Student Problem Solving and Reserch Skills – week 1
ITECH 5500
Tutorial-Workshop 04
Research Proposal Literature Search
1. In week 2, you have na
owed down your research area and came up with your research topic or may be a na
owed down area (hopefully the final one!).
Now, you need to focus on creating the Problem Statement for your chosen research issue. Researchers get off to a strong start when they begin with a clear problem statement.
“While the problem statement is not a full literature review, there may be reference to it providing justification for ca
ying out the work” (Evans & Gruba, 2002).
Evans & Gruba XXXXXXXXXXprovide the following guidelines for writing a clear problem statement and you are required to follow the guidelines to come up with your Problem Statement-
a. Clarity and precision (a well-written statement avoids making sweeping generalisations).
. Identify what would be studied (avoiding the use of value-laden words and terms).
c. Identify an overarching question and key factors or variables.
d. Identify key concepts and terms.
e. Define the project boundaries or parameters (sets the limits of the project).
f. Provide some generalisability in regards to applicability and
inging results into general use.
g. Conveys of the project's importance, benefits, and justification (regardless of the type of research, it is important to address the ‘so what’ question by demonstrating that the research is not trivial).
h. Avoid unnecessary jargon.
i. Provides a snapshot of the issue or phenomenon under investigation
(University of Southern California, 2014; Evans & Gruba, 2002).
So, finally write up the Problem Statement and also separately indicate and justify that you have fulfilled all of the above guidelines.
[Note again, this may not be your final one, that’s all OK. You can still refine/change your topic by week 5, but will need to update your problem statement too.]
Exercise 2
1. While searching for the right sources for your literature review process, you can very quickly come up with a huge pile of papers, each of which may seem to point you in a different direction. You might feel confused and i
itated by all of this and wonder how to make any sense of it. At this point, getting organised is vital. There is no one right way of doing it, but here are some suggested ways that you can follow to organise your literature.
· Synthesis Matrix
A literature review requires a synthesis of different subtopics to come to a greater understanding of the state of knowledge on a larger issue. One way that seems particularly helpful in organizing literature reviews is the synthesis matrix. The synthesis matrix is a chart that allows a researcher to sort and categorize the different arguments presented on an issue. Across the top of the chart are the spaces to record sources, and along the side of the chart are the spaces to record the main points of argument on the topic at hand (NC State University, 2006).
Thus, Creating a synthesis matrix will help you record the main points of each information source and document how they relate to each other. Visit the following link and download the pdf file on ‘Writing A Literature Review and Using a Synthesis Matrix’.
See https:
writingcenter.ashford.edu/synthesis-matrix
https:
writingcenter.ashford.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/Synthesis%20Matrix%20Sample.pdf
Now, read the above document thoroughly and create your own (on your research topic) Synthesis Matrix in the table below (as in the document). Insert more rows in the table as required.
Build up a synthesis matrix for your research problem (from Exercise 1)
Main Idea A
Main Idea B
Main Idea C
…
Article #1
Article #2