BLW4101:DISSERTATION

PROPOSAL WRITING
LESSON FOUR
LECTURER: Dr. Ruth Thinguri
EMAIL: nthinguri@yahoo.com or CELL NO. 0725-856-627
SEMESTER: SEPT-DEC 2021
VENUE: MKUSOL 602
DEFINITION OF LITERATURE REVIEW
 LITERATURE REVIEW: This is the process whereby the researcher locates and selects
the references that are relevant for his inquiry.
 “A Research literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for
identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded
work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners.” Arlene Fink, Conducting
Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper (London, Sage, 2010) at 3.
 “A formal literature review is a very specific piece of argumentative writing. It is a work
that relies on scientific and academic discourse and debate to construct arguments about a
current research project.” Zina O’Leary, The Essential Guide to Doing Research (London,
Sage, 2004) at 78.
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
 What is a literature review?
 Both a process and a product
 Process: involves researching a topic to familiarize yourself with relevant research; identify key authors,
arguments, and publications; and locate issues and gaps in the research
 Product: a thoroughly-cited critical analysis that synthesizes what is currently known about a topic (both theories
and study results), written as a narrative
 Addresses aspects of a topic from various points of view
 Can point out things like: overall trends; conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, conclusions; research
gaps; new problems or perspectives
 Your interpretation of what's been written on your topic
 Narrative: it has an organizational scheme and combines both summary and synthesis
 Does not add new contributions, but instead summarizes and synthesizes the arguments and ideas of others
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Why do we do literature reviews?
 To support your own research
 To introduce readers to the current state of scholarship on your topic and highlight key people, publications,
arguments, and ideas
 To position your own work within your academic disciplin
 Skills Needed
 A literature review requires several skills:
 The ability to search for and access publications on your research topic
 Reading and analyzing sources on your topic
 Evaluating data and publications to determine which literature makes a noteworthy contribution to the
scholarship on your topic
 Writing a coherent narrative that synthesizes the sources you found, read, and analyzed
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
 A literature review provides a comprehensive review of the literature in a specific area of
interest. It enables you to:
 investigate previous research and find out what’s been done before
 consider theoretical frameworks
 identify ‘gaps’ in existing knowledge to find out if your study is worth doing
 determine/clarify/justify your research question/problem
 select the most appropriate methodology (if applicable).
 Importantly, a literature review sets the context for your study and provides the framework
for interpreting the results of your study. A literature review, like an essay, has an
introduction, body and a conclusion.
DEFINITION AND MEANING OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Literature Review

 The literature review looks at the work of other researchers that relates to your
 demarcated area of research with a view to carving out a niche for yourself. You
 are unlikely to be the first person to look at the issue you are researching into and
 your work needs to be informed by the work of others. The aim in reviewing the
 literature is to identify the gaps in that literature that your work seeks to fill.
 CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW

SKILLS
A literature review requires several skills: The ability to search for and access publications on your research topic. Reading
and analyzing sources on your topic. ... Writing a coherent narrative that synthesizes the sources you found, read, and analyzed
 Critical Reading
 Your literature review should not only show that you have been reading a range of materials related to your topic, but also that
you have been reading them critically and have thought about the wider contexts and how they apply to your own area of
research.
 Critical reading is a skill that, like any other skill, is acquired with practice.
 In essence, reading critically means that you do not take the claims at face value: you question the basis for claims, why the
author may have done and said things in the particular way he or she did, what the wider context is, and whose interests are being
served by the claims you encounter.
 Critical reading means that a reader applies certain processes, models, questions, and theories that result in enhanced clarity and
comprehension. There is more involved, both in effort and understanding, in a critical reading than in a mere "skimming" of the
text. What is the difference? If a reader "skims" the text, superficial characteristics and information are as far as the reader goes. A
critical reading gets at "deep structure" (if there is such a thing apart from the superficial text!), that is, logical consistency, tone,
organization, and a number of other very important sounding terms.
CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
SKILLS
 critical analysis,
 To make sure that you carrying out a critical analysis, make sure that you ask yourself the question ‘Do I
agree with this viewpoint? Why?’, and also consider whether the methods used are strong or weak and
why. This will also help you to decide on your own methodology.
 Another way of checking whether you are evaluating or merely describing is to look at whether you have
discussed work chronologically (likely to be descriptive) or in terms of whether there is general
agreement on a topic (much more likely to be evaluative).
 Critical writing is writing which analyses and evaluates information, usually from multiple sources, in
order to develop an argument. A mistake many beginning writers make is to assume that everything they
read is true and that they should agree with it, since it has been published in an academic text or journal.
Being part of the academic community, however, means that you should be critical of (i.e. question) what
you read, looking for reasons why it should be accepted or rejected, for example by comparing it with
what other writers say about the topic, or evaluating the research methods to see if they are adequate or
whether they could be improved.
CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
SKILLS
 Critical writing
 In order to write critically, you need to use a range of sources to develop your argument. You cannot rely solely
on your own ideas; you need to understand what others have written about the same topic. Additionally, it is not
enough to use just a single source to support your argument, for example a source which agrees with your own
view, since this could lead to a biased argument. You need to consider all sides of the issue.

Further, in developing your argument, you need to analyse and evaluate the information from other sources.
You cannot just string quotes together (A says this, B says that, C says something else), without looking more
deeply at the information and building on it to support your own argument.
 Critical thinking is the analysis of an issue or situation and the facts, data or evidence related to it. Ideally,
critical thinking is to be done objectively—meaning without influence from personal feelings, opinions or
biases—and it focuses solely on factual information.
 Critical thinking is a skill that allows you to make logical and informed decisions to the best of your ability.

 CITATIONS AND REFERENCES SKILLS

 Citations and References skills

 Your university will almost certainly have a preferred style for citations and references
that you will need to use( OSCOLA).
 Make sure you understand how this works before you start writing your literature review
and use it consistently throughout.
 Keep your references up to date as you go, and make sure that you always cite the
reference as you write: it’s much easier than trying to build a reference list at the end
CITATION AND REFERENCING SKILLS
 Citation and referencing Skills
 The skills involve use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries.
 The purposes of citation skills include:
 Provide proof or credibility to one’s writing
   Refer to work that leads up to the work the writer is doing now
 Give examples of two or more points of view on a subject
 Add depth or breadth to one’s writing
 Quoting: Quotations must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original
author. Direct quotations should be accurate. If there is need to omit some words within a quotation, the writer
should use three ellipses (...) to indicate the omissions. If the quotation is short, that is, a maximum of three
sentences then use quotation marks within the text. Longer quotations are usually indented and typed in single
spacing, without quotation marks. In both cases, the pages from which the quotation comes must be indicated at
the end of the quotation (Kombo, 2004:69).
CITATION AND REFERENCING SKILLS
 Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is putting another person’s ideas into one’s own words that is,
using one’s own sentence structure and style of writing. A paraphrase simplifies a
selection; it does not necessarily shorten it. Paraphrased material must also be attributed
to the original source. The use of another author's idea, but expressed in the writer's words
is referred to as paraphrasing. In this case the writer indicates the source author and year,
for example (Kombo, 2004).
 Summarizing: To summarize, one must put the main thoughts or ideas into one’s own
words, but it is only necessary to include the “main points.” Summarizing cuts a selection
down to about one-third of its original length. Its purpose is to shorten a passage without
sacrificing its basic meaning. Once again, it is necessary to attribute the ideas to the
original source (Kombo. 2004).
STRATEGIES FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARI
SM
 Put in quotations everything that comes directly from the text especially
when taking notes.
 Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just rearranging or replacing a few
 words. Instead, read over what you want to paraphrase carefully; cover up
 the text with your hand, or close the text so you can’t see any of it (and so
 aren’t tempted to use the text as a “guide”). Write out the idea in your own
 words without peeking.
 Check your paraphrase against the original text to be sure you have not
 accidentally used the same phrases or words, and that the information is
 accurate.
STRATEGIES FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARI
SM
 What You Need to Know (or What is Common Knowledge?)
 Common knowledge: facts that can be found in numerous places and are likely to
 be known by a lot of people.
 Example: Mwai Kibaki was elected President of the Republic of Kenya in 2002.
 This is generally known information. You do not need to document this fact.
 Quotation: using someone’s words. When you quote, place the passage you are
 using in quotation marks, and document the source according to a standard
 documentation style.
 Paraphrase: using someone’s ideas, but putting them in your own words. This is
 probably the skill you will use most when incorporating sources into your writing.
 Although you use your own words to paraphrase, you must still acknowledge the
 source of the information.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW

 The literature review is about what other scholars have said about the law in question/study
 Doctrinal studies main aim is for the researcher to conduct criticism of existing law/s, but not creation of
laws
 It is a criticism of the law as it is and not as it ought to be
 The criticism of the law is intended to find out the following:
1. The legal gaps
2. Legal deficiencies
3. The conflict in laws based on superiority
4. The Ambiguity of law
5. Evaluate related court cases/case law to determine if there is New jurisprudence emerging on the law
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW

 The legal gaps exists when there complete or partial absence of rules of law on whose
basis a state agency could decide a question of application of the law in a case subject
to legal regulation
 Deficiency: The law is deemed as deficient when it is silent about the issue of the study,
leaving the courts to give their interpretations or when law is neutral on a matter-eg
gender neutrality-men or women, it opens itself for different interpretations by courts
 The conflict in laws based on superiority: This will be based on the law being silent on
what law is superior and inferior and in the event of a case, the courts have no basis of
referencing which law is superior to the other
 Ambiguity means that the language has more than one meaning upon which reasonable
persons could differ. ... If there is no such evidence, the court may hear evidence of the
subjective intention or understanding of the parties to clarify the ambiguity.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 Doctrinal legal research studies legal propositions based on secondary data of authorities such as
conventional legal theories, laws, statutory materials, court decisions, among others.
 What is Doctrinal Legal Research?
 The central question of inquiry here is ‘what is the law?’ on a particular issue. It is concerned with
finding the law, rigorously analyzing it, and coming up with logical reasoning behind it. Therefore, it
immensely contributes to the continuity, consistency, and certainty of law.
 The basic information can be found in the statutory material i.e. primary sources as well in the
secondary sources. However, the research has its own limitations, it is subjective, that is limited to the
perception of the researcher, away from the actual working of the law, devoid of factors that lie outside the
boundaries of the law, and fails to focus on the actual practice of the courts.
 Doctrinal or library-based research is the most common methodology employed by those undertaking
research in law. Doctrinal research asks, what is the law in a particular case. It is concerned with the
analysis of the legal doctrine and how it was developed and applied.
 DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 Lawyers, judges and jurists have widely been using doctrinal research as a systematic means of
legal reasoning since the nineteenth century. Doctrinal research is therefore established as the
traditional genre of research in the legal field. Also known as theory-testing or knowledge-
building research in legal academia, it deals with studying existing laws, related cases and
authoritative materials analytically on some specific matter. With its jurisprudential base on
positivism, doctrinal legal research is ‘research in law’ rather than ‘research about law.’
 Doctrinal (or “black letter”) methodology refers to a way of conducting research which is usually
thought of as “typical legal research”.
 A doctrinal approach to research will focus on case-law, statutes and other legal sources. It
differs from other methodologies in that it looks at the law within itself;
 a pure doctrinal approach makes no attempt to look at the effect of the law or how it is applied,
but instead examines law as a written body of principles which can be discerned and analysed
using only legal sources.
 DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 (i) for ascertainment of law on a given topic or subject,
 (ii) to highlight ambiguities and inbuilt weaknesses of law,
 (iii) to critically examine legal provisions, principles or doctrines with a view
to see consistency, coherence and stability of law and its underlying policy,
 (iv) to undertake social audit of law with a view to highlighting its pre- legislative ‘forces’ and post-
legislative ‘impacts’, and
 (v) to make suggestions for improvements in, and development of, law.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH ANALYSIS
 The data analysis involve analyzing the facts of a given research problem by using
descriptive words or phrases with in the categories/themes raised in the study
 After themes identification the actual legal research process involves the following
cardinal steps:
 Step 1: Finding the law,
 Step 2: Reading the law, and
 Step 3: Updating the law.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 DOCTRINAL LEGAL RESEARCH ANALYSIS
 Step 1: Finding the law
 In finding the law, the researcher must initially distinguish primary sources or authorities
from secondary sources or authorities.
 The ultimate goal is to locate mandatory authorities bearing on the legal problem.
 If these are nonexistent or scarce, the next priority is to find any relevant persuasive
primary authorities (for e.g., foreign laws).
 Finally, if all those are non-existent, the researcher might rely on relevant secondary
authorities.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 There are some generally accepted approaches of finding the law, these are:
 a. Descriptive word or fact word approach
 b. Known authority approach
 c. Known topic approach.
 a. Descriptive word or fact word approach
 This kind of approach is the most commonly used method of finding the law in the
developed legal systems such as the U.S.A. You should use this method first unless you
already know the citation of a given law that may be constitutional provision,
proclamation, administrative regulation or ministerial directive relevant to your problem.
The descriptive method has the advantage of allowing you to begin your legal research
even if you know little or nothing about legal rules or theories.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 b. Known authority approach: Occasionally, you may start your research already knowing
the citation of at least one legal authority, constitutional provision, proclamation,
administrative regulations, ministerial directives that may apply to your problem. Perhaps, you
may get the citation from someone else, or you may discover it in your preliminary background
reading.
 c. Known topic approach Known Topic Approach –In the common law countries such as
the U.S.A and U.K, legal problems can be solved both by statutory law and case- law. For the
civil law countries such as ours all areas of the law are governed by laws passed by the law
maker or by a delegated law- maker. O f course, there is a new development in our case
because the authority given for the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court cassation division
are binding on all federal and regional state councils. Some laws comprehensively treat a
particular topic (s). For example, in Kenya it includes, the civil code, the criminal code, the
commercial code, the civil procedure code, the criminal procedure code and the maritime code.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 Step 2: Reading the Law – Having found the law, the next step is to read it.
Although this may seem rather mechanical, reading the law consists of more than merely
passing printed words in front of your eyes.
 You need to decide what significance to attach to what you read. All laws are not equal in
status or hierarchy and significance. One law will be better for you than another, and the
real thing that you must understand is to evaluate properly what the 'right' law is and
whether it helps or hurts your case.
 This evaluation lies at the heart of lawyers’ work, and is crucial to the development of any
legal argument.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 Once you have found your law, you must evaluate its usefulness to you. The analysis
involves two steps: Internal evaluation and external evaluation.
 a. Internal Evaluation - It involves reading the particular legal authority you have found
and determining whether it applies to the fact situation, in your research problem. The
process consists of two overlapping elements: first analysis of the fact of the authority to
determine how similar they are to the facts of the research problem; and second, a
determination of the authority's intended legal significance and impact with respect to the
research problem. In short, internal evaluation is assessing a particular law as whether it is
relevant to our problem on which we are doing the research.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW

 b. External evaluation – If your internal evaluation (discussed under 'a' supra) reveals
that a legal authority your research has uncovered applies to your problem, you will
then need to conduct an external evaluation of that authority. This evaluation requires you
to determine the current status, i.e., validity) of the author ity.
 For statutes and administrative regulations, this process includes determining whether the
legislative or administrative agency has repealed or amended the statute or regulation.
DOCTRINAL LITERATURE REVIEW
 Step 3. Updating the law - Analytically, the final step in doing legal research is
updating the law.
 This step involves making sure the legal rules you have determined to apply to your
problem are still valid or operative laws.
 One of the worst blunders you can commit is to draw your legal conclusions or present
your arguments or theory based on your research findings, then learn-  too-late that you
should have discovered a subtle but significant change in the applicable law that occurred a
week(s) earlier.
 Because on outdated law is worse than no law at all, your legal research must include
careful attention to updating the legal authorities that govern your problem.
GOOD SEARCH STRATEGY
 A good search strategy is essential to get the best results and to feel confident that you
have found all relevant material for your Literature Review.
 Finding and searching using the most appropriate descriptor or subject heading in a
database ensures you find ALL the relevant material on that topic within that database.  
 Keep records of where you search and what search terms you used, so you don't waste time
repeating searches at a later date!
SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
MATERIALS
 A scholar of law, at this stage, is expected to carefully trace and lay his hands on
 standard textbooks,
 reference books dealing with or having bearing on the research problem,
 legal periodicals (to locate research articles written,
 or authoritative comments made, on the subject or its allied subjects),
 case reports (to get familiarize with the thitherto judicial exposition of the problem),
 conference/symposium/seminar proceedings, if any, (to acquaint with different dimensions highlighted in, delved
into, or emerged from, the conference/symposium/seminars,
 Government or Committee Reports (to appreciate and understand perspectives of the experts in the field and of
policy- makers), and
 general web pages (to know latest emerging perspectives and illustrative examples).
 The researcher has also to take special care to locate earlier studies done on the problem and to have a quick reading
thereof.
SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
MATERIALS
 However, in the recent past, the literature review process has changed dramatically with access to
computers and specially World Wide Web (www) page. 51
 Though we may rely upon almost completely on the Web and search engines, let us remind ourselves
of two caveats.
 First, searching the www is, by itself, insufficient for literature review. Although many leading
journals and other published information from recognized sources are now available on the Web, it does
not have all the available literature.
 Using the Web can be the basis of literature review but it needs to be balanced with material-very new-
published in journals and periodicals that are not put on the Web and the publications that might not
have been caught by search engines.
 Further, local country’s materials from marginalized groups may likely to be under-represented or un-
represented on the Web.
 Secondly, it is not always evident that the information put on the Web is presented accurately.
SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
MATERIALS
 Checklist of sources for your literature review
 In order to be sure you have done a really comprehensive search of the literature, here is a checklist of sources/types of information for you to use.  
 Books:  Search the SCU catalogue and Libraries Australia which searches ALL library catalogues throughout Australia. The National Library of
Australia and all the State Libraries are deposit libraries, so you can be sure you are seeing everything that has been published in Australia,
including theses, reports and conference papers. Request an Inter-Library Loan for items not held at SCU. (Note: not available to offshore students.)
 Electronic books: Google Books and other online book collections which are available from our eBooks collections page.
 Journal literature: Use databases to find relevant scholarly articles that are unavailable without an SCU login. To find suitable databases for your
area of research, see the LibGuides. Databases searches are essential to ensure that you have retrieved all relevant literature in your field.
Google Scholar can also be used to locate articles.
 Citation databases: e.g. Scopus and Web of Science allow you to trace the works of particular authors and provides citations to related articles.
These sources provide both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web resources.
 Websites of Organisations often contain useful links to other quality web resources. Find a key organisation in your subject area (government
agency, nongovernmental organisation, scholarly society, research institute, professional or business association). Find their website and look for
links.
 Grey Literature: Unpublished source material is an essential resource for some research projects but is often extremely difficult to locate and
access. See your Liaison Librarian for assistance.
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN SOURCE-USAGE

 Lack of explicate the procedures and protocols

 Within doctrinal legal research, scholars generally do not explicate the procedures and
protocols they followed to assure the soundness of the usage of sources.
 The lack of explicitness obscures the exact scope of the choices that were made, and the
problems and challenges that were encountered
 lack of necessary clarification;
 On ‘legal research methods’ does not provide the necessary clarification; the nature of this
body of literature is on the whole ‘highly theoretical’ and often ignores the complexity of
concrete methodological problems encountered by scholars in daily research practice
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN
SOURCE-USAGE
 Finding relevant sources is very difficult
 Scholars have acknowledged that the process of finding relevant sources in contemporary doctrinal legal
research may prove to be very difficult indeed since The growing number of (digitalized) national and
international results in an almost infinite sea of information It is therefore often impossible to oversee all
possible relevant sources related to a specific legal theme.
 For example a general inquiry into the area of tort law, that is, an inquiry that is not strictly limited in scope,
for instance, will yield hundreds of possibly relevant scholarly publications and thousands of possibly
relevant judicial decisions. Even if it would be possible to oversee and judge all (possibly) relevant material,
it would still be physically impossible to study such an amount of materials within a single research project
 Plurality is also growing:
 Moreover, plurality within legal sources is also growing. Should the legal scholar for instance also search
for relevant ‘soft law’, ‘notices’, ‘webpages’, ‘guidelines’, official and non-official ‘communication’, et
cetera? Obviously, the ever-growing supply of information is a major challenge to the doctrinal legal scholar
who strives for ‘soundness’ and ‘profundity’ in the use of legal sources.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

 Theoretical Framework
 A theoretical framework is a collection of interrelated ideas based on theories. It is a reasoned set of prepositions, which are derived
from and supported by data or evidence. A theoretical framework accounts for or explains phenomena. It attempts to clarify why
things are the way they are based on theories. A theoretical framework is a general set of assumptions about the nature of phenomena.
To understand theoretical frameworks, an analysis of theories has to be made.
 Theoretical framework in legal research can be said to be the philosophy of law
 The concept of a normative framework seems narrower than that of a theoretical framework: while a theoretical framework
can provide support for a variety of research questions, a normative framework is specifically needed to provide standards for
evaluation.
 Importance of Theoretical Frameworks
 A theoretical framework plays a major role in research. These include the following:
 a) It introduces the researcher to a new view of the research problem. This enables the researcher to understand the total realm of the
problem.
 b) It enables the researcher to conceptualize the topic in its entirety as an outgrowth of the larger society. This helps the researcher to
acknowledge the problem from a wider perspective and not from a narrow personalized self-interest approach. This enhances the
researcher's objectivity.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
 Qualities of in Effective Theoretical Framework
 An effective theoretical framework should:
 a) Account for and explain a phenomenon,
 b) Be specific and well-articulated.
 c) Reflect the research problem being addressed.
 d) Be measured in a practical situation.
 e) Provide tentative answers to questions, issues and problems addressed in the research
problem.
 f) Should systematically address the various aspects of the problem, particularly the key
factors that are assumed to influence or cause the problem
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS
 A conceptual framework can be defined as a set of broad ideas and principles taken from relevant
fields of enquiry and used to structure a subsequent presentation (Reichel and Ramey, 1987).
 A conceptual framework is a research tool intended to assist a researcher to develop awareness
and understanding of the situation under scrutiny and to communicate this. When clearly
articulated, a conceptual framework has potential usefulness as a tool to assist a researcher to
make meaning of subsequent findings. It forms part of the agenda for negotiation to be scrutinized
and tested, reviewed and informed as a result of investigation (Cuba and Lincoln, 1989).
 The researcher requires to present the framework as diagrammatic form to show the relationship
among the variables of the study based on the way the researcher conceives them. This helps the
readers a clearer understanding of the relationship. Conceptual framework is therefore very
subjective. It is dependent on the mind of the researcher. The researcher introduces the framework,
presents the diagrammatic representation, and gives an interpretation of the framework to help the
reader to understand it.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS
 A conceptual framework should assist a researcher to organize his/her thinking and
complete an investigation successfully. It must explain the relationship among interlinked
concepts.
 It explains the possible connection between the variables and answers the why questions.
To find out how effective one's conceptual framework is, one should analyze whether the
set objectives have been addressed (Smyth, 2004).
 When we understand a concept we understand the links and associations that go with that
concept. Researchers who understand concepts become more knowledgeable in their area
of research. Understanding is greater and of higher quality if we understand the dynamics.
In research if one can understand a concept one becomes very close to "owning" it.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS
 Usefulness of Conceptual Frameworks
 According to Goetz and LeCompte (1984), and Bliss, Monk and Ogborn (1983) a conceptual
framework increasingly strengthens and keeps the research on track by:
 • Providing clear links from the literature to the research goals and questions.
 • Contributing to the formulation of the research design.
 • Providing reference points for discussion of literature, methodology and analysis of data.
 • Contributing to the trustworthiness of the study.
 • Giving a broad scope to thinking about the research.
 • Conceptualizing the problem and providing a means to link ideas and data so that deeper
connections can be revealed.
PRACTICAL EXERCISE 4
 USING PRACTICAL EXAMPLES FROM YOUR AREA OF SPECIALIZATION
 HAVING PREPARED PROPOSAL SECTION ONE PROVIDE A WRITE-UP OF
THE PROPOSAL SECTION TWO. ENSURE TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
 PROPOSAL SECTION ONE AND THEN ADD
 EMPIRIRCAL LITERATURE REVIEW SECTION
 THEORITICAL OR NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK
 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
 ALL THESE IN READINESS FOR CLASS SEMINAR