RESEARCH METHODS

LECTURE # 4
LITERATURE REVIEW/ LITERATURE STUDY
LITERATURE REVIEW
Selection & collection of available knowledge on a
specific topic

• A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources

on a specific topic. It provides an overview of
current knowledge, allowing you to identify
relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing
research.

• A literature review is a piece of academic writing

demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the
literature on a specific topic placed in context.
The literature review forms an important chapter in the thesis, where
its purpose is to provide the background to and justification for the
research undertaken.
(Bruce, 1994:218)

Literature review helps in formulating the research questions, at the

same time you begin to identify relevant theories and methodologies
that you might adopt for your research.
LITERATURE SOURCES AVAILABLE
• PRIMARY SOURCES: Sources (also known as grey literature) are the
first occurrence of a piece of work. Provides direct access to the data
who are in direct connections
Interviews, art work, emails, conference proceedings, thesis, gov.
report…

• SECONDARY SOURCES: Subsequent publication of primary literature.

Books, magazines, newspapers, internet sources…
STEPS IN LITERATURE REVIEW
Writing a literature review involves finding relevant publications,
critically analyzing them, and explaining what you found. There are five
key steps:

• Identify research concept

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Analyzing and synthesizing the literature
• Write your literature review
1. IDENTIFY RESEARCH CONCEPT
• Clearly defined topic.
• Search for literature related to your
research problem and question.

QUESTION:
• How to improve the living standards for low income in terms of design and planning?
• What is the effect of smoking on lung cancer?
• What is the role of geometry in the Mughal tomb architecture?
2. SEARCH FOR THE RELEVANT LITERATURE
MAKE A LIST OF KEY WORDS
Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question/ topic.

EXAMPLE KEYWORDS:
• How to improve the living standards for low income in terms of design and planning?
LOW-INCOME HOUSING, SLUM, AFFORDABLE HOUSING
• What is the effect of smoking on lung cancer? SMOKING, CIGARETTE, LUNG CANCER,
• What is the role of geometry in the Mughal tomb architecture? GEOMETRY, TOMB
STRUCTURES, MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE, MUGHAL TOMBS
SERACH FOR RELEVANT SOURCES
Sources: Books, journals, documents in hard or soft
form
Use your keywords to begin searching for sources.
Some useful databases to search for journals and
articles include:

• Your university’s/public library catalogue

• Google scholar
• JSTOR

Read the abstract to find out whether an article is

relevant to your question. When you find a useful
book or article, you can check the bibliography to
find other relevant sources.
3. EVALUATE AND SELECT SOURCES
Evaluation of sources -quality, accuracy, relevance,
reputation, and credibility

EXAMPLE: EVALUATING A BOOK

IS IT OUTDATED (DEPENDS ON TOPIC AND
DISCIPLINE)
AUTHOR
CITATION
EVALUATE AND SELECT SOURCES
(SOME SAMPLE QUESTIONS) For each publication, ask yourself
questions like:
• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key methods?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
Take notes and cite your sources
It is important to keep track of your sources with citation to avoid
plagiarism. It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you
compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and
analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves
time later in the process

CITATION (REFERENCE IN THE PUBLICATION)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (a list of
citations to books, articles or documents
followed by the annotation. )
CITATION
,2007 )
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
4. ANALYZING AND SYNTHESIZING THE
LITERATURE
• Each source of collected data is then analyzed (critically).
• After this, synthesize the literature review. To begin organizing your
literature review, you need to understand the connections and
relationships between the sources you’ve read.
5. WRITING LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a basic format for writing a literature review. It must have:

• An introduction-(topic, importance…)
• Main body
• Conclusions
TOPIC SENTENCE- YOUR MAIN CLAIM OR KEY POINT FOR PARAGRAH

FIRST STATEMENT OF SOURCE FROM LITERATURE

By its very nature, motivation requires a degree of individual

satisfaction. Robbins, Millet and Waters-Marsh (1998) suggest that
motivation has its very basis the need to focus on, and please the self.
This is supported by Shaw, Shapard and Waugama (2000) who contend
that this narcissistic drive is based on the human effort to find personal
significance in life. It can be argued that the desire to improve ones'
status is a highly motivational force, and is central to the idea of
motivation. The motivational strategies put forward by Shaw et al.
(2000) are concerned with motivation for life in general, but may have
applications in the context of work. These strategies with their focus on
personal needs, demonstrate that…
CONCLUSION
SECOND STATEMENT OF SOURCE FROM LITERATURE ANALYSIS
TYPES OF LITERTATURE REVIEW
Literature review is divided into two types depending on the nature of
inquiry
• BASIC LITERATURE REVIEW: If the nature of inquiry is to advance a
position about the current state of knowledge on a topic, then it is a
basic literature review

• ADVANCE LITERATURE REVIEW: If the purpose of the inquiry is to

uncover the research problem for further study, then it is advanced
literature review
BASIC LITERTAURE REVIEW

RESEARCH
INTEREST
IDENTIFIES
ANSWERS

RESEARCH RESEARCH
THESIS TOPIC

DISCOVERS AND LITERATURE

ADVOCATES REVIEW SPECIFIES AND
FRAMES
ADVANCE LITERATURE REVIEW
ANSWERS IDENTIFIES
RESEARCH
INTEREST

RESEARCH
FINDINGS AND RESEARCH
CONCLUSIONS TOPIC

SPECIFIES AND
DETERMINES
FRAMES

RESEARCH LITERATURE
PROJECT REVIEW

RESEARCH
PROPOSES FURTHER THESIS DISCOVERS AND
RESEARCH ADVOCATES
LITERTAURE REVIEW AT DIFFERENT DEGREE
LEVELS

Compilation of
previous work.
WHY TO CONDUCT LITERATURE REVIEW
• If the researcher is aware of earlier studies of his topic, or related topics, he
will be in a much better position to assess the significance of his work
• It helps in demonstrating your familiarity with the topic and scholarly
context
• To situate your research within existing knowledge.
• It avoids duplication of the work.
• To become familiar with the types of methodology followed by others.
• It allows the researcher to understand if there are any unanswered research
questions
• It helps the researcher to situate his/her research within existing knowledge