RESEARCH METHOD-BSEE 3A IM NO.

03

VI. LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1. Briefly cite some activities that need to be considered in writing literature review.

Decide on your areas of research:

Before you begin to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to
research. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if you come across
fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores
barriers to higher education for undocumented students.

Search for the literature:

Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts
online and download and/or print those articles that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the
library that are relevant and check them out. Set a specific time frame for how long you will search. It
should not take more than two or three dedicated sessions.

Find relevant excerpts in your books and articles:

Skim the contents of each book and article and look specifically for these five things:

1. Claims, conclusions, and findings about the constructs you are investigating

2. Definitions of terms

3. Calls for follow-up studies relevant to your project

4. Gaps you notice in the literature

5. Disagreement about the constructs you are investigating

When you find any of these five things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Word document. Don’t
summarize, as summarizing takes longer than simply typing the excerpt. Make sure to note the name of
the author and the page number following each excerpt. Do this for each article and book that you have
in your stack of literature. When you are done, print out your excerpts.

Code the literature:

Get out a pair of scissors and cut each excerpt out. Now, sort the pieces of paper into similar topics.
Figure out what the main themes are. Place each excerpt into a themed pile. Make sure each note goes
into a pile. If there are excerpts that you can’t figure out where they belong, separate those and go over
them again at the end to see if you need new categories. When you finish, place each stack of notes into
an envelope labeled with the name of the theme.

Create Your Conceptual Schema:

Type, in large font, the name of each of your coded themes. Print this out, and cut the titles into
individual slips of paper. Take the slips of paper to a table or large workspace and figure out the best
way to organize them. Are there ideas that go together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are
there ideas that contradict each other? Move around the slips of paper until you come up with a way of
organizing the codes that makes sense. Write the conceptual schema down before you forget or
someone cleans up your slips of paper.

Begin to Write Your Literature Review:

Choose any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. You can begin anywhere, because you
already know the order. Find the envelope with the excerpts in them and lay them on the table in front
of you. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by grouping together those excerpts
that say the same thing. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write up your literature review based on
the excerpts that you have in front of you. Don’t forget to include the citations as you write, so as not to
lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review.

Once you complete these six steps, you will have a complete draft of your literature review. The great
thing about this process is that it breaks down into manageable steps something that seems enormous:
writing a literature review.

2. What is the importance of literature review?

The purpose of a literature review is to gain an understanding of the existing research and debates
relevant to a particular topic or area of study, and to present that knowledge in the form of a written
report. Conducting a literature review helps you build your knowledge in your field. You’ll learn about
important concepts, research methods, and experimental techniques that are used in your field. You’ll
also gain insight into how researchers apply the concepts you’re learning in your unit to real world
problems. Another great benefit of literature review is that as you read, you’ll get a better
understanding of how research findings are presented and discussed in your particular discipline. If you
pay attention to what you read and try to achieve a similar style, you’ll become more successful at
writing for your discipline.

3. How to prevent plagiarism in the literature review?

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you:

 Directly quote another person's written or spoken words. Be sure to enclose these words and/or
sentences in quotations marks!

 Paraphrase another person's spoken or written words. Paraphrase means to re-write in your
own words; merely reordering or substituting words is still considered plagiarism!

 Use theories, ideas, opinions, research, etc. that are not your own.

 Use historical, statistical, or scientific facts or data that are not your own.
4. What is the difference between a good quality and poor literature review?

Differences between a Good and a Poor Literature Review

Author unknown

A Good Literature Review is organized around a coherent set of questions.

A Poor Literature Review rambles from topic to topic without a clear focus.

A Good Literature Review includes the major landmark or classic studies related to the questions guiding
the study.

A Poor Literature Review omits landmark or classic studies or mixes them with trivial studies without
making distinctions about quality or relevance.

A Good Literature Review acknowledges the author’s biases =

As well as the limitations of the review process.

A Poor Literature Review assumes an omniscient voice without acknowledging biases and limitations.

A Good Literature Review critically evaluates the quality of the research according to clear criteria.

A Poor Literature Review simply summarizes research findings without critical evaluation.

A Good Literature Review uses quotes, illustrations, graphs, and/or tables to present and justify the
critical analysis of the literature.

A Poor Literature Review simply lists studies without presenting any critical evidence in the form of
quotes, illustrations, graphs, and/or tables.

A Good Literature Review takes the form of a logical argument that concludes with a clear rationale for
additional research.

A Poor Literature Review does not present a logical argument and fails to build a clear rationale for
additional research.

A Good Literature Review is interesting to read because it is clear, coherent, and systematic in its
organization and presentation.

A Poor Literature Review is boring or obtuse because of the overuse of jargon and pretentious language
and the lack of organization.
A Good Literature Review presents research evidence in a meaningful chronological order.

A Poor Literature Review mixes studies from different decades without acknowledging chronological
developments.

A Good Literature Review has an accurate and up-to-date bibliography that adheres to recognised style
Guidelines.

A Poor Literature Review has inaccurate or missing references that are poorly formatted.

A Good Literature Review is eminently publishable.

A Poor Literature Review will never see the light of day 

 RESEARCH METHOD-BSEE3A IM NO. 03

VIII. ASSIGNMENT

1. What are some of the important questions that can be considered when writing literature review?

Ask yourself questions like these:

1. What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to

define?

2. What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology?

policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative
research (e.g., studies of loneliness among migrant workers)?

3. What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals,
books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., nursing
psychology, sociology, medicine)?

4. How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I’ve found
all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the
number of sources I’ve used appropriate for the length of my paper?

5. Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and
questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing
and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?

6. Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?

7. Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

1. Has the author formulated a problem/issue?

2. Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?

3. Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?

4. What is the author’s research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?

5. What is the author’s theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?

6. What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?

7. Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include
literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?

8. In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population,
intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the
 data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the
data and analysis?

9. In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion, one-sided
examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone? Is there an objective basis to the
reasoning, or is the author merely “proving” what he or she already believes?

10. How does the author structure the argument? Can you “deconstruct” the flow of the argument
to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effect
relationships)?

11. In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem under
study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?

12. How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?

2. How to locate sources for literature review?

Selecting Articles for Your Review

 To find studies or literature review articles on your topic, combine your topic with such terms as
“literature review” OR “empirical study”.  (In some databases you can narrow your search to
literature reviews, qualitative studies, empirical studies, etc.) 

 Are there key authors or studies that have been cited numerous times related to your topic? 

 An excellent resource to use while you are selecting materials is The Literature Review:  A Few
Tips on Conducting It by the University of Toronto Libraries. 

3. Search at least 20 journal articles (published or unpublished) online related to your chosen topic for
proposal.

Alzate, et.al (2019). Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Electric Power Generation in Colombia: A
Techno-Economic Evaluation under Different Scenarios. The result show that these types of projects can
have positive economic results in once community and the more municipal solid waste collected the
more electricity can be generated.

Antonelli, J. (2014). Technical potential of electricity production from municipal solid waste disposed in
the biggest cities in Brazil: Landfill gas, biogas and thermal treatment. This article presents an analysis of
possibilities for electrical energy production by using disposed municipal solid waste and they found out
that dealing with the garbage can also provide benefits in terms of energy provision. The following
scenarios were studied in this work: electricity production from landfill gas (reference scenario);
incineration of all municipal solid waste; anaerobic digestion of organic waste and incineration of refuse-
derived fuel fractions after being separated in separation plants. According to this study, the biggest
cities in Brazil generate about 18.9 million tonnes of municipal solid waste per year (2011), of which
51.5% is biogenic matter. 
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT. (2018, December 12). How plants can generate electricity to power
LED light bulbs. ScienceDaily. Researchers have discovered that living plants are literally 'green' power
source: they can generate, by a single leaf, more than 150 Volts, enough to simultaneously power 100
LED light bulbs. Researchers also showed that an 'hybrid tree' made of natural and artificial leaves can
act as an innovative 'green' electrical generator converting wind into electricity.

Chong, et.al. (2019). Characterization of Aloe Barbadensis Miller leaves as a potential electrical energy
source with optimum experimental setup conditions. The experimental results show that 1111.55uW
electrical power can be harvested from the Aloe Vera with 24 pairs of electrodes and this energy is
capable to be stored in a capacitor. This energy has a high potential to be used to power up a low power
consumption device.

Crane, L. (2017). Fallen leaves could be turned into devices that store energy. The researcher figured out
how to turn phoenix tree leaves into organic capacitors. These could be used like batteries to store
energy, potentially avoiding some of that air pollution into the bargain. The process of making organic
capacitors does release a little carbon dioxide, but not nearly as much as would be emitted if you let the
same quantity of material burn or decay, says Caroline Burgess Clifford at Penn State University. “Any
type of use of any waste material is a good thing.”

Ma, H. (2017). Dried leaves could help charge electric cars in seconds. The researchers ground the leaves
into a powder, then heated them to 220C for 12 hours, creating a powder of tiny microspheres. These
were then treated with potassium hydroxide and gradually heated to 800C. The final product, a black
carbon powder, has a very high surface area – with many tiny pores chemically etched onto the surface
of the microspheres. This gives it its rare electrical properties. Tests on the material found that when
used in conjunction with an electrolyte it had a capacitance (a measure of how much electrical charge it
can hold) of 367 farads per gram. That’s three times higher than graphene, a much-hyped form of
carbon where the molecules are arranged in a thin sheet.

In addition, mahogany leaves can be a potential alternative in generating electric energy. The results in
making green battery model from mahogany leaf extract can generate electricity of 3.87 volts out of 720
ml green battery model (Ikhsan, 2017).

Thorat and Raut (2019) discovered that the cuticle-cellular tissue bi-layer in higher plant leaves functions
as integrated tribo-electric generator conductor couple capable of converting mechanical stimuli into
electricity. Electricity generates by a biomimetic tree having small strips of specialized plastic inside the
leaf stalks release an electrical charge when bent by moving air known as piezoelectric effects.

Dried leaves could help charge electric cars in seconds (Ma, 2017). The researchers ground the leaves
into a powder, then heated them to 220C for 12 hours, creating a powder of tiny microspheres. These
were then treated with potassium hydroxide and gradually heated to 800C. The final product, a black
carbon powder, has a very high surface area – with many tiny pores chemically etched onto the surface
of the microspheres. This gives it its rare electrical properties. Tests on the material found that when
used in conjunction with an electrolyte it had a capacitance (a measure of how much electrical charge it
can hold) of 367 farads per gram. That’s three times higher than graphene, a much-hyped form of
carbon where the molecules are arranged in a thin sheet.
Fallen leaves could be turned into devices that store energy (Crane, 2017). The researcher figured out
how to turn phoenix tree leaves into organic capacitors. These could be used like batteries to store
energy, potentially avoiding some of that air pollution into the bargain. The process of making organic
capacitors does release a little carbon dioxide, but not nearly as much as would be emitted if you let the
same quantity of material burn or decay, says Caroline Burgess Clifford at Penn State University. “Any
type of use of any waste material is a good thing” (Crane, 2017).

“Green fuel” produced from waste leaves on the ground is considered as an eco-friendly. The objective
is to use leaves (biomass) as raw materials and convert to it into solid biofuel briquettes/pellets using
roasting process. Due to poor energy characteristics, the roasting end product is to be crushed and
densified with specific additives. the fuel is energy efficient and techno economically feasible compared
to other primary fuels (Malak, K. 2016).

In relation to the studies above, the researchers’ found out that all living plants can be a green power
source for the generation of an electricity. For more than 150 volts can be generated or power up 100
highly efficient LED light bulbs (Instituto Italiano di Technologia-IIT, 2018).

Our wastes are such problems in our society where professionals like electrical engineers takes as an
opportunity to produce renewable energy in it (Tobias, 2021). According to the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA), in 2018, the total of 68 US power plants generated around 14 billion kilowatt-hours
of electricity from 29.5 million tons of combustible municipal solid waste.

Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Electric Power Generation in Colombia: A Techno-Economic

Evaluation under Different Scenarios. The result show that these types of projects can have positive
economic results in once community and the more municipal solid waste collected the more electricity
can be generated (Alzate, et.al., 2019).

Technical potential of electricity production from municipal solid waste disposed in the biggest cities in
Brazil: Landfill gas, biogas and thermal treatment. This article presents an analysis of possibilities for
electrical energy production by using disposed municipal solid waste and they found out that dealing
with the garbage can also provide benefits in terms of energy provision. The following scenarios were
studied in this work: electricity production from landfill gas (reference scenario); incineration of all
municipal solid waste; anaerobic digestion of organic waste and incineration of refuse-derived fuel
fractions after being separated in separation plants. According to this study, the biggest cities in Brazil
generate about 18.9 million tons of municipal solid waste per year (2011), of which 51.5% is biogenic
matter (Antonelli, 2014). 

The wastes we seen in our everyday life can be converted to something good that is useful to us also in
our daily living such as electricity, heat or fuel (Nicoll, 2017). The technology used in solid waste
conversion to energy is called incineration. The process is, wastes are collected and burnt at high
temperature that the heat generated from the thermal treatment to create energy.
4. Annotate a bibliography section or reference the 20 journal articles following the updated APA
format.

Antonelli, J. (2014). Technical potential of electricity production from municipal solid waste disposed in
the biggest cities in Brazil: Landfill gas, biogas and thermal treatment. Retrieved from
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0734242X14552553

Alzate, et.al (2019). Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Electric Power Generation in Colombia: A
Techno-Economic Evaluation under Different Scenarios. Retrieved from www.mdpi.com/2079-
9276/8/1/51/pdf

Chong, et.al. (2019). Characterization of Aloe Barbadensis Miller leaves as a potential electrical energy
source with optimum experimental setup conditions. Retrieved from journals.plos.org/plosone/article?
id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218758

Crane, L. (2017). Fallen leaves could be turned into devices that store energy. Retrieved from
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2146097-fallen-
leaves-could-be-turned-into-devices-that-store-energy%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR36ef9jbQzztn2FgY-
2k6oGfQbM5uG0PX6k5_pwEnJe1SsgWuMpdgXEBLQ&h=AT1g8NQNQxPHXeNOvFGfOCG7E1fvHk6il0tD
MpmPnQ4x_DCBHZIfsyukPZf8gUH6FLk7oRuJZTa6Bxy5L6Es8vnwTX6vNar1dcbTRzMe9DQGWcRiIQtWcLT
nG0VH30FdhCSB

Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT. (2018, December 12). How plants can generate electricity to power
LED light bulbs. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 29, 2021 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181212093308.htm

Koulen, P. (2015). In Vitro Cytoprotective Effects and Antioxidant Capacity of Phenolic Compounds from
the Leaves of Swietenia macrophylla. Retrieved from https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F
%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2F14203049%2F20%2F10%2F18777%2Fhtm%3Ffbclid
%3DIwAR0HmpxYQQl1cFJyVRBkrSa33ZwIEzlfDpRg7YWPDWarxYVy5SaVcLo8rSc&h=AT1a3-
hZjMcIebL0XP52lq3oBjGQOEBf1mzzaExakGLZO5Gsrs3bk4QrXkF6m5Xaw3QzkjkCJJEQfxdL6PvDuSUTIwn2
1wuiy8Zcsrf7PhNrF_Rv6gYDwqH8l3hbnCuoi4Z6

Ma, H. (2017). Dried leaves could help charge electric cars in seconds. Retrieved from
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imeche.org%2Fnews%2Fnews-article%2Fdried-
leaves-could-help-charge-electric-cars-in-seconds%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2e7XKQ9GUuCj_QTLBbRMz-
3XhOJhrAhYEQNI1oUDV_PSGWsoPI1t8sDv4&h=AT1g8NQNQxPHXeNOvFGfOCG7E1fvHk6il0tDMpmPnQ4
x_DCBHZIfsyukPZf8gUH6FLk7oRuJZTa6Bxy5L6Es8vnwTX6vNar1dcbTRzMe9DQGWcRiIQtWcLTnG0VH30F
dhCSB

Nicoll, D. (2017). Types of Waste That Can Be Turned into Energy. Retrieved from
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenjournal.co.uk%2F2017%2F09%2Ftypes-of-
waste-that-can-be-turned-into-energy%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0G4pWW7PRs8MCD5-
bSSHGkjmNPChwCW2QjrGQ7hmflzrsOfWQxADOEnMw&h=AT2DQHxh7DGvL1v20yfdOevrNUiNahYh6iBL
aIkTuFtZfr8Op91D1P5O3nTDT8YNsw6VPUnj3RZsHCz33kpW9rXvRuUNrmddGMnYdKDXGK923a9fZu8lV9
VOvTlNI_k4eVeR
Thorat, B, and Raut, S. (2019). Trees: A Generator of Electricity in the Future. Retrieved from
www.researchgate.net/publication/332947475_TREES_A_GENERATOR_OF_ELECTRICITY_IN_FUTURE