FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA PERAK

LITERATURE REVIEW
TPS 352

by
DR. NOR EEDA HAJI ALI
 OUTLINES

1 2 3 4 5
INTRODUCTION DEFINITION ELEMENTS TYPES PROCESS

6
CONCLUSION
 1
INTRODUCTION
▪ A good quality thesis/dissertation depends on a good
literature review (LR) (meaning wide, deep, critical and
focussed review).
▪ LR is an umbrella term for 3 types of reviews (See figure). Literature
Review Theoretical
(Implementat review
▪ The LR is a background of the study that must identify key ion)
variables, theory, and conceptual framework.

▪ It also discovers issues and problems, thus leading to the

identification of the research gap. Methodological
Review
4

Source: Creswell, 2003 cited in Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009).

 2
DEFINITION
 WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW ?

“The use of ideas in the literature to justify

the particular approach to the topic, the
selection of methods, and demonstration that
this research contributes something new.”
Hart (1998, p.1) in Levy and Ellis (2006)

“Summarizes and evaluates the state of

knowledge or practice on a particular subject.”
Knopf (2006)
 3
ELEMENTS
 WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE REVIEW?
• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
consideration, along with the research objectives and
research question of the literature review.
• Division of works under review into categories (e.g. those in
support of a particular position, those against, and those
offering alternative theses entirely)
• Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies
from the others
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their
argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make
the greatest contribution to the understanding and
development of their area of research
http://guides.library.ucsc.edu/write-a-literature-review
 WHY WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW ?
• Helping the researcher understand the existing
body of knowledge;
• Providing a solid theoretical foundation for the
proposed study (related to “what is needed to be
known?”)
• Substantiating the presence of the research problem
(related to “what is needed to be known?”
• Justifying the proposed study as one that contributes
something new to the Bodies of Knowledge
• Framing the valid research methodologies, approach, goals,
and research questions for the proposed study.
 4
TYPES
HOW MANY TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW?
Six (6) types of literature review :
i) Context Review
ii) Historical Review
iii) Integrative Review
iv) Methodological Review
v) Self-study Review
vi) Theoretical Review
(Neuman, 2006)
Type of levels in LR writings

4. Critics

3. Compare
2.Synthesis

1. Summary

(Norhisyam Mat Saman, 2020)

 4. Critics
3. Compare

2. Synthesis
SAMPLE LANGUAGE FOR SUMMARY AND SYNTHESIS
▪ Normadin (2008) has demonstrated…
▪ Early work by Hausman, Schwarz, and Graves (2016) was
1. Summary concerned with…
▪ Elsayed and Stern (1997) compared algorithms for
handling…
▪ Additional work by Karasawa et. Al (2008), Azadivar,
13
and
Parry et. al (2005) deal with…

(Norhisyam Mat Saman, 2020)

 4. Critics
3. Compare

2. Synthesis SAMPLE LANGUAGE FOR COMPARISON AND CRITIQUE

▪ In their ambitious but flawed study, Jones and Wang (1989) . . These
general results, reflecting the stochastic nature of the flow of goods, are
1.Summary similar to those reported by Rosenblatt and Roll (2010).
▪ On the other hand, scholars from the neo-classical stream (see, for
example, North, 1990, Vatn, 2005 and Acemoglu, 2006) view that the
credibility of the institutions has to be disassociated with theology and
ideology belief. 14
▪ This principle is contrary to the functionality scholars (see, for example,
Coser, 1956; Knight, 1992, Ho, 2005) who view that …
 5
PROCESS
HOW TO START DOING LITERATURE REVIEW?
• WHAT research has already been done on this
topic?
• WHAT are the sub-areas of the topic you need
to explore?
• WHAT other research (perhaps not directly on
the topic) might be relevant to your
investigation?
• HOW do these sub-topics and other research
overlap with your investigation?
www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice
WHAT ARE THE PROCESS OF LITERATURE REVIEW?

• Problem Formulation – which topic or field is being

examined and what are its component issues?
• Literature Search -finding materials relevant to the
subject being explored
• Data Evaluation – determining which literature
makes a significant contribution to the
understanding of the topic
• Analysis and Interpretation - discussing the findings
and conclusions of pertinent literature

http://guides.library.ucsc.edu/write-a-literature-review
HOW TO CONDUCT A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW?

• Define and Refine a Topic

➢ Clear defined, well-focused research
questions / problems
• Design a Research
➢ Plan a search strategy – careful, systematic,
and organized
➢ Decide on how to record – digital or
hardcopies
• Locate Research Reports
Neuman, 2006
 WHAT MAKES A GOOD REVIEW?
• Planning and clear writing – a lot of rewriting,
paraphrasing, thesaurus – clear organizational
structures, introduction and conclusion, transitions
between sections – communicate clearly and effectively
• Communicate a review’s purpose to the reader by its
organization
➢ mental maps, common themes, draw charts or
tables, (color themes)
➢ most important ideas first, logically link the
statements or findings, note the discrepancies or
weaknesses

Neuman, 2006
 • Based on the concept approach –author or concept centric or
How to combination with unit of analysis (level e.g. individual, group and
conduct/structu
ring the LR ?
organisational).

• journals, books, websites, videos, paper clippings, reports etc.

Where to Platforms e.g. library, Google, google scholars, sci-hub, university
collect the
materials for library e-resources, DOS, MAMPU etc.
LR?

• searching for the key words (foreground & background) of the

How to search
for key
topic of investigation
variables? 20
 6
CONCLUSION
 BAD LITERATURE REVIEW CHARACTERISTICS:
X Simply summarise and list the discussion/findings. ✓Must compare and critically evaluate. Formulate
X Isolated review- each section disconnected/ incoherent to ✓arguments from the researcher’s perspective.
The review must organise around a clear set of
the overall review chapter
questions (as set out in the problem statements).
X Ambiguity, muddle and no clear boundaries ✓ Delineates the boundaries of the research
X The review fails to lead to the need for the proposed study ✓ No concrete arguments to the need of the study and
give a clear path as to how the study will be
or inform the study on the need
investigated.
X The review fails to lead to research questions, concepts or ✓ Must include all major landmarks or aspects of the
issues that need to be investigated in the analysis part (or study
in the design of the instruments of data collection). ✓Develops a framework or model to guide future
X Inadequate in scope or coverage of the literature review – research.
✓Complete coverage and capture state-the art
fail to include major/landmarks about the study.
X Lead to nowhere. No framework, neither model or
approach.
X Incomplete coverage
(Norhisyam Mat Saman, 2020)
 PROHIBITED!

Plagiarism –
i) Writing in the text without citation
ii) Writing in text with a citation but copying more than one paragraph in a row.
✓ Authors cited in the text but not listed in the list of references
✓ Authors are listed in the list of references but not presence in text
✓ The third parties citation but deliberately citing the first (original) author. It
should be written as ‘Rahman as cited by (author) (2020) defined recreation as
….
 TIPS
▪ Use endnotes/Mendeley software to assist LR writing/citation process
▪ Place of citation:
1. At the beginning of the sentences e.g.
a. According to/As mentioned by/ Nor-Hisham (2020), recreation can be
defined as …….
b. Nor Hisham (2020) defines/asserts that /states that recreation is…..
2. At the end of sentences e.g. Recreation can be defined as ……(Nor Hisham,
2020).

▪ Use a variety of materials – books, journals, paper clipping, planning

guidelines/materials, government documents etc.
▪ Use the latest publication-ideally five – ten years back but excluding theories.
▪ Use papers from reliable journals. Avoid ‘unacademic’ sources such as Wikipedia
▪ The outcome of LR is it will lead to understanding on the investigation subject
e.g. model, framework etc.

(Norhisyam Mat Saman, 2020)

 CONCLUSION

▪ Literature Review is not about the quantity (thickness) of the

pages but quality (able to answer the research questions).
▪ Poor Literature Review causes the researcher not able to
answer the research questions which consequently in
designing the research instruments.

Q&A
THANK YOU