CE 236 – Research Method 1
Writing the Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Literature
• Written works collectively, especially, those of enduring importance, exhibiting creative
imagination and artistic skill that are written in a particular period, language, and subject.
• Any written materials published in books, journals, magazines, novels, poetry, yearbooks,
and encyclopaedias are considered literature.
Studies
• •Published and unpublished research studies such as thesis, dissertation, and research
proceedings are sources of materials that are included in this section.
Functions of Review of Literature and Studies
• To provide justification of the study
• To identify gaps, problems and needs of related studies
• To provide rationale of the study as well as the reasons of conducting the study
• To have basis that will be used to support the findings of the study
What is an RRL in a research paper?
A relevant review of the literature (RRL) is an objective, concise, critical summary of
published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article. In an RRL, you
discuss knowledge and findings from existing literature relevant to your study topic. If there are
conflicts or gaps in existing literature, you can also discuss these in your review, as well as how
you will confront these missing elements or resolve these issues in your study.
To complete an RRL, you first need to collect relevant literature; this can include online
and offline sources. Save all of your applicable resources as you will need to include them in your
paper. When looking through these sources, take notes and identify concepts of each source to
describe in the review of the literature.
A good RRL does NOT:
A literature review does not simply reference and list all of the material you have cited in your
paper.
• Presenting material that is not directly relevant to your study will distract and frustrate the
reader and make them lose sight of the purpose of your study.
• Starting a literature review with “A number of scholars have studied the relationship
between X and Y” and simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar
concluded is not going to strengthen your paper.
A good RRL DOES:
• Present a brief typology that orders articles and books into groups to help readers focus on
unresolved debates, inconsistencies, tensions, and new questions about a research topic.
• Summarize the most relevant and important aspects of the scientific literature related to
your area of research
• Synthesize what has been done in this area of research and by whom, highlight what
previous research indicates about a topic, and identify potential gaps and areas of
disagreement in the field
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• Give the reader an understanding of the background of the field and show which studies
are important—and highlight errors in previous studies
How long is a review of the literature for a research paper?
The length of a review of the literature depends on its purpose and target readership and
can vary significantly in scope and depth. In a dissertation, thesis, or standalone review of
literature, it is usually a full chapter of the text (at least 20 pages). Whereas, a standard research
article or school assignment literature review section could only be a few paragraphs in the
Introduction section.
What Makes a Good Literature Review?
The contents of a literature review (RRL) are determined by many factors, including its
precise purpose in the article, the degree of consensus with a given theory or tension between
competing theories, the length of the article, the number of previous studies existing in the given
field, etc. The following are some of the most important elements that a literature review provides.
Historical background for your research
Analyze what has been written about your field of research to highlight what is new and
significant in your study—or how the analysis itself contributes to the understanding of this field,
even in a small way. Providing a historical background also demonstrates to other researchers and
journal editors your competency in discussing theoretical concepts. You should also make sure to
understand how to paraphrase scientific literature to avoid plagiarism in your work.
The current context of your research
Discuss central (or peripheral) questions, issues, and debates in the field. Because a field
is constantly being updated by new work, you can show where your research fits into this context
and explain developments and trends in research.
A discussion of relevant theories and concepts
Theories and concepts should provide the foundation for your research. For example, if
you are researching the relationship between ecological environments and human populations,
provide models and theories that focus on specific aspects of this connection to contextualize your
study. If your study asks a question concerning sustainability, mention a theory or model that
underpins this concept. If it concerns invasive species, choose material that is focused in this
direction.
Definitions of relevant terminology
In the natural sciences, the meaning of terms is relatively straightforward and consistent.
But if you present a term that is obscure or context-specific, you should define the meaning of the
term in the Introduction section (if you are introducing a study) or in the summary of the literature
being reviewed.
Description of related relevant research
Include a description of related research that shows how your work expands or challenges
earlier studies or fills in gaps in previous work. You can use your literature review as evidence of
what works, what doesn’t, and what is missing in the field.
Supporting evidence for a practical problem or issue your research is addressing that
demonstrates its importance: Referencing related research establishes your area of research as
reputable and shows you are building upon previous work that other researchers have deemed
significant.
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CE 236 – Research Method 1
How to Write a Literature Review in 6 Steps
Writing a literature review is not usually a linear process—authors often go back and check
the literature while reformulating their ideas or making adjustments to their study. Sometimes new
findings are published before a study is completed and need to be incorporated into the current
work. This also means you will not be writing the literature review at any one time, but constantly
working on it before, during, and after your study is complete.
Here are some steps that will help you begin and follow through on your literature review.
Step 1: Choose a topic to write about—focus on and explore this topic.
Choose a topic that you are familiar with and highly interested in analyzing; a topic your
intended readers and researchers will find interesting and useful; and a topic that is current, well-
established in the field, and about which there has been sufficient research conducted for a review.
This will help you find the “sweet spot” for what to focus on.
Step 2: Research and collect all the scholarly information on the topic that might be pertinent
to your study.
This includes scholarly articles, books, conventions, conferences, dissertations, and
theses—these and any other academic work related to your area of study is called “the literature.”
Step 3: Analyze the network of information that extends or responds to the major works in your
area; select the material that is most useful.
Use thought maps and charts to identify intersections in the research and to outline
important categories; select the material that will be most useful to your review.
Step 4: Describe and summarize each article—provide the essential information of the article
that pertains to your study.
Determine 2-3 important concepts (depending on the length of your article) that are
discussed in the literature; take notes about all of the important aspects of this study relevant to the
topic being reviewed.
For example, in a given study, perhaps some of the main concepts are X, Y, and Z. Note
these concepts and then write a brief summary about how the article incorporates them. In reviews
that introduce a study, these can be relatively short. In stand-alone reviews, there may be
significantly more texts and more concepts.
Step 5: Demonstrate how these concepts in the literature relate to what you discovered in your
study or how the literature connects the concepts or topics being discussed.
In a literature review intro for an article, this information might include a summary of the
results or methods of previous studies that correspond to and/or confirm those sections in your
own study. For a stand-alone literature review, this may mean highlighting the concepts in each
article and showing how they strengthen a hypothesis or show a pattern.
Discuss unaddressed issues in previous studies. These studies that are missing something
you address are important to include in your literature review. In addition, those works whose
theories and conclusions directly support your findings will be valuable to review here.
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Step 6: Identify relationships in the literature and develop and connect your own ideas to them.
This is essentially the same as step 5 but focused on the connections between the literature
and the current study or guiding concepts or arguments of the paper, not only on the connections
between the works themselves.
Your hypothesis, argument, or guiding concept is the “golden thread” that will ultimately
tie the works together and provide readers with specific insights they didn’t have before reading
your literature review. Make sure you know where to put the research question, hypothesis, or
statement of the problem in your research paper so that you guide your readers logically and
naturally from your introduction of earlier work and evidence to the conclusions you want them to
draw from the bigger picture.
Your literature review will not only cover publications on your topics but will include your
own ideas and contributions. By following these steps you will be telling the specific story that
sets the background and shows the significance of your research and you can turn a network of
related works into a focused review of the literature.
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