Dulce M.

Fonseca
Kemberly M. Gomez
TESOL workshop
October 2nd, 2018

FINDING AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

The most important reason for doing research is to produce new knowledge and
understanding, and to disseminate it to make it available to everyone. When planning a
research project, it is essential to know what the current state of knowledge is in your
chosen subject as it is obviously a waste of time to spend months producing knowledge that
is already freely available. Therefore, one of the first steps in planning a research project is
to do a literature review: that is, to trawl through all the available information sources in
order to track down the latest knowledge, and to assess it for relevance, quality, controversy
and gaps. We are in an age of radical information expansion. Whatever your subject, there
can be no excuse that you are faced with a lack of information. The problem lies in where
to find relevant information of the right quality. Where you look will depend on the subject
you have chosen. Some sources cover most subjects, others are specialized in a narrow
range, and will hence provide more detail. Here is a list of places you can search: Libraries,
Information services, Museums and galleries, people, intranets, the internet.

EVALUATING WEB SOURCES

1. Is it accurate? Does it say what sources the data are based on? Compare the data with
other sources. If it diverges greatly, is there some explanation for this?
2. What authority is it based on? Find out who authored the pages, and whether they are
recognized experts or are issued by a reputable organization. Check if other publications are
cited or if they provide a bibliography of other articles, reports or books. You may need to
track down the ‘home page’ to get to the details. Web addresses that end in ‘ac’ (meaning
academic) are likely to be university or college addresses and therefore point to some
intellectual credibility – no guarantee of quality but nevertheless a useful indicator.
3. Is it biased? Many pressure groups and commercial organizations use the Web to
promote their ideas and products, and present information in a one-sided way.

DOING A LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to understand the present ‘state of the art’ you too need to read what other
people have written about research in your subject and make some kind of an assessment of
where your research will fit into that body of work. You need to establish that what you are
proposing has not been done in the same way before. To do this you obviously need to find
out what has been researched, and how, within the area that you want to investigate. The
review can be used to show where you have gained inspiration to develop your ideas – and
that does not just have to be only from academic sources. It should also demonstrate that
you have a good understanding of the current conceptual frameworks in your subject, and
that you can take a stance in placing your work within these. The literature review tends to
reveal a lot about the attitude of the researcher and the seriousness of his/her intentions, as
well as the level of organization and clarity of thought achieved.

Doing a literature review means not only tracking down all the relevant information but
also taking a critical position on the ideas contained therein. The latter is an important step
in determining the quality of research evidence. The process involves an objective critique
and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of a document, to determine its design
quality and merits, and its relevance for your research topic. You will need to evaluate and
consider the relevance of the document to your own dissertation question and study
objectives.

THE NATURE OF DATA

We are all aware that we live in an information age. It is said that the amount of
information in the world is doubling every month, or is it every week? Who knows? One
thing is for sure – we are deluged with the stuff every day. Data is another word for bits of
information (singular – datum). Research uses data as the raw material in order to come to
conclusions about some issue. It depends on the issue being investigated what data needs to
be collected. Although much data seem to be solid fact and permanently represents the
truth, this is not the case. Data are not only elusive, but also ephemeral. They may be true
for a time in a particular place as observed by a particular person, but might be quite
different the next day.

LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION
How do data, the raw materials of research, relate to knowledge as a whole? They are part
of a hierarchy of information, going from the general to the particular, from abstract to
concrete. Understanding this hierarchy makes it possible to break down research problems
expressed in theoretical language to more practical components that can be measured in
some way. This hierarchy can be expressed like this:

 Theory – abstract statements that make claims about the world and how it works.
Research problems are usually stated at a theoretical level.
 Concepts – building blocks of the theory which are usually abstract and cannot be
directly measured.
 Indicators – phenomena which point to the existence of the concepts.
 Variables – components of the indicators which can be measured.
 Values – actual units of measurement of the variables. These are data in their most
concrete form.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DATA

Data come in two main forms, depending on its closeness to the event
recorded. Data that has been observed, experienced or recorded close to the event
are the nearest one can get to the truth, and are called primary data. Written sources
that interpret or record primary data are called secondary sources, which tend to be
less reliable. For example, reading about a fire in your own house in the newspaper
a day after will probably give you less accurate information than what you gained
by experiencing the event yourself. You will be more informed about the facts and
these will not be distorted by someone else’s interpretation.

PRIMARY DATA
We are being bombarded with primary data all day. Sounds, sights, tastes,
tactile things are constantly stimulating our senses. We also have instruments to
measure what we cannot so accurately judge through our senses, such as clocks,
barometers, business accounts etc. There are four basic types of primary data,
distinguished by the way they are collected: Measurement, Observation,
Interrogation, and Participation.

SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data are data that have been interpreted and recorded. Just as we
are bombarded with primary data, we are cascaded with secondary data in the form
of news bulletins, magazines, newspapers, documentaries, advertising, the Internet
etc. The data are wrapped, packed and spun into pithy articles or digestible sound
bites. The quality of the data depends on the source and the methods of presentation.
Refereed journals containing papers vetted by leading experts, serious journals, such
as some professional and trade journals will have authoritative articles by leading
figures. Magazines can contain useful and reliable information or be entirely
flippant. The same goes for books – millions of them! They range from the most
erudite and deeply researched volumes to ranting polemics and commercial pap.
Television and radio programmes vary likewise, as does information on the Internet.