What is the purpose of literature review?

It is analyze critically a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification and comparison of prior research studies reviews of literature and theoretical articles. (the writing center)

According to Almofad.com:

1. To define and limit the problem you working on.

2. To place you study in an historical perspective.

3. To avoid unnecessary duplication.

4. To evaluate promising research methods.

5. To relate you finding to previous knowledge and suggest further research.

Note: A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize briefly each article that you have reviewed. While a summary of the what you have read is contained within the literature review, it goes well beyond merely summarizing professional literature.

It focuses on a specific topic of interest to you and includes a critical analysis of the relationship among different works, and relating this research to your work. It may be written as a stand-alone paper or to provide a theoretical framework and rationale for a research study (such as a thesis or dissertation).What is the most critical thing can literature review do?

According to Toronto University that the literature review has significant issue:

1. Be recognize around and related directly to the thesis or research question you developing.

2. Synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known.

3. Identify areas of controversy in the literature.

4. Formulate questions that need further research.

When to Start Reviewing Related Literature?

• While the research problem is still being conceptualized, the researcher must already start reviewing literature. In identifying and defining the research problem, the researcher must be able to show evidences that the problem really exists and is worth investigating.

• It is important that the researcher knows what is already known about the problem or what earlier researchers have found about it and what questions still need to be answered before the research questions or objectives are finalized.

• Theories which the researchers use to explain the existence of a research problem and used as bases in analyzing relationships between variables can be generated from reference books on

theories or from related studies. The researcher therefore, must have already read adequate literature at the start of the research activity.

Steps in writing the review of related literature

• Step 1: Review APA guidelines

• Step 2: Decide on a topic

• Step 3: Identify the literature that you will review:

• Step 4: Analyze the literature

• Step 5: Summarize the literature in table or concept map format

• Step 6: Synthesize the literature prior to writing your review

• Step 7: Writing the review (Galvan, 2006: 81-90)

• Step 8: Developing a coherent essay

APA Guidelines

Introductory Information

Rules

o Abbreviations

o Avoiding biased and pejorative language

o Capitalization

o Commas

o Hyphenation

o Italics (underlining)

o Miscellaneous

o Numbers

o Quotation marks

Page Formats

o Title & text pages (graphic)

o Headings

o Text details

o References & tables (graphic)

o Tables (notes)

Reference Citations (In-Text)

Reference Formats

o Abbreviating within a reference

o Alphabetizing within reference lists

o APA reference style & examples

Writing in APA Style for Literature Reviews

• ONE WORK BY SINGLE AUTHOR:

• Smith (1983) compared reaction times

• In a recent study of reaction times it was found that (Smith, 1983)

• In 1983, Smith compared reaction times

• ONE WORK BY THREE OR MORE AUTHORS:

• Cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; in subsequent citations include only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." (not underlined and with no period after "et") and the year. Citations apart of the text, use and , when citing in parentheses use & symbol.

• Williams, Jones, Smith, Bradner, and Torringon (1983) found (first citation)

• Researchers (Williams, Jones, Smith, Bradner, &Torringon, 1983) found (first citation)

• Williams et al. (1983) found (subsequent citations)

• ONE WORK BY THREE OR MORE AUTHORS:

• Cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; in subsequent citations include only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." (not underlined and with no period after "et") and the year. Citations apart of the text, use and , when citing in parentheses use & symbol.

• Williams, Jones, Smith, Bradner, and Torringon (1983) found (first citation)

• Researchers (Williams, Jones, Smith, Bradner, &Torringon, 1983) found (first citation)

• Williams et al. (1983) found (subsequent citations)

Tips in Writing (RL)

• QUOTATIONS: Quotations should be extremely rare in scientific writing, and should only be used if exact wording or terminology is needed.

• VOICE: AVOID 1ST PERSON (GALVAN, 2004, P. 54)

• Ex. Improper voice for academic writing In this review, I will show that the literature on treating juvenile murderers is sparse and suffers from the same problems as the general literature Unfortunately, I have found that most of the treatment results are based on clinical case reports of

• Ex. Suitable voice for academic writing The literature on treating juvenile murderers is sparse and suffers from the same problems as the general literature Most of the treatment results are based on clinical case reports

• AVOID SLANG. USE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE

• conducted a study instead of did a study

• examined instead of looked at

• utilize instead of use (where appropriate)

• great deal instead of a lot

• furthermore instead of run-on sentences

• ORGANIZE THE PAPER BY TOPICS NOT CHRONOLOGY:

• Build paper with a clear thesis. Good writing should provide clear and organized evidence for your argument or theory.

• BE CONSICE:

• Delete unnecessary words, phrases, and sentences to drastically improve your writing. Scientific writing is concise and to-the-point!

• REVISE AND REWRITE:

• Good writing takes hard work. Give yourself enough time to take a break from the paper. Time away from the paper provides perspective regarding organization and allows the opportunity to find technical errors.

• CITATIONS:

• It is imperative that you use good citation habits. It is plagiarism to use other writers words and IDEAS.