Review of Related Literature (segway)

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Review of Related Literature

Review of Related Literature

Overview

After you have selected your research topic, you have to spend more time for your review of related literature.
As a researcher, you are promoting knowledge.
The knowledge created by other previous studies is essential because it can be a baseline or reference for your research study.
Review of related literature is a compilation of studies related to a specific area of research (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2020).
It evaluates, classifies and summarizes all the relevant previous studies conducted on a specified topic.
It is also designed to justify your research by exposing the gaps of the previous studies.
It is vital that your literature review is centralized.
Thus, you should choose studies that are focused to your topic rather than collecting a broader scope of studies which are already not relevant to your research.

Purpose of a Literature Review

The review of related literature is anchored on the following purposes:
  1. To discover the connection of your research to the existing body of knowledge and to the real-life situations.
  2. To identify more theories or concepts as the foundation of your research study and to learn from them.
  3. To determine the relationship of your research with previous research studies to prevent duplication and to acknowledge other researchers.
  4. To acquire knowledge on the accuracy and significance of your research questions.
  5. To acquaint yourself with the technical terminologies relevant to your study.
  6. To determine possible gaps, conflicts, and open questions left from other research which might help you in formulating and justifying your research ideas.
  7. To clarify misconceptions on previous research and help refocus, polish, and contribute to the development of the body of knowledge.

Structure of Literature Review

This is how you are going to structure your review of related literature:
  1. Introduction: The introduction presents the fundamental idea of the particular study of the literature review.
  2. Main Body: The main body consists of the organized discussion of sources.
  3. Conclusions/Recommendations: Conclusion and recommendation emphasize what you have learned from reviewing the literature and where your study leads to.

Types of Literature Review

Types of literature review according to Nueman (2011):
  1. Context review: Focused on the content or contextual aspect of research.
  2. Historical review: Organized according to the period of time it was conducted.
  3. Integrative review: Introduces and summarizes recent knowledge, emphasizing agreements and disagreements.
  4. Methodological review: Gathers, compares, and contrasts studies, summarizing strengths and gaps in methodologies.
  5. Self-study review: Demonstrates understanding of a specific body of knowledge, relating findings to research questions.
  6. Theoretical review: Introduces several theories or concepts focused on a specific topic.

Type of Sources for a Literature Review

Researchers must be acquainted with the three (3) basic types of sources:
  1. General references: Sources used to track down other sources.
  2. Primary sources: Publications where researchers report their own findings.
  3. Secondary sources: Publications that consider the work of others (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2020).

Where to Find the Review of Related Literature

Information can be found in numerous formats:
  1. Books: Containing collections of research materials and articles.
  2. Scholarly Journals: Peer-reviewed articles written by scholars.
  3. Dissertations: Original research for a Ph.D. degree.
  4. Government Documents: Findings published by government agencies.
  5. Policy Reports and Presented Papers: Non-academic papers discussing issues.
  6. Periodicals: Summaries in newspapers and magazines.

Steps in Writing Literature Review

Steps include:
  1. Find/Search for Relevant Literature.
  2. Log, Catalogue and Synthesize.
  3. Outlining and Writing Up.

Citation

Citation is a reference to literature being used in your study.
An in-text citation is a reference made within the body of text.
A reference typically includes only the sources mentioned in-text.
A bibliography is a list of all sources used, even if not cited.

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