Writing A Literature Review

WRITING A
LITERATURE
REVIEW
Subtitle
What is Literature Review?
 A literature review is a type of academic writing that provides an

overview of a specific topic. It surveys scholarly work such as
academic books (but not textbooks), computerize databases,
conference proceedings, dissertation’s/theses, empirical studies
government reports, historical records, journal article, monographs,
and statistical handbooks.
 As an advance form of academic writing, a literature review critically
analyzes the relationship among the scholarly works and the current
work. It can be written as a stand-alone paper or as part of a research
paper explaining a theoretical framework and related studies. Unlike
an annotated bibliography which presents a summary and synthesis
(i.e., linking different sources).
Differences among the sources:
Annotated Book Review Literature Review

Bibliography
Summarizes the Evaluates a book Reviews a significant
references and explain Review number of scholarly
how important they work to be identify what
are in addressing the is known and not
research questions known about a topic
Functions of a Literature Review
This type of a review has the following roles:

 Justifies a research questions, method or theoretical and conceptual
framework
 Establishes the relevant of the topic
 Provides necessary information to better understand a specific topic
or study
 Shows reviewers familiarity and mastery of the topic
 Establishes a niche of the study
 Resolves conflict among contradictory studies
Structure of a Literature Review
Introduction
 Purpose for writing literature review and the importance of the topic
being reviewed
 Scope the review
 Criteria used for selecting the literature
 Organizational pattern of the review
Body
 Historical background
 Relevant theories
 Relationship between and among the studies, and how
each study advanced a theory
 Strengths and weaknesses of each paper
 Various viewpoints on the topic
Conclusion
Restatement of the main argument or thesis
Main agreements and disagreements in the literature
If stand-alone paper: conclusions; implications; and direction
for future studies
If part of a thesis or research paper: linking of the literature
review to the research questions
Overall perspective on the topic.
Guidelines in Writing a Literature Review
Literature Search
1. Review the documentation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) that you will adopt and be familiar with its format in
relation to writing a literature review.
2. Choose and focus on a topic that you will explain.
3. Determine the kind and number of sources you will be using. Will your literature review be exclusive to articles or
will it include other documents? Will you focus on experimental studies or will you also include theoretical papers
that explain a theory?
4. Survey the available online databases relevant to your topic. These include Proquest, Science Direct, JSTOR, or
Google Scholar. As much as possible, include only the references published by top journals and publishers.
5. Use relevant keywords when searching for scholarly documents or article. For example, if your topic is about the
impact of Facebook-based e-portfolios on the writing skills of ESL learners, your possible keywords are Facebook,
ESL writing, e-portfolio, portfolio assessment, Facebook-based e-portfolio, and social networking site.
6. Always include landmark studies or papers (i.e., studies which had remarkably changed the field) related to your
topic.
7. Always evaluate the sources for coverage and currency. Include only those article directly related to your topic.
Guidelines in Writing a Literature Review
Evaluation and Analysis of Articles

Once you have identified and obtained the articles for your review, analyze them before
writing the actual literature review. To do this, you may apply the following steps.
1. Skim the articles and read their abstracts.
2. Group the articles and other documents according to their categories.
3. Take down notes. Focus on the research questions, methodology used, major findings and
their explanation, and conclusion.
4. Summarize the details using a concept map. In this way, you will see the relationship,
similarities and differences among the articles.
5. Write a synthesis of the references you have read before writing the actual literature review.
6. Create an outline. You may look for other literature reviews to serve as models for writing the
outline.
Writing the Literature Review
1. State clearly your thesis or main argument and be guided by it accordingly. Below is an example
of a thesis statement for a literature review.
2. If you say that no studies have been conducted on one aspect of your topic, justify it.
3. Direct the readers to other related literature reviews that cover items which you do not intend to
cover. You may use the citation format “(see Author, year)” or follow the format prescribed by your
chosen documentation style.
4. Never treat a literature review as a series of annotated bibliography.
5. Use headings and subheadings to classify the parts of your topic. For each topic heading,
analyze the differences among studies and look for gaps. Note that each paragraph should focus
on one aspect of the topic.
6. Use effective transitions to make your review easier to read and understand.
7. The body of the literature review can be organized thematically, methodologically or
chronologically.
8. Use direct quotations sparingly.
9. Classify important definitions.
THANK YOU!
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WRITING A

 A literature review is a type of academic writing that provides an

Annotated Book Review Literature Review

This type of a review has the following roles:

Evaluation and Analysis of Articles

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