REVIEW OF RELATED

LITERATURE AND
STUDIES
SYBIL O. YANONG, MP, RPm, LPT
Teacher II
How to write a
literature review?
How to write a literature review
Writing a literature review
involves finding relevant
publications (such as books and
journal articles), critically
analyzing them, and explaining
what you found. There are five
key steps:
How to write 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
1. Search for relevant literature

Before you begin searching for

literature, you need a clearly
defined topic.

Example: Impact of social media

among Generation Z
1. Search for relevant literature
● Make a list of keywords
Start by creating a list of
keywords related to your
research question. Include each of
the key concepts or variables
you’re interested in, and list any
synonyms and related terms.
1. Search for relevant literature
● Keywords example
Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
Snapchat, TikTok

Body image, self-perception, self-esteem,

mental health

Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

 1. Search for relevant sources
● Use your keywords to begin searching for
sources. Some useful databases to search for
journals and articles include:
○ Google Scholar
○ JSTOR (jstor.org)
○ EBSCO (ebsco.com)
○ Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
○ Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
○ EconLit (economics)
○ Inspec (physics, engineering and computer
science)
 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

● You probably won’t be able to

read absolutely everything that
has been written on the topic –
you’ll have to evaluate which
sources are most relevant to
your questions.
 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

For each publication, ask

yourself:
● What question or problem is

the author addressing?

● What are the key concepts

and how are they defined?

 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

● What are the key theories,

models and methods? Does
the research use
established frameworks or
take an innovative
approach?
 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

● 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?
 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

● How does the publication

contribute to your
understanding of the topic?
What are its key insights and
arguments?
● What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the research?
 Step 2: Evaluate and select sources
Take notes and cite your sources
● It is important to keep track of
your sources with citations to avoid
plagiarism.
● write a paragraph of summary and
analysis for each source. This helps
you remember what you read and
saves time later in the process.
Step 3: Identify themes, debates, and gaps

To begin organizing your

literature review’s argument
and structure, you need to
understand the connections
and relationships between the
sources you’ve read.
Step 3: Identify themes, debates, and gaps
Based on your reading and notes, you
can look for:
● 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?
Step 3: Identify themes, debates, and gaps
● 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.
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.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure
Depending on the length of
your literature review, you
can combine several of these
strategies (for example, your
overall structure might be
thematic, but each theme is
discussed chronologically).
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Chronological
The simplest approach is
to trace the development
of the topic over time.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Chronological
If your sources cover a
broad time period, and you
found patterns in how
researchers approached the
topic over time
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Chronological
That doesn’t mean you just summarize
each paper in chronological order;
instead, you should group articles into
time periods and identify what they
have in common, as well as signaling
important turning points or
developments in the literature.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Chronological
if you choose this strategy, be
careful to avoid simply listing and
summarizing sources in order.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure
Thematic
If you have found some
recurring central themes, you
can organize your literature
review into subsections that
address different aspects of
the topic.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Thematic
That means that each
paragraph or section focuses
on a specific theme and
explains how that theme is
approached in the literature.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure
Thematic
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Methodological
If you draw your sources from
different disciplines or fields that
use a variety of research methods,
you might want to compare the
results and conclusions that
emerge from different approaches.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Methodological
That means grouping together
studies based on the type of
research they did and discussing
the findings that emerged from
each method.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure

Theoretical
A literature review is often the
foundation for a theoretical
framework. You can use it to
discuss various theories, models,
and definitions of key concepts.
Step 4: Outline your literature review’s structure
Theoretical
That means comparing the
different theories that have been
developed and grouping together
papers based on the position or
perspective they take on the topic,
as well as evaluating which
arguments are most convincing.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

Write your paragraph with topic

sentence
The topic sentence signals what
the whole paragraph is about;
every sentence in the paragraph
should be clearly related to it.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

A topic sentence can be a simple

summary of the paragraph’s
content:

“farly research on x focused

heavily on y.”
 Step 5: Write your literature review

For an effective synthesis, you can

use topic sentences to link back
to the previous paragraph,
highlighting a point of debate or
critique:
 Step 5: Write your literature review

Example:

“Several scholars have pointed out

the flaws in this approach.”
 Step 5: Write your literature review

Example:
“While recent research has
attempted to address the problem,
many of these studies have
methodological flaws that limit
their validity.”
 Step 5: Write your literature review

By using topic sentences, you can

ensure that your paragraphs are
coherent and clearly show the
connections between the articles
you are discussing.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

As you write your paragraphs,

avoid quoting directly from
sources: use your own words to
explain the commonalities and
differences that you found in the
literature.
 Step 5: Write your literature review
Don’t try to cover every single
point from every single source –
the key to synthesizing is to
extract the most important and
relevant information and combine
it to give your reader an overall
picture of the state of knowledge
on your topic.
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Do I introduce the paragraph

with a clear, focused topic
sentence?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Do I discuss more than one source

in the paragraph?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Do I mention only the most

relevant findings, rather than
describing every part of the
studies?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Do I discuss the similarities or

differences between the sources,
rather than summarizing each
source in turn?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Do I put the findings or arguments

of the sources in my own words?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Is the paragraph organized

around a single idea?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Is the paragraph directly relevant

to my research question or topic?
 CHECKLIST FOR SYNTHESIS

Is there a logical transition from

this paragraph to the next one?
 Step 5: Write your literature review

This is how you are going to

structure your review of related
literature. The main goal for
doing this is to make the reader
understand easily the different
studies and how they are relevant
to your study.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

Like any other academic text, your

literature review should have an
introduction, a main body, and a
conclusion. What you include in
each depends on the objective of
your literature review.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

1. Introduction
The introduction somehow
presents the fundamental
idea of the particular study
of the literature review.
 Step 5: Write your literature review
the introduction is usually a single
paragraph. Your introduction should
give an outline of…
● why you are writing a review, and

why the topic is important

● the scope of the review — what

aspects of the topic will be

discussed
 Step 5: Write your literature review

● the criteria used for your

literature selection (e.g.. type
of sources used, date range)
● the organizational pattern of
the review.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

● Reiterate your central

problem or research question
and give a brief summary of
the scholarly context.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

● You can emphasize the

timeliness of the topic
(“many recent studies have
focused on the problem of
x”)
 Step 5: Write your literature review

● or highlight a gap in the

literature (“while there
has been much research on
x, few researchers have
taken y into
consideration”)..
 Step 5: Write your literature review

2. Main Body
The main body consists of the
organized discussion of sources.
This is where you summarize and
synthesize your literature review
and reflect how they related to
your study.
 Step 5: Write your literature review
3. Conclusions or
Recommendations
Conclusion and
recommendation emphasize
what you have learned from
reviewing the literature and
where your study leads to.
 Step 5: Write your literature review

3. Conclusions or Recommendations
● Usually a single paragraph. Your
conclusion should give a summary
of:
● the main agreements and
disagreements in the literature
 Step 5: Write your literature review

● any gaps or areas for

further research
● your overall perspective
on the topic.
You could use three columns, why not?

Mars Jupiter Mercury

Despite being red, It’s a gas giant and Mercury is the
Mars is actually a cold the biggest planet in smallest one in the
place the Solar System Solar System
You could use three columns, why not?

Mars Jupiter Mercury

Despite being red, It’s a gas giant and Mercury is the
Mars is actually a cold the biggest planet in smallest one in the
place the Solar System Solar System
You could use three columns, why not?

Mars Jupiter Mercury

Despite being red, It’s a gas giant and Mercury is the
Mars is actually a cold the biggest planet in smallest one in the
place the Solar System Solar System
How to paraphrase
in five steps:
 PARAPHRASE
1. Read the passage several
times to fully understand the
meaning

2. Note down key concepts

 PARAPHRASE

3. Write your version of the

text without looking at the
original
 PARAPHRASE

4. Compare your paraphrased

text with the original passage and
make minor adjustments to
phrases that remain too similar
 PARAPHRASE

5. Cite the source where you found

the idea
 PARAPHRASE

5. Cite the source where you found

the idea
 Formats in
summarizing and
paraphrasing
 1. Idea Heading Format

The summarized idea

comes before the
citation
Example:
Bench marking is a useful
strategy that has the potential to
help public officials improve the
performance of local services
(Folz, 2004; Ammons, 2001).
 2. Author Heading Format
The summarized idea comes
after the citation. The author’s
name is OR are connected by
an appropriate reporting
verb.
Example: The study of Kabilan, Ahmad
and Abidin (2010) shows that the
students perceived FB as an online
environment to expedite language
learning specifically English. Donmus
(2010) asserts that educational games
on FB fecundate learning process and
make students’ learning environment
more engaging.
 3. Date Heading Format

The summarized idea

comes after the date
when the material was
published.
Example: In their 2004 study on the
impact of participatory development
approach, Irvin and Stansbury argue
that participants can be valuable to
the participants and the government
in terms of the process and outcomes
of decision making.
Example: In their 2004 study on the
impact of participatory development
approach, Irvin and Stansbury argue
that participants can be valuable to
the participants and the government
in terms of the process and outcomes
of decision making.