Ramainya orang menunggu utk saringan H1N1 di Hospital Sungai Buloh...panik semua orang..ye lah dah 14 kematian...H1N1 ni akan merebak jika pesakit H1N1 batuk, bersih or bercakap tanpa ada penutup..sebab virus merebak melalui titisan air liur...kita ambil langkah berjaga-jaga ye..elakkan tempat yg sesak2...bykkan minum air masak...bg anak-anak kecil, selalu bagi minum air dan basuhkan tangan diorang tu..semoga kita semua terlindung daripada penyakit berjangkit ni, amin...

Got this one from FB..posted by someone..very helpful for those who are pursuing Phd or Master..for more info please visit here.

What is a review of the literature?

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography—see the bottom of the next page), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries

Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas

1. information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
2. critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.

A literature review must do these things

1. be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
2. synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
3. identify areas of controversy in the literature
4. formulate questions that need further research

Ask yourself questions like these:

1. What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define?
2. What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies )?
3. What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., nursing psychology, sociology, medicine)?
4. How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources I've used appropriate for the length of my paper?
5. Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?
6. Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?
7. Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

1. Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
2. Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?
3. Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?
4. What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?
5. What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?
6. What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?
7. Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?
8. In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population, intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?
9. In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion, one-sided examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone? Is there an objective basis to the reasoning, or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already believes?
10. How does the author structure the argument? Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the argument to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effect relationships)?
11. In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem under study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?
12. How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?

Final Notes:

A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. It's usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question

If you are writing an annotated bibliography, you may need to summarize each item briefly, but should still follow through themes and concepts and do some critical assessment of material. Use an overall introduction and conclusion to state the scope of your coverage and to formulate the question, problem, or concept your chosen material illuminates. Usually you will have the option of grouping items into sections—this helps you indicate comparisons and relationships. You may be able to write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each section

p/s: what is annotated bibliography?

Pada firasat aku, dalam apa jua perkara kita lakukan perlu fokus. Samada belajar, memasak, bersukan, bekerja hatta menonton televisyen. Kalau fokus tiada dalam belajar, sia-sia masa diperuntukkan; contohnya ketiadaan fokus aku ketika membaca paper menyebabkan aku terpaksa ulang membacanya sekali lagi. Kalau fokus tiada dalam memasak, boleh hangit masakan dan hasilnya tidak sedddaaaappp. Kalau fokus tiada dalam bersukan, boleh cedera (terlebih sudah!). Kalau fokus tiada semasa bekerja, menyebabkan selalu memberi alasan tidak cukup masa, sedangkan kita ada 8 jam sehari untuk bekerja (yang wajib). Kalau fokus tiada ketika menonton televisyen, tiada pengajaran diperolehi.

Fokus boleh dibuat mengikut peringkat, 1-Seumur Hidup, 2-Tahunan, 3-Bulanan, 4-Sehari-harian. Sebelum membuat fokus, perlu letakkan matlamat apa untuk difokuskan barulah fokus. Sekarang matlamat aku adalah untuk membuat Literature Review. Jadi fokus aku perlu dibuat mengikut harian dalam usaha mencapai matlamat itu.

Namun sebagai manusia biasa yang kononnya terlalu banyak perkara nak diuruskan, komitmen yang padu tidak mampu diberikan untuk perkara FOKUS. Aku senaraikan perkara-perkara yang mengganggu fokus aku:

1. Urusan rumahtangga (mcm besar je kan...sebenarnya simple je..saja bagi alasan..:P)
2. Facebook (adeiii...kenapa la aku menjebakkan diri ku)
3. Forum (dah terbiasa sejak dari zaman belajar)
4. Membeli belah (entah la)
5. Otak suka menerawang pada perkara-perkara lain

Bukan salah FB, bukan salah Forum, bukan salah rumahtangga, bukan salah nafsu membeli belah, bukan salah otak..tapi salah sendiri...jika kita hendak fokus pada matlamat, kita tidak bolah menjadi multitask, elakkan gangguan entiti asing dan perlu bersedia siapkan perkara dalam sesi yang kita peruntukkan..aku perasan, aku dah terbiasa sangat dengan multitask..tengah buat satu kerja, tiba-tiba nak setelkan kerja lain..hmmm

Aku rasa aku perlu membuat anjakan paradigma...lepas anjakan ini, mampukah aku fokus?...

p/s: gambar atas tu ambik sendiri tu, masa belajar nak buat fokus..tak sharp sgt tapi sendiri punyeee..:D