LE4000- ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC WRITING

1. THE LITERATURE REVIEW

2. WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW
 “The literature review is a critical look at the existing
research that is significant to the work that you are
carrying out’…
Language Centre, Asian Institute of Technology

3. WHAT IS A LITERATURE REVIEW
 Evaluative overview of significant literature
published on a topic
 Defined a guiding concept
-It is NOT a descriptive list of everything available or
a set of summaries
 Provides background and theoretical base for the
problem
 A critical synthesis

4. WHY DO A LITERATURE REVIEW?
The purpose is to:
 Define your research problem; find a gap, ask a
question, continue previous research, explore
counter claims
 Read every source relevant to your research problem
 Offer an overview of a significant literature published
on a topic

5. IMPORTANT SKILLS IN WRITING
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Information seeking
the ability to search for relevant literature efficiently
and identify various sources of information
 Critical evaluation
the ability to read and give critical evaluation on the
text.

6. STEPS FOR WRITING LITERATURE
REVIEW
 Prepare critical synopsis of each relevant reading
material
 Record full reference of each source – author’s name,
publication year, title of the book, journal, article,
place of publication, publisher, volume numbers or
pages
 Organise reading materials and make notes based
on common themes
 Write up each thematic section using critical
synopsis prepared earlier
 Integrate all the sections

7. STRUCTURE OF A LITERATURE REVIEW
• Introduction
-gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature
review, such as the central theme or organizational
pattern.
• Body
- contains your discussion of sources
• Conclusions/Recommendations
- discuss what you have drawn from reviewing
literature so far. Where might the discussion
proceed?

8. A LITERATURE REVIEW SHOULD CONSIST
OF:
 An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
consideration, along with the objectives of the
literature review
 Division of works under review into categories (e.g.
those in support of a particular position, those
against, and those offering alternatives theses
entirely)

9. A LITERATURE REVIEW SHOULD CONSIST
OF (continue)
 Explanation of how each work is similar to and how
it varies from the others
 Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in
their argument, are most convincing of their
opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the
understanding and development of their area of
research

10. HOW TO GO ABOUT THE LITERATURE
REVIEW PROCESS
 Search Strategies:
-Author searching
-Using bibliography
-Citation searching
-Using review articles
-tracking where you have been

11. HOW TO GO ABOUT THE LITERATURE
REVIEW PROCESS
 Recognizing patterns
- recurring authors
- Recurring labs or institutions
-Recurring structures of how thoughts/
findings are organized
- Signals you pick up that let you know you are done
with your review

12. HOW TO GO ABOUT THE LITERATURE
REVIEW PROCESS
• Learning how to read
-reading with your questions in mind
- reading by noting on the significance of
each article as it relates to your research
question.
• Take Notes
-Describe -Compare and Contrast -Analyse
- Summarize -Critically evaluate -Out of scope?

13. TIPS FOR WRITING A LIT REVIEW
A BAD SAMPLE OF:
Literature Review
I. Introduction
II. Article I
III. Article 2
IV. Book 1
V. Proceedings 1
VI. Article 3
VII.Article4
VIII.Summary & Conclusions

14. TIPS FOR WRITING A LIT REVIEW
A GOOD SAMPLE OF:
Literature Review
I. Introduction
II. Common Theme/Topic/Concept 1
I. Article 1 Compare
II. Article 2 Contrast
III. Article 3
III. Common Theme/Topic/Concept 2
I. Proceedings 1 Gaps
II. Article 2 New Directions
III. Article 4 Synthesizing
IV. Summary & Conclusions

15. MAKING LINKS BETWEEN STUDIES
Agreements
 Similarly, author B points to…..
 Likewise, author C makes the case that…
 Author D also makes this point…
 Again, it is possible to see how author E agrees with
author D…

16. MAKING LINKS BETWEEN STUDIES
Disagreements
 However, author B points to….
 On the other hand, author C makes the case…
 Conversely, author D argues……
 Nevertheless, what author E suggests….

17. REPORTING VERBS
 Argue
 Assert
 Assume
 Challenge
 Claim
 Contend
 Contradict
 Describe
 Dispute
 Emphasize
 Establish
 Examine
 Find
 Maintain
 Note
 Object
 Observe
 Persuade
 Propose
 Prove
 Purport
 Recommend
 Refute
 Reject
 Remark
 Suggest
 support

18. A GOOD LITERATURE REVIEW IS
 Focused - The topic should be narrow. You should only present
ideas and only report on studies that are closely related to topic.
 Concise - Ideas should be presented economically. Don’t take any
more space than you need to present your ideas.
 Logical - The flow within and among paragraphs should be a
smooth, logical progression from one idea to the next
 Developed - Don’t leave the story half told.
 Integrative - Your paper should stress how the ideas in the studies
are related. Focus on the big picture. What commonality do all the
studies share? How are some studies different than others? Your
paper should stress how all the studies reviewed contribute to your
topic.
 Current - Your review should focus on work being done on the
cutting edge of your topic.

19. COMMON ERRORS IN REVIEWING
LITERATURE
 Hurrying through review to get started could
mean that you will miss something that will
improve your research.
 Relying too heavily upon secondary sources.
 Concentrating on findings rather than methods.
 Overlooking sources other than academic
journals. Don’t forget newspaper articles,
magazines, blogs, etc.
 Searching too broad or too narrow of a topic.
 Inaccuracy in the compiling of bibliographic
information.

20. SOURCES
 Christian, U. H & Remple, H. Thesis/Dissertation
Literature review workshop Retrieved from
ica.library.oregonstate.edu/.../Lit_Review_Semin
ar_uta.ppt
 Khalid Mahmood. Writing and presenting literature
review. Retrieved from www.paklag.org/6-
Writing%20and%20presenting%20literature%20r
eview-Khalid.ppt
 Romane, L. The literature review. Retrieved from
www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/.../TheLiterature
ReviewCS2008.ppt