Session 5 :: Reflection On Activities

Activity 1 :: What is Literature Review? What are the important points you have learnt?

Facts
1. Literature review is an account of what has been published on a research area, which appears as a chapter in a research report. It describes, summarizes, evaluates and clarifies reviewed studies.

2. The reasons for writing literature review are:

      ·         To provide a context for the research

    ·         To justify the research

      ·         To illustrate how the subject has been studied previously

      ·         To outline gaps in previous research

      ·         To show researches’ understanding of the topic area studied

3. Two important skills needed – information seeking and critical assessment

4. Steps in writing literature review:

•  a.       Read selected material and write brief critical synopsis-annotated     bibliography

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           b.   Record author’s full name, publication year, title, publisher, publication place and volume/page number

               c.       Write individual sections according to theme

           d.       Tie all sections together with an introduction, conclusion and some addition and revision

5. Using secondary data in a report

Summary Writing

i) preview and rapid reading-skim and scan

ii) read carefully to determine main ideas for each paragraph

iii) link main ideas,improvise

iv) construct sentences clearly to form a summary

Direct Quotation-Important notes

i) should be quoted word by word and in full

ii) preferable only in these situations-when citing important statements of information, opinion or policy; and doing interpretations of literary works

iii) it should be preceded by introductory phrases

Reflections:

Literature review is not a difficult chapter to learn. If one understands what literature review is and follows the suggested steps, then it won’t be a problem. Having said that, in order to get the right ideas across, it has to be continuously practiced. The skills to extract the gist of an article, summarizing and paraphrasing comes in due time.

Exercise:

1. Paraphrased text

Police Superintendant Ali Bin Rejab was quoted by Technology Magazine (2005) as agreeing to the usefulness of hand phones when one encountered problems on the road. However, he claimed that a lot of road users misused hand phones to the point of distracting them, hence leading towards accidents.

2. Paraphrased text

Adam Harris (Permata Magazine) claimed that youths, including university students are attracted to the usefulness of hand phones. This can be seen through  a significant trend of increment in the number of students with hand phones over these few years.

Activity 2 :: What are the important issues that need to be learnt?

Facts:

1. Literature review is not just merely a listing of information available, or a set of summaries.

2. Literature review must be organized around and related directly to the research questions one is developing.

3. Every paraphrased text, direct quotation must follow proper text citation.

Reflections :

The important point is, for one to organize articles into categories or areas of research. Once all are grouped, it will be easier to extract vital information necessary. Using suitable verbs might prove to be a challenge, because one might encounter problems of incorrect selection of verbs. 

Assignment 5 ~ Exercise 1

Issue: Declining participation in sports among students

problem statement:

Universiti Kuala Lumpur aims to mould wholesome graduates, equipped with strong technical knowledge and astute mind. One of the approaches used by the University is by encouraging students to participate in various games and sports offered. Universiti Kuala Lumpur provides venues for sporting events as and when they are needed. However, there seems to be a trend of decline in participation in sports among students for the past 3 years. This can be seen in the dismal amount of participation in events like Sports Day and try-outs leading to Interuniversity competitions. This research is carried out to determine the reasons behind the decline. Respondents will be the University staff and students. If such trend do exist, what are the ways to encounter this issue thus attracting students to participate actively. 

Issue: The hazards of using hand phones among students

problem statement:

The advancement in information technology and communication (ICT) sees a usage growth among youths,particularly among university and college students. Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Division listed hand phone as the gadget of choice. A person is considered hype if he or she owns a Blackberry or an Iphone. With attractive features like Internet surfing and instant messaging (IM) at the tip of ones' fingers, latest range of hand phones prove to be essential in a student's life. This continuous dependency on hand phones could trigger dire effects for students. Among the concerns are misusing handphones for inappropriate activities such as cheating,distribute pornographic materials-downloading and spreading etc.A research will be conducted to identify the effects of handphones on University Kuala Lumpur students and therefore provide solutions in reducing or mitigating such effects.

Issue or Problem: A study on the disposal of machining waste among SMEs in Malaysia

problem statement:

The hazardous waste in Malaysia has been consistently increasing over the years according to United Nations Statistical Division. One of the items which forms the hazardous waste  is the machining waste which has its source from the production workshop, where they use  machines such as Lathe,  Drilling,  Milling and Grinding machines for material removal process. According to UNEP, SMEs are the major polluters of the environment in the world. 

 

Reflection-v3.0

Second up, a project about e-learning. There are several unappropriate format that we found ;

1. No title provided.
2. Introduction have no specific statement and not well understanding.
3. Scope of the project and the background of study are not clear stated.
4. Include some unnecessary information.

Reflections-v2.0

Activity-Important Issues Learnt From Sample Introduction

We were given two sets of Introduction samples to evaluate and find whatever was lacking from both texts. 

First up,a project titled "Design and Development of Stair Climbing Trolley". These were what we noticed from the text :

1. Project Overview was not significant to Introduction. Best suited position? Abstract.

2. It didn't follow the inverted pyramid module. Hence,a one-liner of general statement was found. Lack of elaboration meant you're doing a half-@$$39 job :)

3. Main issue was present,but explanation was too lengthy with no supporting evidence. Specific statements quoted from previously executed researches will strengthen one's case.

4. The last paragraph did not do justice to an otherwise interesting project. It should be sentence(s) that gives good impact to the reader,letting them think "so that's why this project must be undertaken".

Reflections-v1.0

Caution-this was written by the Illiterate One,so heads up!

Activity :Technical Report Writing-Introduction

Useful tips to consider in writing a good introduction:

1. You're not chasing bullet trains. Take time to decide on the content you feel appropriate to be included.

2. Adopt inverted pyramid-ish technique;

• Step 1: general statement of fact related to project undertaken
• Step 2: more specific statement on issues previously studied by researchers
• Step 3: statement indicating further investigation 

3. The content of the Introduction section varies depending on research undertaken.

4. Follow the Grail (in this case,standard elements of the Introduction Part)

• Background of the Study
• Statement of Problem
• Purpose of Study
• Objective of Study
• Research Questions
• Significance of Study
• Scope of Study