LITERATURE

REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
 Review of literature is one of the most important steps in the research
process.
 It is an account of what is already known about a particular
phenomenon.
 The main purpose pf literature review is to convey to the readers about
the work already done & the knowledge & ideas that have been already
established on a particular topic of research.
 Literature review is a laborious task, but is essential if the research
process is to be successful.

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  A literature review uses as its database reports of
primary or original scholarship & does not report new

‘’
primary scholarship itself. The primary reports used
in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast
majority of cases, report are written documents. The
IMPORTANCE types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical,
OF critical./ analytic, or methodological in nature.
LITERATURE  Second a literature review seeks to describe,
REVIEW summarize, evaluate, clarify &/ or integrate the
content of primary reports.
…(H.M. Cooper, 1988)

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 Count…
▣ A literature review is an evaluation report of information found in the literature
related to selected area of study. The review describes, summarizes, evaluates &
clarifies this literature. It gives a theoretical base for the research & helps to
determine the nature of research.
…(Queensland University, 1999)
▣ A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of
knowledge on a particular topic of research.
….(ANM, 2000)
▣ A literature review is an account of what has been already established or
published on a particular research topic by accredited scholars & researchers.
…(University of Toronto, 2001)
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 IMPOERTANCE OF
LIETARURE REVIEW

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 Identification of a research problem & development or refinement of research
questions.
 Generation of useful research questions or project/ activities for the discipline.
 Orientation to what is known & not known about an area of inquiry to ascertain
what research can best contribute to knowledge.
 Determination of any gaps or inconsistencies in a body of knowledge.
 Discovery of unanswered questions about subjects, concepts of problems.
 Determination of a need to replicate a prior study in different study settings or
different samples or size or different study populations.

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▣ Identification of relevant theoretical or conceptual framework for research
problems.
▣ Identification of development of new or refined clinical interventions to test
through empirical research.
▣ Description of the strengths & weaknesses of design/ methods of inquiry &
instruments used in earlier research work.
▣ Development of hypothesis to be tested in a research study.
▣ Helps in planning the methodology of the present research study.
▣ It also helps in development of research instruments.
▣ Identification of suitable design & data collection methods for a research study.

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 PURPOSES
OF
LITERATURE REVIEW

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 The purpose of a literature review is to convey to the reader previous
knowledge & facts established on a topic, & their strength & weakness.
 The literature review allows the reader to be updated with the state of
research in a field & any contradictions that may exist with challenges
findings of other research studies.
 It helps to develop research investigative tools & to improve research
methodology.
 It also provide the knowledge about the problems faced by the previous
researchers’ while studying same topic.

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 Place each in the context of its contributes to the understanding of subject
under review.
 Describe the relationship of each study to other research studies under
consideration.
 Identify new ways to interpret & shed light on any gaps in previous
research.
 Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
 Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
 Point a way forward for further research.
 See what has & has not been investigated.
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 Develop general explanation for observed variations in a behavior or
phenomenon.
 Identify potential relationship between concepts & to identify researchable
hypothesis.
 Learn how others have defined & measured key concepts.
 Identify data sources that other researchers have used.
 Develop alternative research projects.
 Discover how a research project is related to the work of others.
 Place one’s original work (in case of thesis or dissertation) context of the
existing literature.

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 SOURCES
OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
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Literature can be reviewed from two
sources:
1.Primary sources
2.Secondary sources

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 1. Primary Sources

▣ Literature review mostly relies on primary sources, i.e.

research reports, which are description of studies written by
researchers who conducted them.
▣ A primary sources is written by a person who developed the
theory or conducted the research, or is he description of an
investigation written by the person who conducted it.
▣ Most primary sources are found in published literature.

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 2. Secondary Sources

 Secondary source research documents are description

of studies prepared by someone other than the original
researcher.
 They are written by people other than the individuals
wo developed the theory or conducted the research,
 The secondary sources may be used when primary
sources are not available.
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THE MAIN SOURCES FROM WHERE LITERATURE CAN BE SEARCHED
ARE AS …

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 1. Electronic Sources:

 Computer – assisted literature search has revolutionized the

review of literature.
 These searches, however, for a variety of reasons may not
provide the desired references.
 Electronic literature search through web may be very useful,
but sometimes it can be time consuming & unpredictable
because there are many website & web pages that can lead to
information overload & confusion.
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 Research reports
 Unpublished dissertations & theses
 Magazines & newspapers
 Conference papers & proceedings
 Encyclopedias & dictionaries
 Books
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 STEPS
OF
LITERATURE
REVIEWS
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 Thematic More
Bibliography
Organization reading

Write
Integrate
individual
sections
sections

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 Stage 1 – Annotated Bibliography

 At this stage, researchers read articles, books & other types of

literature related to the topic of research & write a brief critical
synopsis of each review.
 After going through the reading list, researchers will have an
annotation of each source of related literature.
 Later, annotations are likely to include more references of other
work sinve previous readings will be available to compare, but
at this point the important goal is to get accurate.
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 Stage II – Thematic Organization

 At this stage, researchers try to fins common themes of

research topic & organize the literature under these themes,
subthemes, or categories.
 Here, researchers try to organize literature under themes,
which relate to each other & are arranged in a
chronological manner.
 Researchers try to establish coherence between themes &
literature discussed under theses themes.
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 Stage III – More Reading

 Based on the knowledge gained through primary reading, researchers

have a better understanding about the research topic & the literature
related to it.
 At this stage, researchers try to discover specific literature materials
relevant to the field of study or research methodologies which are more
relevant for their research.
 They look more literature by those authors, on those methodologies, etc.
 Also, the researchers may be able to set aside some less relevant areas or
articles which they pursued initially.
 They integrate the new readings into their literature review draft,
reorganize themes.
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 At this stage, researchers start writing the literature under each thematic
section by using previously collected draft of annotations.
 Here they organize the related articles under each theme by ensuring that
every article is related to each other.
 Furthermore, related articles may be grouped together by ensuring the
coherence between different segments of the literature abstracts.
 For each thematic sections, draft annotations are used (it is a good idea to
reread the articles & revise annotations, especially the ones read initially)
to write a section which discusses the articles relevant.

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 While writing reviews, the researchers focus on the
theme of that section, showing how the articles
relate to each other & to the theme, rather than
focusing on writing each individual article.
 The articles are used as evidence to support the
critique of the theme rather than using the theme as
an angle to discuss each article individually.

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Stage V – Integrate Sections

▣In this section, researchers have a list of

the thematic sections & they tie them
together with an introduction, conclusion,
& some additions & revisions in the
sections to show how they relate to each
other & to the overall theme.
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PREPARING TO WRITE
LITERATURE REVIEW

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 INTRODUCTION

CONCLUSION ELEMENTS BODY

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Writing the Introduction…

While writing the introduction, following steps should be taken care of:
 Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern, thus,
providing appropriate context for reviewing the literature.
 Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic or
conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, & conclusion or gaps in
research & scholarship, or a single problem or new perspective of
immediate interest.
 Establish the writer’s point of view for reviewing the literature,
explain the criteria to be used in analyzing.
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Writing the Body …

Following measures need to be undertaken while writing the body of the

literature.
 Group research studies & other types of literature (reviews, theoretical
articles, case studies) according to common denominators such as qualitative
versus quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific purposes or
objectives, chronology, & so on.
 Summarize individual studies or articles with as much as or as little detail as
each merits according to its comparative importance in the literature,
remembering that space denotes significance.
 Assist the reader with strong “umbrella” sentences at the beginning of
paragraphs, signpost throughout, & brief ‘so what’ summary sentences.
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 Writing the Conclusion …
The points to be taken are of in the conclusion are as follows;
 Summarize major contributions of significant studies & articles to the
body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established
in the introduction.
 Evaluate the current ‘state of the art’ for the body of knowledge
reviewed, pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps in
research, inconsistencies in theory, & finding & areas or issues
pertinent to future study.
 Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between
central topic of the literature.
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EXAMPLE…
Example of bad review

Sexual harassment has many consequences. Adams, Kottke, & Padgin (1983)
found that some woman students said that they avoided taking a class or
working with certain professors because of the risk of harassment. They also
found that men & women students reacted differently. Their research was
conducted through a survey of 1.000 men & women graduate &
undergraduate students. Benson & Thomson’s study in social Problem (1982)
lists many problems created by sexual harassment. In their excellent bppk,
the Lecherous Professor, Dziech & Winer (1990) give a long list of
difficulties that victims have suffered.

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EXAMPLE…
Example of better review

The victims of sexual harassment suffer a range of

consequences, from lowered self-esteem & loss self-confidence
to withdrawal from social interaction, changed career goals, &
depression (Adams, Kottke, & Padgitt, 1983; Benson &
Thomson, 1982; Dziech & Weiner, 1990). For example, Adams,
Kottke, & Pidgitt (1983) noted that 13% of women students said
they avoided taking a class or working with certain professors
because of the risk of harassment.
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POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED
FOR LITERATURE REVIEW

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▣ Be specific & be succinct:
Briefly state specific findings listed in an article, specific methodologies used in a study, or
other important points. Literature reviews are not the place for long quotes or in-depth analysis
of each point.
▣ Be selective:
Researcher should narrow down a lot of information into a small space for literature review. Just
the most important points (i.e. those most relevant to the review's focus) must be mentioned in
each work of review.
▣ Focus of current topics:
Researcher need to analyze points such as if it is a current article, & if not, how old it is: has its
claims, evidence, or arguments been superseded by more recent work; if it is not current, then if
it is important for historical background; etc.

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 Ensure evidence for claims:
Researcher should focus on what support is given for claims made in literature.
What evidence & what type *experimental, statistical, anecdotal, etc.) of
evidences are offered? Is the evidence relevant & sufficient? What arguments are
given? What assumptions are made, & are they warranted?

 Focus on sources of evidences:

Researchers should ensure the reliability of the sources of the evidence or other
information – if they are from author's own experiments, surveys, historical
records, government documents, etc. he should check how reliable those sources
are.
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▣ Account of contrary evidences:
Does the author take into account contrary or conflicting evidence & arguments? How
does the author address disagreements with other researchers?
▣ Reference citation:
Any references cited in the literature review must be included in the bibliography. The
common practices is that the reviewer does not list references in the bibliography that
are not directly cited in the literature review or elsewhere in the paper/ thesis.
▣ Avoid abbreviations:
Avoid technical terms, jargons, & abbreviations.
▣ Simple & accurate sentence structure:
A researcher should use simple sentence & must avoid errors of grammar &
punctuation.

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▣ Organization of literature review:
A literature review is organized by subtopic, not by individual references, in a typical
literature review, the writers may cite several references in the same paragraph & may
cite the same reference in more than one paragraph, if that source address more than
one of subtopics in the literature review. Typically, discussion of each sources is quite
brief. The contribution the present reviewers make is organizing the ideas from the
sources into a cogent argument or narrative that includes their perspectives.

▣ Referring original source:

The reviewer should focus on citing the material that originates with each reference.
This may require a careful reading of the reference. If the reference author refers to
another source whose ideas are relevant on interesting, it is better to track & use that
original reference.
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 1. Let’s start with the
Transition headline first set of slides

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