LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1What is a “Literature Review”?

A literature review is an overview of research on a given
topic and answers to related research questions
Literature reviews are an important part of research and
should be treated as such
A well-written literature review:
Organizes literature
Evaluates literature
Identifies patterns and trends in literature
Synthesizes literature
‘the literature’ means the works you
consulted in order to understand and
investigate your research problem.
 
A literature review involves providing a
rationale for your selection of literature
related to the subject studied.
The literature review familiarizes the reader
with the subject and the scope of the research
topic.

It helps the reader to define key concepts and

 Finallyit establishes the body of knowledge

which will be able to contribute towards the
research.
2.2 Writing the Literature Review

Firstly decide what you need to read from a

broad spectrum of literature available

Refer to books, periodicals, journals, and

websites which will be relevant to your
study.
Determine what exactly are your
objectives.
 You have to decide on what approach or
methodology would you adopt and finally
You should provide a rather current
complete overview of your related topic.

 You are to show that you have read

extensively and formed a body of
knowledge on the subject of field of
study.
Purpose of writing a literature Review
 

your review should be in a form of

critical decision,
showing awareness of differing arguments,
theories, approaches and methodologies.

 it should be a synthesis and analysis of the relevant

published work, linked at all times to your objective
and rationale of your study.

 
There are several purposes on why we write
a literature review:

 it reviews knowledge of previous studies

on the subject of research
identifies a conceptual framework for ones
own research
it provides directions for future research
it provides resources previously unknown to
the reader
it identifies gaps in past studies
it relates your findings to previous knowledge and suggest
further research

 in a literature review the writer has to justify his choice of

research question
 
The researcher has to provide the necessary background
information needed to understand the study and

finally to show the readers that the writer is familiar with the
significant and up to date research which is relevant to the
research topic.
 
to sum up, a good literature review is:
 critical of what has been written,
it identifies areas of controversy,
raises questions and identifies areas
which need further research.
2.3 Process of Writing a Literature Review

There are several stages in developing a

literature review.(Biddlek 1997) The
stages are : IR4W
Identify
Record
Relevance
Retrieve
Review
Write
Stage 1 – Identify
 Compile a list of references.
Use a kind of index system either a hard copy or a
software referencing system.
i)work through key catalogues, databases, indexes,
bibliographies and websites for relevant resources
ii)check the references and in the articles you have
read
iii)locate and use research reviews, most journals have
a section on review of articles, it is essential you see
what other people think about these articles as they be
from a previous research
Stage 2-Record
i)Make a record of any literature that
relates to your topic.
You should have citation details, where it
is located, should also write a few
sentences that help you remember what
the article is about
 
Stage 3 –Relevance
i)Prioritize the literature, after having read the abstract, rank
them if it should be high, medium or low priority

ii)On the website scan through the literature for relevance

before you decide to download or print it out

iii) You need to focus on the literature and sources you have
identified and ranked as most important, the most recent
development from the periodicals.
 
iv) Distinguish between textbooks, research articles from
journals and books. They contain different kinds of
information that will be more or less relevant to your research
 
Stage 4 -Retrieve
i) Make hard copies of the most important
literature. Print relevant journal articles
from databases and photocopy articles
from journals
Stage 5 –Review
 Use the reading log which allows you to record
different kinds of information: the bibliographic
details,
a description, and
relationship to other readings.
Also record where the literature is located so that
you can easily refer back to the quotes or ideas
paraphrased when you are editing. 
As you are taking notes, ensure you are clear about
what you are quoting and paraphrasing. You cannot
risk unintentionally plagiarizing ideas.
Stage 6 -Write
Start with an introductory paragraph,
discuss the literature on the subject in a
logical and
coherent way and
* finally conclude with a paragraph that is
relevant to the literature of the research
 
2.4 Five Phases of Writing a Literature Review

Phase 1 – Specify the scope of your review 

i)Ensure you have a precise topic
 you must be precise about having a topic. It should not be too broad or
unspecific. Look at the following topic which is too broad
Example: ‘Life and Times of Sigmund Freud”
 
The title below seems to be limited, but still considered too broad
Example: “Psychological Theories of Sigmund Freud
 
However, a more manageable and appropriate topic would be
‘Freud’s Theory of Personality Applied to Mental Health”
 
If your research question is too broad or defined vaguely or abstractly,
you may end up reading and compiling to much information for your
literature review. However if your research question is specified too
narrowly or defined concisely, you may miss out more general
information
ii)Scope of the Literature Review
 you have to determine the precise scope of
the literature review, Questions which need
to be answered are as follows
-What will I cover in my review?
-How comprehensive will it be?
-How current are my materials
-What type of materials/documents will be
needed?
Phase 2: Locating and Accessing Information
You can obtain all the necessary materials for your literature

obtain all the necessary materials for your

literature review by searching relevant
bibliographies, print indexes and online
databases
 
i)Using Existing Literature Reviews
Many journals on different subject areas publish
review articles. In these journals you may find
commentaries on research articles. You may find
these reviews relevant to your literature review.
Phase 3 Recording the Information

You can develop a systematic way of

recording information through: note cards
with citations:

Photostatted articles with points

highlighted or underlined with notes in the
margins: traditional taking down notes or
in laptops
 
 i)Tips on Recording Information
 
 A quick skimming and scanning through the introduction and the
conclusion of an article, would give you an idea of the article and
general points.
a)Start with the most recent studies and work backwards. Refer to
the list of references on a recent article;  
-b)Read, first the report or article’s abstract,this will give you
some clues about the article
c)When taking down notes, remember to write out the complete
bibliographic citation for each work. It is essential you note down
the page numbers as these will be necessary later for footnotes and
bibliography. For internet citations note the URL
 
d)Write all direct quotations precisely when taking down notes.
You should use quotations marks, so it can recognize as a directly
quoted text and not a paraphrase. If you fail to put a direct text in
quotation marks or to credit the authors, it amounts to plagiarism.
 Phase 4 Evaluating the Information
 
After having read all the articles, you
must now decide and evaluate what
should be included in the review.
Be selective, you have to consider
issues,themes, that link different articles.
Phase 5 Organizing and Writing the Literature Review
After accessing, reading and evaluating
the material. These materials need to be
organized.
 You may organize the selected readings
by theoretical approaches, by specific
concepts or issues, and by methodologies

 
i)Excellent Writing
After you have located, read, analyzed and evaluated
the literature, the next stage is actual writing. Here
are some tips:
Keep your paragraphs short
Subheadings are essential, as it clarifies the structure.
They break up the materials into more readable units
Avoid too many long direct quotations from the
studies. Paraphrase other writers works rather than
quote lengthy passages
Don’t cite references that you haven’t read
Some traps to avoid:
Trying to read everything!
◦ not to provide a summary of all the published work
that relates to your research, but a survey of the most
relevant and significant work.
Reading but not writing!
◦ Writing can help you to understand and find
relationships between the work you’ve read, so don’t
put writing off until you’ve “finished” reading.
Not keeping bibliographic information!
- Source: http://www.clpd.bbk.ac.uk/students/litreview
web.pdx.edu/~bertini/literature_review.pdf
2.7 Final Checklist
Here is a checklist from University of Melbourne:
(
http://www.lib.unimelb.eduau/postgrad/litreview/finalchecklist.htm
l
)
i)Selection of sources
Have you indicated the purpose of the review
Have you ascertained the parameters of the review and are they
reasonable
Have you emphasized on recent development of the research
Have you focused on primary sources with only selective use of
secondary sources
Is the literature selected relevant to your study
Is your bibliographic data complete
