotheses are
more specific than theories. Multiple hypotheses
may relate to one theory. The theories that you
use in your research operates at different levels:
• Micro-level theory seeks to explain behaviour at
the level of the individual or family environment
(e.g. psychology, frustration, aggression
hypothesis etc).

22. Contd…
• Meso-level theory seeks to explain the
interactions of micro-level organisations (e.g.
social institutions, communities etc).
• Macro-level theory seeks to explain behaviour at
the level of large groups of people (e.g. ethnicity,
class, gender etc).

23. How to evaluate the quality of a
theory or explanation
• Is the theory logical and coherent?
• Does it fit the available data?
• Does it provide testable claims?
• Have the theory-based predictions been tested?
• Does the theory work better than rival theories or
explanations?
• Is it general enough to apply to more than one
place, situation, or person?

24. Contd…
• Can practitioners use it to control or influence
things in the world e.g:
• a good theory of teaching helps teachers to
positively influence students learning.
• a good theory of counselling helps counselors to
positively influence their clients’ mental health

25. Theory and research are interrelated
in the following ways:
• Theory frames what we look at, how we think and look at
it.
• It provides basic concepts and directs us to the important
questions.
• It suggests ways for us to make sense of research data.
• Theory enables us to connect a single study to the
immense base of knowledge to which other researchers
contribute.
• It helps a researcher see the forest instead of just a
single tree.
• Theory increases a researcher’s awareness of
interconnections and of the broader significance of data.

26. Contd…
• Theories are, by their nature, abstract and provide a
selective and one-sided account of the many-sided
concrete social world.
• Theory allows the researcher to make links between the
abstract and the concrete, the theoretical and the
empirical, thought statements and observational
statements etc.

27. Contd…
• There is a two-way relationship between theory and
research. Social theory informs our understanding of
issues, which, in turn, assists us in making research
decisions and making sense of the world.
• Theory is not fixed; it is provisional, open to revision and
grows into more accurate and comprehensive
explanations about the make-up and operation of the
social world.

28. Deductive theory
• In a deductive approach, researchers use theory
to guide the design of a study and the
interpretation of results.
• As researchers continue to conduct empirical
research in testing a theory, they develop
confidence that some parts of it are true.

29. Contd…
• Researchers may modify some propositions of a
theory or reject them if several well-conducted
studies have negative findings.
• A theory’s core propositions and central tenets
are more difficult to test and are refuted less
often.
• In a slow process, researchers may decide to
abandon or change a theory as the evidence
against it mounts over time and cannot be
logically reconciled.

30. Inductive theory
• Inductive theorising begins with a few
assumptions and broad orienting concepts.
Theory develops from the ground up as the
researchers gather and analyse the data.

31. Contd…
• Theory emerges slowly, concept by concept, and
proposition by proposition, in a specific area.
• Over time, the concepts and empirical
generalisations emerge and mature. Soon,
relationships become visible and researchers weave
knowledge from different studies into more abstract
theory.
• Empirical generalizations posit the most basic
relationship between concepts: e.g. ‘most people I
know who drive small Japanese cars are under 30
years of age’.

32. The Role of Theory
• 6 Main Roles of Theory for Research:
1.
Theory provides significant guidelines and trails
for the conduct of research by pointing to areas
that are most likely to be fruitful, that is, areas in
which meaningful relationships among variables
are likely to be found.
If the variables come to be selected such that no
relationships between them obtain, the research
will be sterile no matter how meticulous the
subsequent observations and inferences.

33. Contd…
• A theoretic system narrows down the range of
facts to be studied.
• Theory provides the researcher with a definite
view point a direction which goes a long way
toward helping him enquire into relationships
between certain variables selected from among
an almost infinite array of variables.

34. Contd…
• As Oppenheimer puts it, “in order for us to
understand anything we have to fail to perceive
a great deal that is there.
• Knowledge is purchased at the expense of what
might have been seen and learned and was
not…it is a condition of knowledge that
somehow or the other we pick the clues which
give us insight into what we have to find out
about the world.”

35. Contd…
• As a storehouse of meaningful hypotheses a
fruitful theory suggests potential problems for
study and thus ignites new investigative studies.

36. Contd…
• In fact, a theory can be judged productive (to the
extent it can spark off a number of questions. A
productive theory suggests potential problems,
fruitful hypotheses and provides new
perspectives.
• Einstein and Infield observe, “It is never
possible to introduce only observable
quantities in a theory. It is the theory which
decides what can be observed.” Only thus can
the task of science be reduced to manageability.

37. Contd…
• Besides suggesting fruitful approaches to
phenomena in the general area with which it is
concerned, theory also provides leads for
research in a different way, viz., by suggesting
other kinds of phenomena that may perhaps be
understood or explained in the same general
terms.

38. Contd..
• Take the example of Cohen’s theory of
‘delinquent sub­culture’ (Sub-
cultural theory emerged from the work of the
Chicago School and investigations of social
strain theory into urban gangs, and developed
into a series of theories proposing that small
cultural groups fragment away from mainstream
values and have attitudes conducive to violence
and criminal behaviour).

39. Contd…
• The Central idea of Cohen’s theory is that the
delinquent sub-culture evolved by the working
class juveniles is a response of these juveniles
to deal with the problem of individual adjustment
attendant upon the difficulty in meeting the
criteria of status as prescribed by the middle-
class standards which have to be reckoned with.

40. Contd…
• The delinquent sub-culture provides alternative
criteria of status which these children can meet
and thus, helps them deal with the problem of
individual adjustment.
• Cohen’s theoretical formulation constitutes a
generic approach to the understanding of how
and why any sub-culture arises.
• Thus, such different sub-cultures as those
emerging among different professional groups or
social classes or small communities may be
understood in the same terms.