The document provides guidance on what constitutes a literature review and how to conduct one. It defines a literature review as an evaluation and synthesis of previous scholarly work on a topic. It emphasizes that a literature review is not just a summary of sources but should critically analyze and integrate them to avoid bias. It outlines key purposes such as identifying gaps and avoiding duplicating past work. The document provides questions researchers should ask themselves to properly scope their review and critically evaluate sources. It stresses the literature review should be organized around the research question and identify areas of agreement, controversy and need for further work.

1. A focused reading …A focused reading …
with a specificwith a specific
purpose.purpose.

2. WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW?
• Many students are instructed, as part of their
research program, to perform a literature reviewliterature review,
without understanding what it is.
Read more: http://www.experiment-resources.com/what-is-a-literature-review.html#ixzz1QGfAxinx

3. Sources essential for LT
• Sources are generally described as primary, secondary, or
tertiary.
• Primary: Primary sources are “materials that you are directly
writing about, the raw materials of your own research.”
• Secondary: Secondary sources are “books and articles in
which other researchers report the results of their research
based on (their) primary data or sources.”
• Tertiary: Tertiary sources are “books and articles based on
secondary sources, on the research of others.”
– Tertiary sources synthesize and explain the work of others and might
be useful early in your research, but they are generally weak support
for your own arguments… at times they are challenged in your
argument!

4. What is Literature Review?What is Literature Review?
• A literature review is an account of what has
been published on a topic by accredited
scholars and researchers.
• Occasionally researchers are asked to write
one as a separate assignment (sometimes in
the form of an annotated bibliography), but
more often it is part of the introduction to an
essay, research report, or also a chapter in
M.Phil/Ph.D.thesis.

5. What is the purpose ofWhat is the purpose of
Literature Review?Literature Review?
• Purpose - to convey what knowledge and ideaswhat knowledge and ideas
have been established on a topic, and whathave been established on a topic, and what
their strengths and weaknesses are.their strengths and weaknesses are.
• As a piece of writing, the literature review must
be defined by a guiding conceptdefined by a guiding concept (e.g., our
research objective, the problem or issue you are
discussing, or your argumentative thesis).
• It is not just a descriptive list of the material
available, or a set of summaries

6. What is ‘not’ Literature Review?
– Not - chronological catalog of all of the sources, but an
evaluation, integrating the previous research together,
– But - it is to explain how it integrates into the proposed
research program. All sides of an argument must be clearly
explained, to avoid bias, and areas of agreement and
disagreement should be highlighted.
• Not - collection of quotes and paraphrasing from other
sources.
• But - good literature review should also have some
evaluation of the quality and findings of the research.

7. Why do a Literature Review?
• to identify gapsidentify gaps in the research area
• to avoid reinventing the wheelavoid reinventing the wheel
• to carry on from where others have alreadycarry on from where others have already
completedcompleted
• to identify other people working in the sameidentify other people working in the same
fieldsfields
• to fathom the depth of knowledgefathom the depth of knowledge of your
subject area

8. Why do LR?Why do LR?
• to identify opposing viewsopposing views
• to put your work into wider perspectiveput your work into wider perspective
• to identify methodsmethods that could be relevant to
your project.
• to identify seminal worksidentify seminal works in your area
• to provide the intellectual context for your
own work, enabling you to position your
project in relationproject in relation to other work

9. Two important objectives of LR:Two important objectives of LR:
• Besides enlarging your knowledge about the
topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and
demonstrate skills in two areas:
1.information seeking: the ability to scan the
literature efficiently, using manual or
computerized methods, to identify a set of
useful articles and books
2.critical appraisal: the ability to apply
principles of analysis to identify unbiased and
valid studies

10. A literature review must doA literature review must do
these things:these things:
• be organized around and related directly to
the thesis or research question we are
developing
• synthesize results into a summary of what is
and is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• formulate questions that need further
research

11. Ask yourself questions like these:
• What is the specific thesis, problem, or
research question that my literature review
helps to define?
• What type of literature review am I
conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory?
methodology? policy? quantitative research
(e.g. on the effectiveness of a new
procedure)? qualitative research (e.g.,
studies )?

12. Ask yourself questions like these:
• What is the scope of my literature review? What types
of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books,
government documents, popular media)? What
discipline am I working in (e.g., Engineering,
Psychology, Humanities, Pharmacy, Management)?
• How good was my information seeking? Has my
search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the
relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to
exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources
I've used appropriate for the length of my paper?

13. Ask yourself questions like these:
• Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Do I
follow through a set of concepts and questions,
comparing items to each other in the ways they
deal with them?
• Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I
assess them, discussing strengths and
weaknesses?
• Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my
perspective?
• Will the reader find my literature
review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

14. Ask yourself questions like these about each
book or article you include:
• Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
• Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope,
severity, relevance) clearly established?
• Could the problem have been approached more
effectively from another perspective?
• What is the author's research orientation (e.g.,
interpretive, critical science, combination)?
• What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g.,
psychological, developmental, feminist)?

15. Ask yourself questions like these about each
book or article you include:
• Has the author evaluated the literature relevant
to the problem/issue? Does the author include
literature taking positions she or he does not
agree with?
• In a research study, how good are the basic
components of the study design (e.g., population,
intervention, outcome)?
• How accurate and valid are the measurements?
Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant
to the research question? Are the conclusions
validly based upon the data and analysis?

16. Ask yourself questions like these about
each book or article you include:
• How does the author structure the argument?
Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the argument
to see whether or where it breaks down logically
(e.g., in establishing cause-effect relationships)?
• In what ways does this book or article contribute
to our understanding of the problem under
study, and in what ways is it useful for practice?
What are the strengths and limitations?
• How does this book or article relate to the
specific thesis or question I am developing?

17. Four Examples of
Literature Review
• Step by Step – drafting LR: Psychology.
Systematic arrangement…
• Ph.D. Thesis on ELT – Engineering Colleges in Tami
. Summarizing…
• Example with teacher’s remark on LR. What to
do and what not to…
• CALL – The best of all examples…

18. Web Tools for LR:

19. Web Tools helpful in LR:
• Bookmarking sites: e.g. www.delicious.com/
• Google Docs
– www.docs.google.com
- Prepare a ‘form’ – easy to manage records in
auto-generated spread sheet.
-
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDBCQi1PeVduZTFTVHY3WnFyWktCY3c6MQ

20. Reference:
• Read more:
• http://www.experiment-resources.com/what-is-a-literature-review.html#ixzz1QGfmJZeW
• http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
• http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/literature_review.html
• http://library.ucsc.edu/help/howto/write-a-literature-review
• Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination (Published in association with The Open
University) Dr. Christopher Hart.
• Any book on Research Methodology for respective subjects deals with ‘Review of Literature’.
• Cooper, H. (2010). Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis: A Step-By-Step Approach.
Los Angeles: Sage.
(call number McHenry Stacks H62 C5859)
• Machi, L.A. (2009). The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success.
Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
(call number McHenry Stacks LB1047.3 M33)
• Deakin University. (2009). The Literature Review.
Geelong, Victoria, Australia: Author.
Retrieved 4th September 2009 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.deakin.edu.au/library/findout/research/litrev.php
• The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center. (2009). Writer's Handbook: Common Writing Assignments: Review of
Literature.
Madison, Wisconsin: Author.
Retrieved 4th September 2009 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html
• http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html
• http://library.ucsc.edu/print/help/howto/write-a-literature-review
• Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional And Systematic Techniques
• (Paperback)by Jill Jesson, Lydia Matheson, Fiona M. Lacey (Sage Pub)

21. Reference:
• Afolabi, M. (1992) 'The review of related literature in research' International journal of information and library research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 59-66.
• Bourner, T. (1996) 'The research process: four steps to success', in Greenfield, T. (ed), Research methods: guidance for postgraduates, Arnold,
London.
• Bruce, C. S. (1990) 'Information skills coursework for postgraduate students: investigation and response at the Queensland University of Technology'
Australian Academic & Research Libraries, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 224-232.
• Bruce, C. (1993) 'When enough is enough: or how should research students delimit the scope of their literature review?', in
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom in Higher Education: Selected Contributions Presented at the Ninteeth Annual National Conference and Twenty-First Birth
. pp. 435-439.
• Bruce, C. S. (1994) 'Research student's early experiences of the dissertation literature review' Studies in Higher Education, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 217-229.
• Bruce, C. (1994) 'Supervising literature reviews', in Zuber-Skerritt, O. and Ryan, Y. (eds), Quality in postgraduate education, Kogan Page, London.
• Bruce, C. S. (1997) 'From Neophyte to expert: counting on reflection to facilitate complex conceptions of the literature review', in Zuber-Skerritt, O.
(ed), Frameworks for postgraduate education, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
• Caspers, J. S (1998) 'Hands-on instruction across the miles: using a web tutorial to teach the literature review research process' Research Strategies,
vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 187-197.
• Cooper, H. M. (1988) 'The structure of knowledge synthesis' Knowledge in Society, vol. 1, pp. 104-126
• Cooper, H. M. (1989) Integrating research : a guide for literature reviews, 2nd ed, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, Calif.
• Leedy, P. D. (1997) Practical research: planning and design, 6th ed, Merrill, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
• Libutti, P.& Kopala, M. (1995) 'The doctoral student, the dissertation, and the library: a review of the literature' Reference Librarian, vol. 48, no. 5, pp.
5-25.
• Mauch, J. E.& Birch, J. W. (2003) Guide to the successful thesis and dissertation: a handbook for students and faculty, 5th ed, Marcel Dekker, New
York.

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