Literature Review Example

Literature review example will help you in knowing the way of how to make a perfect research paper. This is an important part of research making process and you need to go through the research papers of other researchers in the similar problem to make a quality literature review. I have talked with some of the eminent professors who believe that a good literature review is the basic need of any research paper. A literature review is not just mere reading of different research papers and journals. You need to critically analyze individual papers, try to understand the merits and demerits of the individual research processes, try to analyze the reliability and validity of their results and then you need to assess what are the information you will need to bolster your own research paper. So it should be very clear to you that you need hard work in studying and understanding different research journals and you may also need help from your professors to analyze the papers properly. But at the same time it can also be said that if you can do it properly half of the battle for preparing your research paper is complete.

Literature review is also a great source for collection of data especially secondary data for your research paper. Secondary data are such statistical information which have already been collected by some one for his own purpose and are now available for use by others for their purposes. Indeed, numerical data which are not gathered directly from the field of enquiry, but are merely compiled from other sources are referred to as secondary data. The chief sources of such data are-

1) Official publications of State and Central Governments, Foreign Governments, and international bodies such as UNO, ILO etc.

2) Publications and reports of trade associations, Chambers of Commerce, co operative societies etc.

3) Journals and magazines published by private agencies

4) Reports of committees and Commissions of Enquiry

5) Unpublished reports prepared by research scholars, labor and trade unions etc.

One must be very careful in using secondary data, because of their many limitations. For example, the definition and coverage of the terms and the units of measurement may not quite agree with those required by the user. The basis of classification of such data may also be different. Sometimes the available secondary data may be mere estimates and not facts. The method employed for the collection of data may not be satisfactory. Secondary data in most cases contain errors due to transcription, rounding etc.

Detailed scrutiny of secondary data is therefore extremely essential before putting them into use. The user must satisfy him with (a) the scope and object of enquiry for which the data were originally collected (b) method of collection (c) time and area covered by the data (d) precise definitions of the terms used (e) extent of accuracy of the data and (f) the integrity and experience of the authority that collected those data for mainly their own uses.

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