CHAPTER 4 :

LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND

REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

LESSON 4 :WRITING COHERENT REVIEW OF

LITERATURE
 Introduction
• Literature as in any form of writing demands the observance of
coherence.
• The review is usually presented in a traditional narrative way through
summary and synthesis becoming a body of literature by itself.
• There is a need for the researcher to express the reviewed literature
in his/ her own words to avoid presenting the whole material as a
quotation or a series of quotations.
• A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which it
summarizes briefly each article that have reviewed or researched on.
 Structure of a Literature Review

Main components are:

• The Introduction to the review of literature is often a
single paragraph that introduces the general topic
and provides scholarly (e.g. policy, practice)context of
the review. It also identifies the overall statement of
knowledge about the topic (e.g. methodology,
evidence, problem or opportunity).
 Structure of a Literature Review
Main components are:
• In the Body of Literature Review, need to address previous
research on the topic grouped according to theme, theoretical,
perspective, method used or chronological development. This
section draws together the significance of previous individual
studies by highlighting the main themes, issues and knowledge
gaps. You must connect the literature to the proposed research
objectives within this parts and describe previous work you have
accomplished related to your proposed study.
 Structure of a Literature Review
Main components are:
• The Conclusion to the literature review is often a single paragraph
that provides a summary statement of the overall state of
knowledge about the topic. This section should reconnect the
ideas to your introduction. It should establish the potential
significance or importance of your proposed study relative to the
current state of knowledge.
• Remember to use accurate in text citations. A literature review
must contain complete and correct citations for every source.
 Guidelines in Writing a Literature Review
Rule 1: Define the topic and the audience. When defining a topic, consider factors
such as Interest, Importance and regency.
Rule 2:Search and re-search reference lists.
Rule 3: Prepare a conceptual diagram of the need for the different types of literature
review.
Rule 4: Take notes while reading.
Rule 5: Choose the type of review you wish to write.
Rule 6: Keep the review focused.
Rule 7: Be critical and consistent.
Rule 8: Find a logical structure.
Rule 9: Make use of feedback.
For a coherent presentation, it is suggest to use phrases
suggesting the tentative character of the research
literature such as:
1. There appears to be strong evidence that…
2. The literature has shown...
3. The foregoing literatures have shown…
4. The data supporting the hypothesis are…
Index card are among the most handy research tools ever invented.
Here’s the how of recording your scores’ bibliographic information:
• Make a separate card for each source.
• Give each source a racking number.
• For a book include the author, title, date and pace of publication and
publisher.
• For a periodical, also include the page numbers of the article.
• For a website, include the title, the sponsors and authors or editors,
if known; the site and date when created or update and the date
when you accessed the site.
Using index cards will help facilitate the writing of and effective review
of literature. Important features and contents can be outlined and
recorded on these cards. Doing this will make it easy for you, the
researcher to organize and put together the needed information for
this section of the research paper:
1. Where you found the information
2. Topic
3. Paraphrased information found
4. Page you the fact on
 1. Where you found the information

2. Topic

Hughes Poetry Source#3

Hughes’ Poetry is an example of the innovative &
influential art of the Harlem Renaissance
Page 15
3. Paraphrased information found

4. Page you found the fact on

 Literature Review of Relevant Research
1. Establishes research territory.
2. Establishes significance of territory.
3. Establishes research niche. (Briefly reviews what has been found, and then identifies a gap. Discusses
what has been found, but points out inconsistency of results.)
4. Motivates next part of literature review.
5. Further justifies the need to investigate the impact of social influences on memory.
6. Reviews the chronological development of research in this area (an approach that is useful at times,
but not always the best). Discusses one key paper at a time by describing its methods and key
findings, but then identifies weaknesses in the method and/or limitations in the findings. Then
discusses how the next researchers tried to address these problems.
7. Repeat 6 for another sub-topic.
8. Overall conclusion/ summary which indicated why she was going to use a particular methodological
approach to her research.
END