Literature Review

 a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. 

 surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a
particular area of research.
  It should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively evaluate and
clarify the previous research.
   It gives a theoretical base for the research and help the author
determine the nature of your research
Objectives

A literature review has four main objectives:

 Surveys 
 literature in your chosen area of study
 synthesises 
 information in that literature into a summary
 critically analyses
 information gathered by identifying gaps in current knowledge;
 showing limitations of theories and points of view
 formulating areas for further research and reviewing areas of controversy
 Presents
 literature in an organised way
Steps in literature review

 Collect, evaluate and select literature

 Find connections and themes
 Plan your literature review’s structure
 Write your literature review
Types of literature review
Purpose of literature review

 Attain good knowledge of the field

 Methodologies common to the field
 Helps to narrow the problem
 Generation of hypothesis, RQ for further studies
Database for literature survey

 Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

 university’s library catalogue
 Google Scholar
 JSTOR
 EBSCO
 Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
 Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
 EconLit (economics)
 Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
Synthesizing

 combining of information in a meaningful way,

 Purpose:
 draw conclusions about the findings in the literature
 identify how the literature addresses your research question.
Process in synthesizing

 Gather literature that addresses your research question

 Review literature and take notes: describe, summarize,
analyze, and identify key concepts
 Synthesize literature: compare & contrast, critically evaluate,
interpret, so that you can draw conclusion
Synthesis matrix
Critical Analysis

  critical analysis is a careful examination and evaluation of

a text, image, or other work or performance. 
 It involves breaking down an idea or a statement, such as
a claim, and subjecting it to critical thinking in order to test its
validity.
Analysis Vs Evaluation

 Analysis
  analysis infers the meaning or purpose of something; it makes an
interpretation.
 Evaluation 
  evaluation makes a judgment about the quality of something, such
as an argument or decision.
Purpose of research

 Explore
 Describe
 Test
 Evaluate
 Predict