LITERATURE

REVIEW

Prepared By,

Nur Aisyah Amirah bt. Onn, Praveen Naidu a/l

Kalai Selvem, Satriana Aras, Siti Farrah Aimie
Mohd. Ali, Syaeeza Liana Ramli

DEFINITION OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
A Literature Review (LR) should: Never be just a list of previous work.
Contain the works that you consulted in order to
develop your research.
Provide justification/ background for the research
undertaken.
The LR guides the reader to understanding the
contribution of the work by pointing out the
shortcomings/ gaps of the state of the art.

PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
Establish

a theoretical framework for your

topic/ subject area.
Define key terms, definitions and terminology
Identify studies, models, case studies, etc. to
support your topic.
Define/ establish your area of study.
Your research topic.

CHARACTERISTICS OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Review previous reviews.

State procedures for obtaining relevant
literature.
Describe
common
independent
and
dependent variables.
State criteria for evaluating outcomes.
Support conclusions of the review with data
presented in the review.

QUESTIONS A LR SHOULD
ANSWER
What do we already know in the immediate area
concerned?
What are the characteristics of the key concepts/ the
main factors/ variables?
What are the relationships between these key
concepts/ factors/ variables?
What are the complementary existing theories/
approaches?
Has anybody else done anything similar?

TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW

SOURCES
General
Books

articles.

Conference

proceedings.
Government/ corporate reports.
Theses and dissertations.
Specialized magazines.
Newspapers and the Internet.

REFERENCES
http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writi
ng-resources/literature
Martinez, S. How to Write an Effective Literature
Review
Mills, G. E. (2014). Action Research: A Guide for the
Teacher Researcher. Pearson: Great Britain.