LITERATURE
REVIEW
READING & WRITING SKILLS
LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review is a type of academic writing
that provides an overview of a specific topic. It
surveys scholarly work such as academic books
(but not textbooks), computerize databases,
conference proceedings, dissertation’s/theses,
empirical studies, government reports, historical
records, journal article, monographs, and
statistical handbooks.
LITERATURE REVIEW
As an advance form of academic writing, a literature
review critically analyzes the relationship among the
scholarly works and the current work. It can be written
as a stand-alone paper or as part of a research paper
explaining a theoretical framework and related studies.
Unlike an annotated bibliography which presents a
summary and synthesis (i.e., linking different sources).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Doing a literature review will test your ability to seek
literature efficiently and identify useful scholarly work.
It will also test your ability to evaluate studies for their
validity and reliability. Hence, writing a literature
review involves research, critical appraisal, and
writing. Everything else included, a student may take
40 hours to finish a well- written literature review.
FUNCTIONS OF A
LITERATURE REVIEW
This type of a review has the following roles.
Justifies a research questions, method or theoretical and conceptual
framework
Establishes the relevant of the topic
Provides necessary information to better understand a specific topic or
study
Shows reviewers familiarity and mastery of the topic
Establishes a niche of the study
Resolves conflict among contradictory studies
STRUCTURE OF A
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION:
Purpose for writing literature review and the
importance of the topic being reviewed
Scope the review
Criteria used for selecting the literature
Organizational pattern of the review
STRUCTURE OF A
LITERATURE REVIEW
BODY:
Historical background
Relevant theories
Relationship between and among the studies, and how
each study advanced a theory
Strengths and weaknesses of each paper
Various viewpoints on the topic
STRUCTURE OF A
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONCLUSION:
Restatement of the main argument or thesis
Main agreements and disagreements in the literature
If stand-alone paper: conclusions; implications; and direction
for future studies
If part of a thesis or research paper: linking of the literature
review to the research questions
Overall perspective on the topic.
GUIDELINES IN WRITING A
LITERATURE REVIEW
Writing a literature review is composed
of three distinct parts ---literature search,
evaluation and analysis of articles and
writing the literature review –all of which
are discussed below.
LITERATURE
SEARCH
1. Review the documentation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) that
you will adopt and be familiar with its format in relation to writing
a literature review.
2. Choose and focus on a topic that you will explain.
3. Determine the kind and number of sources you will be using. Will
your literature review be exclusive to articles or will it include
other documents? Will you focus on experimental studies or will
you also include theoretical papers that explain a theory?
LITERATURE
SEARCH
4. Survey the available online databases relevant to your topic. These
include Proquest, Science Direct, JSTOR, or Google Scholar. As much
as possible, include only the references published by top journals and
publishers.
5. Use relevant keywords when searching for scholarly documents or
article. For example, if your topic is about the impact of Facebook-based
e-portfolios on the writing skills of ESL learners, your possible keywords
are Facebook, ESL writing, e-portfolio, portfolio assessment, Facebook-
based e-portfolio, and social networking site.
LITERATURE
SEARCH
6. Always include landmark studies or papers
(i.e., studies which had remarkably changed
the field) related to your topic.
7. Always evaluate the sources for coverage
and currency. Include only those article directly
related to your topic.
EVALUATION AND
ANALYSIS OF ARTICLES
Once you have identified and obtained the articles for
your review, analyze them before writing the actual
literature review. To do this, you may apply the
following steps.
1.Skim the articles and read their abstracts.
2.Group the articles and other documents according to
their categories.
EVALUATION AND
ANALYSIS OF ARTICLES
3. Take down notes. Focus on the research questions, methodology
used, major findings and their explanation, and conclusion.
4. Summarize the details using a concept map. In this way, you will
see the relationship, similarities and differences among the articles.
5. Write a synthesis of the references you have read before writing
the actual literature review.
6. Create an outline. You may look for other literature reviews to serve
as models for writing the outline.
WRITING A LITERATURE
REVIEW
Once all the materials are ready and you have clear outline of the
ideas you want to express, you may now start the actual writing
process.
1. State clearly your thesis or main argument and be guided by it
accordingly. Below is an example of a thesis statement for a
literature review.
Because of Facebook’s popularity, many educators have
explored its educational use in the tertiary level.
WRITING A LITERATURE
REVIEW
2. If you say that no studies have been conducted on one aspect of
your topic, justify it.
3. Direct the readers to other related literature reviews that cover
items which you do not intend to cover. You may use the citation
format “(see Author, year)” or follow the format prescribed by your
chosen documentation style.
4. Never treat a literature review as a series of annotated
bibliography.
WRITING A LITERATURE
REVIEW
5. Use headings and subheadings to classify the
parts of your topic. For each topic heading, analyze
the differences among studies and look for gaps.
Note that each paragraph should focus on one
aspect of the topic.
6. Use effective transitions to make your review
easier to read and understand
WRITING A LITERATURE
REVIEW
7.The body of the literature review can be
organized thematically, methodologically
or chronologically.
8. Use direct quotations sparingly.
9. Classify important definitions.
NOTE:
A literature review is a synthesis of whatever
professionals or researchers in the field are saying
about a particular topic in the area. It can be written
separately from a research paper. It must be
updated, and it must supply new interpretations of
the issue or subject matter based on the
information presented.
ACTIVITY:
Write T if the statement is true and F if false.
1. A literature review requires skills in summarizing but not in
synthesizing information.
2. A literature review is an example of academic writing.
3. A literature review is limited only to articles.
4. A literature review requires skills in selecting sources.
5. A literature review shows a research gap.
ACTIVITY:
6. Direct quotation should be used as frequently as possible.
7. Writing a literature review involves higher-order thinking skills.
8. The main purpose of making a literature review is to analyze
literary texts such as short stories and novels.
9. The quality of review is dependent on the quality of the reviewed
articles.
10. The scope of the review should be indicated in the introduction.
