How to Write a Review of

Related Literature

Dr. Felina C. Young

Dr. Felina C. Young

College of the Holy Spirit Manila 1
Assumptions
• Research is an inevitable measure of educational
quality.
• Although required of every higher educational
institution, research has not been fully undertaken
by many.
• For those educational institutions who have been
conducting researches, few have implemented peer
reviews.
• And it is to be noted that Review of related literature
is an essential part of a research.
• Once one has a research problem/topic, the next
step is to review the literature on the topic.
• Examining both the theoretical and research
literature on a topic usually will help one narrow
his/her topic. Dr. Felina C. Young
College of the Holy Spirit Manila 2
• A review of related literature
is an integral part of theses or
dissertations.
• It may also be a required part
of research proposals.

Dr. Felina C. Young

College of the Holy Spirit Manila 3
• The main purpose of a review of
related literature is not to just give a
descriptive list of the material
available, or a set of summaries of
studies related to the research topic.

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College of the Holy Spirit Manila 4
• Instead, the main purpose of a review
of related literature is to discuss and
analyze critically the scientific works
conducted by the other researchers
that you used for investigating your
given area of study.

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Holy Spirit Manila 5
• It should add value to all those
papers you have read,
• It should explain how the many
salient ideas of others (often
gathered from many disparate
sources) have led up to and have
contributed to your research problem.

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Holy Spirit Manila 6
Things That Literature Reviews Do
• Should show that • Should give the
the researcher readers the
know the literature background to
related to his/her understand the
research topic and research work
that – this includes both
readers who are
– there is far too much specialists in the area,
literature for him/her and readers who know
to be exhaustive. Thus, nothing about it (e.g.,
there is the external examiners).
need to be selective. The researcher should
balance his/her
approach.
Dr. Felina C. Young College of the
Holy Spirit Manila 7
Things That Literature Reviews Do
• Should give a • Should lead into
historical the research
• perspective problem that the
– by showing how the researcher wishes
ideas arose and to tackle
evolved over time. – what others have done
before within this
context, what is being
done now, what
problems have been
identified, what has
not been worked on,
how your own work
builds/ adds onto this.
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Holy Spirit Manila 8
Things That Literature Reviews Do
• Should describe
related work
– illustrating other
ideas that are related
to the research idea
i.e., how they are
similar and how they
are different.
Dr. Felina C. Young
College of the Holy Spirit Manila
• Should give a new view
of the problem/solution.
– by combining & synthesizing
together the literature in a
way that adds something new
i.e., the whole is greater than
the sum of the parts
– as a reader of the literature,
by having a better
perspective/overview than
any individual author may
have had, particularly earlier
authors who have not seen
later works.
– By fitting all the pieces
together into an organization
that relates all the parts
through a framework.
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Types of Literature Reviews
• Annotated
bibliographies
– is typically a listing of
papers arranged by
alphabetically or by
topic, where each
paper is represented as
a reference plus a
summary paragraph.
– The limitation is that it
needs regular
updating.
– it is considered as not a
good way to do a
literature review.
Dr. Felina C. Young College of the
Holy Spirit Manila
• Organizing a
literature review by
project summaries
– describes/summarizes a
particular project in detail and
give the most significant
references to it.
– can collapse several papers
into a single project summary
– can describe the evolution of
a project over time.
– But can result in redundant
ideas on one hand or missed
ideas on the other hand.
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Types of Literature Reviews
• Organizing a
literature review
by history
– Shows the literature
review as a historical
perspective by
discussing the
evolution of ideas over
time.
– When this is used,
make sure that the
evolution really leads
into your research
problem.
Dr. Felina C. Young
College of the Holy Spirit Manila
• Organizing a
literature review by
ideas
– Ideas are typically
abstractions that you may
have made or arrived at after
reading many
papers/research works.
– They are the essence of your
research and may be
presented either as a set of
subsections of related ideas
(where one will flow from the
next), or even better as a
framework that shows the
inter-relations between ideas
as well as their structure.
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How Do I Start?

• Identify a few key • In identifying key

papers (at least 5). papers,

– do on-line searches, – look at each paper's

– go to the library, references; if you see
– search books and other those that seem to be cited
reading materials, more often, these may be
key papers in the area of
– browse the abstracts of your research.
relevant journals and
other publications. – File them and pay
attention to what they cite.
– ask knowledgeable
individuals, if there are.

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College of the Holy Spirit Manila 12
How Do I Start?
• When you have
found the key
papers, read them
carefully.
• Print out those papers
and keep them in a
folder manually or
electronically. When you
see a great idea as you
read the paper,

– mark them using post its,

highlighting pens, etc.
– copy from digital libraries
or scan them.
– Write the source: author/s,
date, title, page, publisher,
if necessary.
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Holy Spirit Manila 13
Parts of a review of related
literature

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion/Synthesis

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Holy Spirit Manila 14
Start by making an Outline

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Holy Spirit Manila 15
In order to make the Introduction
elaborately, take the following steps:

• Identify the general topic of the sources

under discussion. Thus, you need to provide
the context of your review of related literature;
• Discuss what was already presented about the
topic of your paper: conflicts in a theory,
conclusions, gaps in research, etc.
• Explain why the literature used is worth
reviewing.
Dr. Felina C. Young College of the
Holy Spirit Manila 16
When writing the Body, do the
following:

• Group the sources according to their

common dominators (approaches,
objectives or any specific chronologies);
• Give the examples of how to sort out
these groups. Use quotations, evidences,
data, etc. They will make your review of
related literature more valid.

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Holy Spirit Manila 17
While writing the body, answer the following
the questions:
3. What is the scope of my
1. What is the specific literature review? What types of
research problem that my publications am I using
literature review hopes to (e.g., journals, books, studies,
define? e-documents, and others)? What
discipline am I working in (e.g.,
2. What type of literature psychology, sociology, business,
review am I conducting? sciences)?
Am I looking at issues of
theory? methodology? 4. How good was my information
policy? quantitative seeking? Was my search
research? qualitative comprehensive? Was it
research? streamlined to exclude those
that are irrelevant? Was the
number of sources I used
appropriate for the length of my
paper?
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Holy Spirit Manila 18
While writing the body, answer the following
the questions:

5. Have I critically analysed the 7. What is the relationship

literature I use? Did I follow
through a set of concepts
and questions, comparing
items to each other in the
ways they dealt with them?
Instead of just listing and
summarizing items, did I
assessed them, discussing
strengths and weaknesses?
between the
theoretical/conceptual
framework and my research?
8. Have you included all relevant
studies? To prevent repetition,
your literature review should be
very thorough and should not
leave out some relevant studies.

6. Have I cited and discussed 9. Will the reader find my literature

studies contrary to my review relevant, appropriate,
perspective? scholarly, and useful?

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Holy Spirit Manila 19
While writing the body, answer the following
the questions:

9. Have you cited each source 10. Will the reader find my
as you mentioned it? If the literature review relevant,
author's name in the text was appropriate, scholarly, and
mentioned, which is best in a useful?
research study, did you
immediately added a
parenthetical citation noting the
publication date of that author's
study?
- If you just mentioned the
information published in the
study, did you add a
parenthetical citation at the end
of that sentence; including the
author's last name and the
source's publication date?
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Holy Spirit Manila 20
To make the Conclusion, do the
following:

• Summarize the contributions of the literature

sources made to the area of study you investigate
while maintaining the central focus in the
Introduction;
• Give a kind of insight into the relationship
between the topic of your review and a larger
study area (e.g. a discipline, a scientific endeavor,
etc.)
• Show in what way is your research different from
the other research literature & studies you have
mentioned.
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How to Write your Bibliography

For each printed source, collect For each Website source, collect
information : information :
• author name • author and editor names (if
• title of the publication (and available)
the title of the article if it's a • title of the page (if available)
magazine or encyclopedia)
• date of publication
• the company or organization
who posted the webpage
• the place of publication of a
book • the Web address for the
• the publishing company of a page (called a URL)
book • the last date you looked at
• the volume number of a the page
magazine or printed
encyclopedia
• the page number(s)
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Holy Spirit Manila 22
How to Write your Bibliography

List the sources in alphabetical order

using the author's last name. If a
source has more than one author,
alphabetize using the first one. If an
author is unknown, alphabetize that
source using the title instead.

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Holy Spirit Manila 23
Sample Bibliography: APA Reference List Format

Battery. (1990). Encyclopedia britannica. (pp. 100-101). Chicago:

Encyclopedia Britannica.
Best batteries. (December 1994). Consumer Reports Magazine, 32,
71-72.
Booth, Steven A. (January 1999). High-Drain Alkaline AA-Batteries.
Popular Electronics, 62, 58.
Brain, Marshall. How batteries work. howstuffworks. Retrieved
August 1, 2006, from http://home.howstuffworks.com/battery.htm
Cells and batteries. (1993). The DK science encyclopedia. New York: DK
Publishing.
Dell, R. M., and D. A. J. Rand. (2001). Understanding batteries. Cambridge, UK:
The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Learning center. Energizer. Eveready Battery Company, Inc. Retrieved August 1,
2006, from http://www.energizer.com/learning/default.asp
Learning centre. Duracell. The Gillette Company. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from
http://www.duracell.com/au/main/pages/learning-centre-what-is-a-
battery.asp
Dr. Felina C. Young College of the
Holy Spirit Manila 24
Sample Bibliography: MLA Works Cited Format

"Battery." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1990.

"Best Batteries." Consumer Reports Magazine 32 Dec. 1994: 71-72.
Booth, Steven A. "High-Drain Alkaline AA-Batteries." Popular
Electronics 62 Jan. 1999: 58.
Brain, Marshall. "How Batteries Work." howstuffworks. 1 Aug. 2006
<http://home.howstuffworks.com/battery.htm>.
"Cells and Batteries." The DK Science Encyclopedia. 1993.
Dell, R. M., and D. A. J. Rand. Understanding Batteries. Cambridge,
UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2001.
"Learning Center." Energizer. Eveready Battery Company, Inc.
1 Aug. 2006 <http://www.energizer.com/learning/default.asp>.
"Learning Centre." Duracell. The Gillette Company. 31 July 2006
<http://www.duracell.com/au/main/pages/learning-centre-
what-is-a-battery.asp>.

Dr. Felina C. Young

College of the Holy Spirit Manila 25
Thank you

Dr. Felina C. Young College of the

Holy Spirit Manila 26