Inquiries, Investigations
& Immersion Review of
RESEARCH PROJECT
Review of Related Literature
• introductory section
• involves the systematic identification,
location and analysis of documents
containing information related to the
research problem.
Selecting, Citing and Synthesizing
Literature
• serves as to tie together what others
have done and what you plan to do.
• The review is supposed to lead
somewhere---your own research and its
justification
Related Literature
Chapter 2
Review of Related Literature
• is a systematic process that requires
careful and perceptive reading and
attention to detail.
• The researcher attempts to gather
information relevant to the research
problem at hand.
Functions of RRL
• convinces your reader that your research will
make a significant and substantial
contribution to the literature
• demostrates your knowledge of the research
problem
• demonstrates your understanding of the
theoretical and reserch issues related to your
research question
Functions of RRL The process centers on three questions:
• ensures that you are not "reinventing the wheel"
• gives credits to those who have laid the • Where is the information found?
groundwork for your research
• What should be done with information
• indicates your ability to integrate and synthesize
the existing literature after it has been found?
• provides new theoretical insights or develops new • What is made of the information?
model as the conceptual framework for your
research.
• shows your ability to critically evaluate relevant
literature information

Where is the information found? What should be done with

information after it has been found?
• Specific sources • information is assembled and
•both electronic and hard copy summarized
• Give examples. • in other words, SYNTHESIZED.

What is made of the information? How to organize your RRL?

• a critical analysis •make use of subheadings

•theoretical models
•measuring instruments
•cross-cultural and gender
differences
What to avoid?
• Avoid repetitive sentences such as
"According to Bueno(2013)..."
"According to Bueno(2014)..."
or
"Matriano (2015) found that..."
"Almazan (2011) found that..."
Selective Review of Literature
• The needed review for Chapter 1 is a
selective, not comprehensive, review of the
literature
Comprehensive Review
• For Chapter 2: Comprehensive review
• It aims to bring together what is known on a
particular topic, possibly highlighting
controversial or disparate lines of thinking or
even the progress over time in cumulating
knowledge about a subject.
Most students' literature reviews
suffer from the following problems:
• Being repetitive and verbose
• citing irrelevant or trivial references
• depending too much on secondary sources
• failing to cite influential papers
• failing to keep up with recent developments
• lacking focus, unity and coherence
• lacking organization and structure
Selective Review of Literature
•Main purpose:
• to sharpen your preliminary considerations
regarding your topic of study, method, and
data source
•What to review:
• other studies that focused on similar topics
or used a similar data collection method
• studies that have used similar or perhaps
even the same sources
How to Review
• The main topic of the study, including the
issues/questions being addressed by the study;
• The data collection method, including the
extent of the data collection (e.g., the
number of people interviewed in an interview
study, or the length and breadth of fieldwork
in a participant-observer study);
How to Review
• The study’s main findings, including the
specific data used to represent the findings;
• The study’s main conclusions; and APA Citation
• Your own comments about the strengths
and weaknesses of the study—and the full
bibliographic details for citing the study.
 Activity
• Make a citation for the following reference
materials

• epubs.scu.edu.au/theses/351/

• Journal of Comparative Neurology

In-text Citation