This document provides guidance on conducting a literature review for research. It defines a literature review as a critical evaluation of previous research that allows one to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps. The purpose of a literature review is to situate a research project within existing scholarly knowledge. It discusses the key steps of a literature review: searching literature, evaluating sources, identifying themes and gaps, outlining the structure, and writing the review. The document emphasizes that a literature review should analyze, synthesize and critically evaluate sources to demonstrate knowledge of scholarly debates.

1. Research Methodology:
Complete Research
Project
By Saed A Mohamed
Module 02
REVIEWING THE
LITERATURE
(Continuous Process)

2. ?

3. MODULE
OBJECTIVES
After studying this module, you should be
able to:
Define the functions of the literature
review in research.
Explain how to carry out a literature search
Describe how to review the selected
literatures
Outline how develop theoretical and
conceptual frameworks
Discuss how write a literature review

4. What is Literature
Review?
• Is a critical and in depth evaluation of previous
research.
• It provides an overview of current knowledge,
allowing you to identify relevant theories,
methods, and gaps in the existing research.
• It is an evaluation, integrating the previous
research together, and also explaining how it
integrates into the proposed research.
• Reviewing the literature is a continuous
process.
• It begins before a research problem is finalized
and continues until the report is finished.

5. What is the
purpose of a
literature review?
• When you write a thesis, dissertation,
or research paper, you will likely have to
conduct a literature review to situate
your research within existing knowledge.
• Writing literature reviews is a
particularly important skill if you want
to apply for graduate school or pursue a
career in research.
• We’ve written a step-by-step guide that
you can follow below.
•

6. What is the
purpose of a
literature review?
The literature review gives you a chance to:
1. Bring clarity and focus to your research
problem.
2. Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic
and its scholarly context.
3. Improve and develop a theoretical
framework and methodology for your
research.
4. Position your work in relation to other
researchers and theorists.
5. Show how your research addresses a gap
or contributes to a debate.
6. Evaluate the current state of research and
demonstrate your knowledge of the
scholarly debates around your topic.

7. 1. Bringing clarity and focus to your research
problem
• Literature review shapes the research
problem.
• What aspects of your subject area have been
examined by others?
• What they have found out about these
aspects?
• What gaps they have identified?
• What suggestions they have made for further
research?
What is the
purpose of a
literature review?

8. 2. Broadening your knowledge base in your
research area
• By conducting literature review, it
ensures you read widely around the
subject area in which you intend to
conduct your research study.
• What other researchers have found in regard
to the same or similar research questions?
• What theories have been put forward?
• What gaps exist in the relevant body of
knowledge?
• Helps you to understand how the findings
of your study fit into the existing body of
knowledge.
What is the
purpose of a
literature review?

9. 3. Improving your research direction
• A literature review tells you if others
have used procedures and methods
similar to the ones that you are
proposing
• Which procedures and methods have
worked well for them?
• What problems they have faced with their
methods?
What is the
purpose of a
literature review?

10. 4. Position your work in relation to
other researchers and theorists.
• The difficult part is examining how
your findings fit into the existing
body of knowledge.
• How do answers to your research
questions compare with what others
have found?
• What contribution have you been
able to make to the existing body of
knowledge?
• How are your findings different from
those of others?
What is the
purpose of a
literature review?

11. How to Review
Literature
Search for relevant literature
1
Evaluate sources
2
Identify themes, debates,
and gaps
3
Outline the structure
4
Write your literature review
5

12. How to Review
Literature
There are five key steps to writing a
literature review:
1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates, and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review
A good literature review doesn’t just
summarize sources it analyzes, synthesizes,
and critically evaluates to give a clear
picture of the state of knowledge on the
subject.

13. How to Review
Literature
Use your keywords to begin searching for
sources.
Some useful databases to search for journals
and articles include:
● Your university’s library catalogue
● Google Scholar
● JSTOR
● EBSCO
● Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
● Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
● EconLit (economics)
● Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an
article is relevant to your question. When you find a
useful book or article, you can check the bibliography
to find other relevant sources.

15. How to Review
Literature
You likely won’t be able to read absolutely
everything that has been written on your
topic.
It will be necessary to evaluate which
sources are most relevant to your research
question.
For each publication, ask yourself:
● What question or problem is the author
addressing?
● What are the key concepts and how are
they defined?
● What are the key theories, models, and
methods?

16. How to Review
Literature
For each publication, ask yourself:
● Does the research use established
frameworks or take an innovative
approach?
● What are the results and conclusions of
the study?
● How does the publication relate to other
literature in the field?
● Does it confirm, add to, or challenge
established knowledge?
● What are the strengths and weaknesses of
the research?

17. How to Review
Literature
● Make sure the sources you use
are credible, and make sure you read any
landmark studies and major theories in
your field of research.
● You can use our template to summarize
and evaluate sources you’re thinking
about using.
● Click on either button below to download.

18. Source
information
Research
objective
Problem or gap
addressed
Findings and
conclusions
Limitations or
weaknesses
Implications
or suggestions
future
research
How your
research can fill
the gap
Lahijan
Branch
(2016) - URL
Development
of effective
learning
strategies
EFL teachers
focus on the
wrong language
skills
EFL teachers can
only help
students once
their learning
difficulties have
been identified
Evaluated
sources are
possibly
outdated
Teachers
should use
different
strategies for
students with
different
needs
Look into the
most effect EFL
teaching
method and
ways to
differentiate

19. How to Review
Literature
Taking notes
● Quotes
● Summaries of key points
● Source information:
➢ Author name
➢ Title & journal name
➢ Year of publication
➢ Page numbers

20. How to Review
Literature
To begin organizing your literature review’s argument
and structure, be sure you understand the
connections and relationships between the sources
you’ve read by looking:
● Chronological: Organize by time
● Thematic: Organize by sub-sections
● Methodological: Organize by methodology
● Theoretical: Organize by theoretical approach

21. How to Review
Literature
To begin organizing your literature review’s
argument and structure, be sure you understand
the connections and relationships between the
sources you’ve read by looking:
● Trends and patterns (in theory, method or
results): do certain approaches become
more or less popular over time?
● Themes: what questions or concepts recur
across the literature?
● Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where
do sources disagree?
● Pivotal publications: are there any influential
theories or studies that changed the direction
of the field?
● Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are
there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

22. How to Review
Literature
Example of trends and gaps
● In reviewing the literature on social media and
body image, you note that:
○ Most research has focused on young
women.
○ There is an increasing interest in the visual
aspects of social media.
○ But there is still a lack of robust research
on highly visual platforms like Instagram
and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could
address in your own research.

23. How to Review
Literature
● There are various approaches to organizing the body of
a literature review.
● Depending on the length of your literature review, you
can combine several of these strategies
1. Chronological: The simplest approach is to trace
the development of the topic over time.
2. Thematic: you can organize your literature
review into subsections that address different
aspects of the topic.
3. Methodological: If you draw your sources from
different disciplines or fields that use a variety
of research methods by dividing the literature
into sociological, historical, and cultural sources
4. Theoretical: You can use it to discuss various
theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.
5. A literature review is often the foundation for
a theoretical framework.

24. How to Review
Literature
Now you’re ready to start writing up your
literature review.
The structure of your a literature review be
determined by university guideline.
● May be divided into sections
● Analyze and interpret
● Critically evaluate
● Synthesize different sources
● Use well-structured paragraphs
● Cite your sources for each source wherever you
quote or paraphrase them.
● Follow the citation style you are told to use (e.g.
APA, MLA).

25. Reviewing the literature is a continuous
process.
• Begins before problem formulation
• Finished after finalizing report.
The literature review functions
• Clarity problem research
• Improves methodology
• Broadens knowledge.
Purposes of a literature review
● provides theoretical background
● contextualizing findings
● Your writing about the literature
reviewed should be thematic in nature,
that is based on main themes
Key lessons

26. THANK
YOU