Central University

Sierra Leone.
#1 Silicon Hills Mile-91.
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West Africa.

Tips to writing a good Literature Review

Prepared By:
David Sapunka Fornah.
Lecturer Department of Technical Sciences
10/23/2023 Central University.
 What is it?
A literature review is an examination of credible journals, conferences, interviews
with experts, and published works that focuses on subjects and problems
pertinent to the study.

Why we write we write a Liturature Review?

The essence of writing a literature review is:
To help broaden the researchers idea in the study domain, and better educate
his/her audience with facts and/or statistics, by providing sufficient information on
the new findings.

Note: Most scientific research requires related state-of-the-art materials

published not later than five years. Except in the case of a historical investigation.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 How to Write the Literature Review Chapter?
• A literature review chapter should be structured like an essay “Informative”,
with a major discussion divided into themes or concepts based on your study
objectives.

• In writing a literature review, the researcher will serve as a moderator,

putting up a position, providing evidence to support it, and engaging in
discussion and counterarguments (having your voice).

• The review should conclude by outlining the insights it has provided,

outlining the areas to build on and the gaps to fill.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 What is expected of a good
Literature Review?
• A thorough literature review should be up-to-date, grouping materials based on
similarities in arguments, phenomena, and even methodologies. Hence, the
researcher should serve as a moderator, ensuring materials related to related
studies are utilized.
• A good literature review involves discussing and comparing various authors'
perspectives on a research topic, identifying disagreements and trends, and
analysing discrepancies. With this in place, researchers are able to presents
their own argument, analyses conflicting findings, and give conclusion with a
critical summary addressing key issues.
• Most importantly, the work must be properly referenced, clearly constructed, and
well-structured in order to avoid academic dishonesty.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 Note: the below metric table will enable one to develop a sound literature review.

Points to Note Questions to Answer

Evaluate Originality and How much have I evaluated the various authors work in respect to
Creativity of thought, and originality, and creativity of thoughts?
publication date

Categorize and Contrast Have I categorized and contrast the related study of literature?

Study Analysis and Have I properly studied, analyse, and synthesized the studies
Synthesize pertinent to the research work?

10/23/2023 By: David Sapunka Fornah

 What is NOT expected of a
Literature Review?
• A good literature review should be a narrative description, not just a
list of related works, and not just a chronological listing of the study
literature.
• But is a structural framework that, following a careful analysis of the
study-related materials, utilized to demonstrate the researcher's
understanding of the subject at hand.
• Making links between publications and authors also demonstrates the
researcher's capacity to logically describe and critique facts, ideas,
data, and information. It aids the researcher in locating gaps and tying
together various points of view.
10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 Steps to make a Good and Compressive
Literature Review

10/23/2023 By: David Sapunka Fornah

 Five main approaches for a well-structured
literature review
1) The researcher establishes the topic and body of knowledge, sets
the scope of material, considering the problem statement, research
question, and key words.

How to go about it?

 Types and sources of Scholarly Materials selection
 Date of Material Publications
 Region of Material Publication
 Cross-Disciplinary Study Materials

10/23/2023
By:
David Sapunka Fornah
Below is a list of some reputable sites (databases) for journals and articles will
include:

Goggle Scholar, JSTOR, In space (for physics, engineering and computer

science), Economist (economics), Project Muse (humanities and social
sciences), and Lined (life sciences and boo-medicine) to name just a few.

Note: In making a search or selecting of an article or a journal publication for

study literature, you are expected to do the following:
• Read the publications abstract to know whether it will be of related
importance to your study research.
• Keywords are also crucial at this early stage of the study.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
2) Evaluation of Selected Sources of the Study Materials
At this stage of the study the researcher is expected to provide answers to the
following questions: At this stage of the study the researcher is expected to
provide answers to the following questions:
I. What question or problem is the author addressing?
II. What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
III. What are the key theories, models and methods? Does the research use
established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
IV. What are the results and conclusions of the study?
V. How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it
confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
VI. How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What
are its key insights and arguments?
VII. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
3. Identify Themes, Debates and Gaps between Sources/Authors
This requires the researcher to be able understanding connections between sources,
publications, and authors, comparing validity, and synthesizing findings to make
connections between various methods. To achieve this, the following parameters must
be taken into consideration:

I. Trend and patterns (relating to; theory, methods and results).

II. Debates, disagreements, and contradictions must be taken into account by the
researcher along with the important areas where the sources diverge.
III. Any key publication that has influenced the field's course must be identified by the
researcher, along with any relevant theories or findings.
IV. Most crucial, the researcher needs to be able to spot any gaps in the research. By
responding to the question, "What is missing from the sources of literature, are
there weaknesses that need to be addressed?," the research study gap can be
identified. Explain how your own research will advance knowledge in your
response to this question.
10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
4. Outline of the Literature Review Structure
Researchers can employ a variety of ways depending on the nature of their study
for optimal organization, and a well-structured literature review successfully
communicates the study message. these will include:
I. Chronologically Structured - this structures the review of your study by
tracking the development of the study topic overtime.
II. Thematically Structured – this approach takes the central theme of the study
in key consideration. It organizes sub-themes into sections that address
different aspect of the study topic/research.
III. Methodical Structured – this structure of a literature review is used in a
situation where different approaches, disciplines and sources are used to
compare the result of a given study and then emerge to conclusion.
IV. Theatrical Structure - Using this approach, the researcher can argue for the
relevance of a specific theory, model or concept or combine various ones to
create a framework of his or her studyBy:research.
10/23/2023
David Sapunka Fornah
5. Writing the literature
The writing process is a science, it takes steps, rules and procedures on the one hand. On the
other hand, it is an art; which goes along with creativity and originality. The writing process can
take various forms. Below gives an overview in writing a literature review:

I. The Assignment - Know your topic, audience, and work duration then establish your goal.
II. Pre-writing - Generate the ideas by; brainstorming, using bubble diagrams etc.
III. Compose the first draft (Rough draft)
IV. Editing - Using feedbacks from friends, peers, and/or instructors
V. Writing a second draft - Polished version of your first draft (arranging ideas and paragraphs).
VI. Proofreading - Focus on sentence-level, grammatical errors, spellings, and referencing style.

Writing the literature review to a research study, takes the following blocks:

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 INTRODUCTION:
Start your introduction in a way that it will grab your readers attention by looking
at the big picture (Look at what holds in broader space and then bring it down to
your context/scope).

Note: The essence of the introduction is to prepare the reader for what follow in
your review. So to make it interesting and attention-grabbing is a great way to
start. Begin with a;
Question, Definition, Question, Narrative, Dialogue, An Interesting Fact or
Theory, or an Opposite Opinion or with a short narrative.

 THESIS STATEMENT:
A one or two sentence statement summarizing what the review will discuss.

10/23/2023 By: David Sapunka Fornah

 BODY:
Provide unbiased information about the research topic at hand.
Below are key strategies to utilize in writing the body section of your study
literature review:

 Summarize and synthesize the ideas, based on; concept, themes and
methodologies of the selected sources of literature to the study.
 Analyse and interpret the findings from the different selected sources.
 Critically Evaluate your interpretation of the selected sources and make
inferences and then finally draw a conclusion.

10/23/2023 By: David Sapunka Fornah

 CONCLUSION:
Final paragraph(s) of the literature review that provides a sense of closure.
It mealy restating the thesis statement, but mirrors the introduction, lues the
audience to action from what he/she has learnt or brings up remaining
questions. This can be achieved by proposing research that will answer to those
questions.

Note that:
Your review must have a clear balance of about 60 to 40 between outside
research and original analysis. Be mindful that you are not expected to throw
your opinion on any bit of idea but, when you site, you must explain its
significant.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah
 Useful Skills to keep track of your sources
for proper Referencing.
Prepare an excel spreadsheet as below, with the following
fields to help you document your sources.
NO Author (s) Name Year of Publication Title URL/Accessible
link

10/23/2023 By: David Sapunka Fornah

References:
1. Kaplan. “The UK HandBook for Writers 2e. Second Edition. Cengage
Learning. 2008.
2. Neil Murray and Geraldine Hughes. “Writing up your University Assignments
and Research Projects”. University of Makeni. 2014.
3. Sven Ake Bjorke. 2016. Academic writing and Critical thinking: Retrievable
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NGMoW51jmA&t=8s

Note: The complete video is made up of five series, all of which are accessible
from you tube. Look them up! They will be very helpful in helping you through
the writing process.

10/23/2023 By:
David Sapunka Fornah