Guideline:
Where to Start
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Where are the major databases/sources that have been recommended by your supervisor/mentor?
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Focus on the central research questions and bring out the keywords
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Prepare a list of journals in your area of research.
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Ask the experts, colleagues and relevant people.
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Give it a title focused towards your objectives.
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Plan your bibliography.
How to Search ?
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Create a few central research questions.
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Pick your Keywords carefully.
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Visit appropriate portals of the journals and search with keywords.
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Is the article well cited or less?
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Is it peer reviewed?
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Make sure about the details of publications and their credibility.
Assessing the Source
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Abstract Assessment: is the article relevant and well cited.
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Is the theoretical framework matching your question?
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Is it important to assess if results are unbiased?
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Also the sample size matters.
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Do not forget to keep a track of the sources to make bibliography
Picking the Source and Active Reading
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Pick out the key reading & relevant works that you have collected.
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Do these readings feature your keywords?
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Who wrote them is very important
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Author: Expert/relevant/academic/milestone study/recommended/best in the field etc.
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Source: Peer reviewed/academic/expert/trusted/published/documented/govt./NGO
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Be clear about what you are looking for
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Always have keywords in mind while reading and mark them while reading
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Compare to other pieces of work that you have read
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Make notes about each reading, so that you remember later.
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Also try talking about it to your colleague/mentor (give more clarity)
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Reading and making notes hold the key to final writing.
Fundamental Methods of Writing
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The descriptive/reporting method: The catalogue method.
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What happened
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What the author discussed, found, did
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An account summary
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The interpretive/critical analysis method: The Dialogue Method
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Asking and answering questions
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Analyzing, explaining and interpreting the reading
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Synthesizing information to develop a point of view.
Language of Narratives in Writing
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Highlight the importance- interpretive voice
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This shows that…
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This is important/significant because…
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This calls attention to …
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This can be illustrated by …
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What this means that …
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Its illustrating that …
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Its pointing that …
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This language is important because:
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It makes the writing more interpretive rather than just descriptive.
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It gives the researcher a stronger voice and strength in narration in the thesis.
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Writing-Responding with Critique
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This study was limited in its application …
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It may have been more illustrative and broad …
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It could have been more solution oriented …
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The potential solution like … could be utilized …
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Writing in Critiquing Method:
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Deficit
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A question that needs to be asked, however, is wheather …
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A weakness with this argument is that …
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This particular approach fails to take … into account
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Strength/Uniqueness
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In this milestone work, Mr.X found that …
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This was a breakthrough work in terms of …
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This is useful in …Particular context …
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Organizing the final work
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Chronologically by time
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Perspective of authors (schools of thoughts)
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Method wise
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Theme/Topic Wise
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Key Points to remember:
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Use Heading-Subheading Method
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Cross – referencing is important
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Only essential quotation is required
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Footnotes, Comments, annotations are important
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Detailed Bibliography
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