Review of Related Literature Review
Chapter 2 – FINALS
WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?
• In essence, a literature review identifies,
evaluates and synthesizes the relevant
literature within a particular field of
research.
• It illuminates how knowledge has evolve
within the field, highlighting what has
already been done, what is generally
acceoted, what is emerging and what is
the current state of thinking on the
topic.
• In addition, within research-based texts
(such as a thesis) a literature review
identifies a research gap (i.e.,
unexplored or under-researched areas) and
articulates how a particular research project
addresses this gap.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM ”literature”?
• Literature refers to a collection of
published information/materials on a
particular area of research or topic,
such as books and journal articles of
academic value.
- What are the value of the article?
- Look for quality of the reference
- Referred journal – went to ambiguous
and thorough research.
• However, your literature review does not
need to be inclusive of every article and
book that has been written on your topic
because that will be too broad. Rather, it
should include the key sources related to the
main debates, trends and gaps in your
research area.
WHAT IS MEANT BY THE TERM “review”?
To review the literature means to be able to
identify:
• What has been established, discredited, and
accepted in your field.
- Look into established and information
that was disproved.
• Areas of controversy or conflict among
different schools of thought.
• Problems or issues that remain unsolved
• Emerging trends and new approaches
• How your research extends, build upon, and
departs from previous research.
- Highlight the specific feature of the
research that it is different from others.
LITERATURE REVIEW
• A review of literature presents much more
than a summary of relevant sources.
- You’re not just going to summarize what
read, you also have to critically analyze
and evaluate the reference of what you
read.
- You have to write them in a way that
you will be presenting new and relevant
information that is logically aligned to
the topic.
• The act if reviewing involves evaluating
individual sources as well as synthesizing
these sources in order to gain a broad view
of the field.
- Read more materials in order to get the
bigger picture of the situation and cite
the references properly and arranged it
with logical chronological order.
• Not only do you need to engage with a body
of literature, but you also need to be able to
compare, contrast, synthesize, and make
arguments with that literature in ways that
indicate a readiness to contribute to the
literature itself.
- Analyze and compare previous
publication and contrast various public
research.
• A literature review should not include every
single source that you have read.
• It’s important to be selective about the
sources you choose to address.
• Ensure the sources you analyze are directly
relevant to your research question (s) and
topic. It’s important also that you think
critically about the credibility and reliability
of sources.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
• It provides information about past research
studies related to the intended investigation,
preventing the duplication of research
undertakings.
• It presents gaps in the field of study. gaps
may either be areas in the body where
research studies yielded inconclusive results.
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• It affords confidence and authority to the
researchers since reviewing the literature
can provide them all possible constructs and
perspectives of the present study.
• It gives information about the methods used
in similar studies, including the
characteristics of the samples, the sampling
techniques or the process of selecting the
research participants, the variables
considered, the kinds of data gathered, and
the type of analysis and interpretation done
on the collected data.
• It enumerated findings from previous studies
that may support those of the present study.
• It provides ideas on how implications may
be drawn out of the analysis and
interpretation of data.
WHY DO A LITERATURE REVIEW?
• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic
and scholarly context.
- In order to established to the readers
• Develop a theoretical framework and
methodology for your research
- In order to have a basis, theory to use in
the research
• Position yourself in relation to other
researchers and theorists.
- To know where the findings will be
placed.
• Show how your research addresses a gap or
contributes to a debate.
ANALYSIS VS. SYNTHESIS
• Analysis involves systematically breaking
down the relevant literature into its
constituent parts.
- Criticize, dissect the issues that are
found in the reference
• Synthesis is the act of making connections
between those parts identified in the
analysis.
• In other words, when you make a literature
review, you need to break down your
references into bits of information and put
them together to form a different whole.
A literature review should try to answer the
following questions:
• WHO are the key researchers on this topic?
• WHAT has been the focus of the research
efforts so far and what is the current status?
• HOW have certain studies built on prior
studies? Where are the connections? Are
there new interpretations of the research?
• Have there been any controversies or
debate about the research? Is there
consensus? Are there any contradictions?
• Which areas have been identified as
needing further research? Have any
pathways been suggested?
• How will your topic uniquely contribute
to this body of knowledge?
• Which methodologies have researchers
used and which appear to be the most
productive?
• What sources of information or data were
identified that might be useful to you?
• How does your particular topic fit into the
larger context of what has already been
done?
• How has the research that has already been
done help frame your current
investigation?
Steps in Conducting Literature Review
1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
➢ What literature have you gathered?
3. Identify themes, debates and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review
Step 1: Search for relevant literature
• Before you begin searching for literature,
you need a clearly defined topic.
• Start by creating a list of keywords
related to your research question.
• Include each of the key concepts or
variables you’re interested in and list any
synonyms and related terms.
• You can add to this list if you consider new
keywords in the process of your literature
search.
• Search for relevant sources. Some useful
databases to search for journals and articles
include:
- Your university’s library catalogue
- Google scholar
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- JSTOR
- EBSCO
- Project muse (humanities and social
sciences)
- Medline (life sciences and medical
biomedicine).
Step 2: Evaluate and select sources
• You’ll have to evaluate which sources are
most relevant to your questions:
- What question or problem is the author
addressing?
- What are the key concepts and how are
they defined?
- What are the key theories, models and
methods? Does the research use
established frameworks or take an
innovative approach?
- What are the results and conclusions of
the study?
- How does the publication relate to other
literature in the field? Does it confirm,
add to, or challenge established
knowledge?
- How does the publication contribute to
your understanding of the topic? What
are its key insights and arguments?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses
of the research?
• Make sure the sources you use are credible,
and make sure you read any landmark
studies and major theories in your field of
research.
• The scope of your review will depend on
your topic and discipline: in the sciences you
usually only review recent literature, but in
the humanities, you might take a long
historical perspective.
• As you read, you should also begin the
writing process. Take notes that you can
later incorporate into the text of your
literature review.
• It is important to keep track of your sources
with citations to avoid plagiarism.
• This helps you remember what you read and
saves time later in the process.
Step 3: Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Trends and patterns (in theory, method
or results): do certain approaches become
more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur
across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions:
where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any
influential theories or studies that changed
the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature?
Are there weaknesses that need to be
addressed?
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s
structure
• There are various approaches to organizing
the body of a literature review. You should
have a rough idea of your strategy before
you start writing?
• Chronological
- try to analyze patterns, turning pints and
key debates that have shaped the
direction of the field. Give your
interpretation of how and why certain
developments occurred.
• Thematic
- if you have found some recurring central
themes, you can organize your literature
review into subsections that address
different aspects of the topic.
• Methodological
- if you draw your sources from different
disciplines or fields that use a variety of
research methods, you might want to
compare the results and conclusions that
emerge from different approaches.
• Theoretical
- A literature review is often the
foundation for a theoretical framework.
You can use it to discuss various
theories, models, and definitions of key
concepts.
- You might argue for the relevance of a
specific theoretical approach or combine
various theoretical concepts to create a
frameworks for your research.
Step 5: Write your literature review
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• Depending on the length of your literature
review, you might want to divide the body
into subsections.
• You can use a subheading for each theme,
time period, or methodological approach.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR LITERATURE

REVIEW?
• Summarize and synthesize. Give an
overview of the main points of each source
and combine them into a coherent whole.
• Analyze and interpret. Don’t just
paraphrase other researchers – add your
own interpretations where possible,
discussing the significance of findings in
relation to the literature as a whole.
• Critically evaluate, mention the strengths
and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs,
use transition words and topic sentences to
draw connections, comparisons, and
contrasts.

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