Lecture - 3

Critically
Reviewing the
Literature
» What is a Traditional Literature Review?
» Why Write a Literature Review?
» How is a literature review different from an
academic research paper?
» Writing the review……………….
» How to Organize your Literature Review?
» What is Included in a Literature Review?
» What is Left Out of a Literature Review?

Lecture Contents
» In its simplest form, a literature review is a list
of relevant books and other sources, each
followed by a description and comment on its
relevance.

» When it is part of a project, a literature review

is a systematic way of showing evidence of your
reading and how it relates to your investigation.

» As part of a research project, a literature

review can be used to focus the research.

What is a Traditional Literature

Review?
» Without reviewing the existing literature, a
researcher starts from a dark room, heading
towards a badly designed study that is poorly
carried out and produces findings of little
importance.
» Similarly to policy makers and practitioners,
reviews of the relevant literature will allow
informed choices to be made regarding the
costing, planning and implementation of
proposed interventions.
» The review is therefore a part of your academic
development – of becoming an expert in the field
(Hart, 1998:1).

Why write a Literature Review?

The review of literature can prove an invaluable
asset to a range of people, including practitioners
and researchers, teachers and students, to work
more quickly and effectively.
» In any discipline, research is incremental. It
builds slowly and steadily on the work of past
researchers, literature provides a summary of
what is known.
» A new research project not only needs to have a
good recap of the current state of knowledge
but also the strengths and weaknesses of each
of the earlier approaches in making an informed
choice.

Why write a Literature Review?

a. The preliminary search
This helps researcher to generate and
refine research ideas.
b. The critical review
As an essential part of research it
requires researchers to;
i. demonstrate his/her awareness of
the current state of knowledge and
ii. show how his/her research fits in
the wider context of research area.

Reasons for reviewing the literature - 1

» To provide foundation to build research on
» To develop a good understanding and insight
into relevant previous research and emerging
trends
» To help researcher to identify theories and
ideas that researcher test using data (deductive
approach)
» To help researcher to relate his/her ideas and
theories developed through inductive approach
» To help researcher to refer whether his/her
research findings are in line with the available
literature or are in contrast to those
» To identify other research that may be in
progress
» To help avoid charges of plagiarism

Reasons for reviewing the literature - 2

Chronological
By publication date
By trend
Thematic
A structure which considers different themes
Methodological
Focuses on the methods of the researcher,
e.g., qualitative versus quantitative
approaches

How to Organize the Literature

8
Review?
Basically, any approach that works for YOU is
appropriate. One possible procedure follows.

1. Arrange your notes in a logical order. If you are

having difficulty seeing an order, look for clues in
the sequence of your ideas or try concept mapping
the topic.

2. Identify the main ideas - sorting your notes to fit

under the headings.

WRITING THE REVIEW…..

3. develop a table of contents, that can then be
fleshed out with descriptive bullet-points
(annotated table of contents). By subjecting
an annotated table of contents (or outline) to
review, a novice researcher can receive a self
leading advice on contents and structure of the
planned literature review.
4. Example follows………

WRITING THE REVIEW…..

» Example: a step-by-step, hierarchical list of the points
you plan to cover, e.g.,
 1st main idea
• 1st supporting point
 evidence, argument, or example
 evidence, argument, or example
 evidence, argument, or example
• 2nd supporting point
 evidence, argument, or example
 evidence, argument, or example
 evidence, argument, or example
2nd main idea, etc……

WRITING THE REVIEW…..

 subtopic subtopic
subtopic
subtopic
subtopic

subtopic

subtopic

Topic

Organizing the Literature Search:

A tree diagram
 Home-school Parent
communication involvement
barriers

Homework
assistance Involvement in
decision making
Academic volunteerism
achievement

Teachers’ beliefs
Home visits

Tree Diagram Example

» Try to avoid long lists of supporting points. Combine into
related ideas.

» If you can't decide where to put something, put it in two

or more places in the outline. As you write, you can
decide which place is the most appropriate.
» Now you are ready to write your review.

» Introduce the topic and give a brief statement of the ’main

ideas’.

WRITING THE REVIEW…..

» write some plausible synthesis or analysis for these ideas
using headings according to the step-by-step hierarchical
list and guide the reader through the material.
» If the literature review is part of a research project, stop at
the end of each topic, to mention the main relevant ideas and
how they fit together relating to your research.
» leave it, then reread, edit and revise what you have
written, to make sure that it makes sense and 'flows' in a way
that the reader will understand what you are tying to convey.

WRITING THE REVIEW….

 Considering the limits in terms of the time and space and
remember the following list of dos and don’ts:
Do …
 identify and discuss the key relevant landmark studies
on the topic;
 include as much up-to-date material as possible;
 check the details, such as how names are spelled;
 show that you are selective, analytical and critical;
 manage the information: have a system (as discussed
earlier) for records management;
 make your review worth reading explaining how your
topic is different.

What is Left Out of a Literature Review?

 Don’ts …
omit classic works or discuss core ideas without
proper reference;
discuss outdated or only old materials;
misspell names or get the date of publication wrong;
use concepts to impress or without definition;
produce a list of items, even if annotated; a list is not
a review;
accept or believe everything that is written;
drown in information by not keeping control;
make silly mistakes or be boring.
(Hart, 1998: 219)

What is Left Out of a Literature Review?

 Important aspects (contents)
(to be covered)
» To include the key academic theories
» To demonstrate researchers’ advanced
knowledge ;
» To show links between present and
previous research;
» To assess the strength and weaknesses of
previous work; including omissions and
bias; and
» To justify arguments by referencing
previous research.

The contents and structure of review - 1

 Start at a more general level;
 Provide a brief overview of key ideas;
 Summarize, compare and contrast the work of the key
writers;
 Narrow down to highlight the work most relevant to
this research;
 Provide a detailed account of findings of similar work;
 Highlight those issues where this research will
provide fresh insights; and
 Lead the readers into subsequent sections of this
research which will address such issues.

The contents and structure of review - 2

The literature review process
a. Define the parameters of the research, which
are:
a. Language of publication (for example
English)
b. Subject area (for example accountancy)
c. Business sector (for example manufacturing)
d. Geographical area (for example Asia)
e. Publication period (for example the last 10
years)
f. Literature type (for example refereed
journals)

Planning and conducting literature search -

1
a. Generate key words and search terms
a. Key words or search terms help describe
research question(s) and objectives
b. Using ‘Relevance Tree’ can prove a good tool
in generating key words; a worked example for
generating key words through ‘Relevance Tree’
is provided in ‘Additional Reading Materials’ on
page 13)
c. Key words are used to search the tertiary
literature
b. Discuss ideas as widely as possible

Planning and conducting literature search -

1
Conducting literature search may involve
a variety of approaches, namely:

• Primary literature sources;

• Secondary Sources i.e. books and
journals already studies;
• Tertiary literature sources
• Table 3.2 entitled “Tertiary literature
sources and their full coverage” is
available at pp.14-15 of ‘Additional
Reading Materials’.
• (Next Slide for discussion)

Planning and conducting literature search - 2

Literature sources
• Scanning and browsing secondary
literature available in the libraries;
• Table 3.4 entitled “Selected
publishers’ and bookshops’
Internet addresses” is available at
p.16 of ‘Additional Reading
Materials’.
• Searching using Internet.
• See next slide and pp. 17-18 of
‘Additional Reading Materials’.

PLANNING AND CONDUCTING LITERATURE SEARCH - 2

Planning and conducting literature search–3: searching the Internet
 » Define the scope of your
review
» Assess relevance and value
» Assess sufficiency

Obtaining, evaluating and

recording the literature - 1
 Recording the literature
Make notes for each item you read
Record the following
» Bibliographic details
* See details in Table 3.6 available at p. 19 of ‘Additional Reading Materials’.
Check also Appendix 2 entitled “Systems of referencing” available at pp. 20-26.

» Brief summary of content

* (covered in slide 4 & 5)

» Supplementary information
* See details in Table 3.7 available at p. 19 of ‘Additional Reading Materials’.

Obtaining, evaluating and recording

the literature - 1
 Referencing the references
Examples
In text:
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009)

In references (or bibliography)

Saunders, M.N.K, Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009)
Research Methods for Business Students (5th edn),
Prentice Hall

Obtaining, evaluating and recording the

literature - 3
 Four common forms
» Stealing material from another source

» Submitting material written by another

» Copying material without quotation marks

» Paraphrasing material without documentation

Adapted from Park (2003), cited in Easterby-Smith et al. (2008)

Plagiarism?
Discussion on last week assignment - 2

WE ARE NOW GOING TO HAVE A BRAINSTORMING

DISCUSSION ON RESEARCH TOPICS SELECTED, AND
RESEARCH QUESTION(S) AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
DEVELOPED BY VARIOUS GROUPS

RESPECTIVE GROUPS ARE INVITED TO PRESENT THEIR

CASES

The audience is invited to provide their input on the

topics selected, and research question(s) and research
objectives developed by the groups.
» Assignment – 3
» REVIEW OF LITERATURE - 1
Individual student’s assignment
1. You, individually as well as in group, refine and finalyse
your research topic, research question(s) and research
objectives in light of the feedback received through class
discussion.
2. After finalizing your research questions, you will be in a
position to initiate at least the first two steps of ‘the
literature review process’, meaning that you can ‘define
parameters’ and ‘generate and refine keyword’ for your
research topic, as per material provided in slide 8.
3. Please do so as per guidelines (a) & (b) of slide 9.
4. Please generate ‘keywords and search terms’ using
techniques known as ‘relevance tree’ (Slide 9).
Continues on next slide
» Assignment – 3
» REVIEW OF LITERATURE - 1
» (Continues from previous slide)

5. Now take the next step in ‘conducting the literature search’; and
the first step here is ‘searching using tertiary literature sources’
(Slide 10), using the keywords and search terms you have already
generated. Find relevant references, save materials with you as soft
copies, record ‘bibliographical details’ as per guidelines given in
slide 13, and make a list of references as per pattern of slide 14, for
inclusion in your report.
6. You will do this all individually, and your individual reports will be
annexed with your group report to be submitted in next week-class.
Group’s assignment:
1. Exchange reports with each other, evaluate report of at least one
colleague, hold a group meeting and finalyze group report.
2. Be ready to make a presentation in next class on the “Relevance
tree” prepared and ‘Keywords and search terms’ generated by your
respective group.
 Use of an already generated data file “TEACH.SAV”
• An introduction of “Teach.Sav” data file is provided in “Additional
Reading Materials” pages 55 – 63. This data file consists of data
about 347 people recruited to work for a UK firm; we will use data
contained in this file for various SPSS exercises.
• Let’s Upload the file’, taking the following steps.
i. Open SPSS
ii. Click ‘File…Open…Data’.
iii. Locate data file ‘Teach.Sav’ file on Instructor’s
directory on D:\.........................\CHISHTI drive.
iv.Open “Teach.Sav” by double-clicking on it.
v. Study the data provided and its nature/check how
variables have been coded (in Variable View).

SPSS Exercise 3