CRITICAL REVIEW

As research is supposed to make an "original" contribution to human knowledge, one of the things you
need to do as a writer is to demonstrate that you are not simply repeating what has already been
done before (or if you are, that there is a reason to have some doubt about the previous findings,
perhaps as a result of some methodological weakness, thus necessitating the need for a confirmatory
study with an improved methodology, or that the previous results are likely to need updating). Thus,
as you review the existing literature, you need to identify any limitations, deficiencies, or gaps in
existing knowledge or practice that need to be addressed.

CHALLENGES

1. Choosing the Right Topic: Find a theoretical basis to support your topic. The key is having an
overarching theoretical context for your results.

2. Researching and gathering data is the first challenge that students face in writing their
research papers. (difficult to find same area same topic or theme, data no current to match
with the topic)

3. Citations and following formatting standards are the most challenging part of writing a
research paper. According to the literature, referencing is very important in academic writing
to support what is written and to avoid plagiarism.

4. Critical thinking, sources with too much statistics, difficult to critique with the assessments
word limit. Differing levels of abstractness and concreteness in primary studies. Basic
similarities in approach profusion of labels describing the same techniques with minimal
differences in operationalisation. Methodological language can obscure similarities between
some qualitative synthesis methods.

5. The volume of information they are receiving from their sources, finding evidence to support
your research paper.

Listen to the data. When you have that kind of qualitative data, and youre looking at it cold, the
biggest challenge is not to look at it with any preconceived ideasyou literally have to step back and
wait for the data to come alive and start speaking, Paige says.
Stay focused. Dawidowicz cautions against being distracted by irrelevant data as you do your
analysis. She suggests keeping a really close eye on your research questions and your hypothesis,
because sometimes the data you collect will take you away from that.
Account for biases. Dawidowicz explains that, in a quantitative study, the researcher needs to
address the biases of the individuals completing the survey before the results can be generalized to a
larger population. Whereas qualitative work requires researchers to discuss how their bias or
interpretation may have played into their conclusions.