Literature Review

Literature Review

The theoretical framework for your study must emerge from the review of literature and must
have its grounding in empirical evidence; literature review includes:

 A conceptual framework and the theoretical and empirical information about the main issues
under study;
 Some of the major research finding relating to your topic and the gaps identified by previous
researches.
The literature review should also raise issues related to the methodology you are proposing; it is
also important because it helps you to establish a link between your what you are proposing to
examine and what has already been achieved, it allows you to compare your findings with those
of others; it provides a theoretical background to your study. In general; the literature review
helps you in three ways:
1) It brings clarity and focus to your research problem: you cannot effectively do a research
without some ideas of the problem you wish to investigate. Reviewing the literature shows you
what aspects of your subject have been examined by others, what they have found about these
aspects, what gaps they have identified and what suggestions they have made for further
researches.
2) It improves your research methodology: going through literature provides you with the
methodologies used by others so as to find answers to research questions similar to the one you
are investigating. It tells you if others have used methods and procedures similar to the ones used
by you, and which procedures and methods have worked well for them and what problems they
have faced. In this case you will be in a better position to select a methodology that is capable of
providing valid answers as you will increase your confidence in the methodology you plan to
follow.
3) It broadens your knowledge base in your research area: it is important to know what other
researchers have found, what theories have been put and what gaps exist in the relevant body of
knowledge. Thus; you will identify what has been established and you will be acquainted with the
methods used in similar studies and be able to form a robust methodology. You will also develop
and extend your knowledge base in the subject area of your study.

The difference between a literature review and summary of literature:

A summary of literature is a description of the significant findings for each piece of work that
you have gone through as part of your literature search. The summary basically involves listing
the major findings relevant to your study under each appropriate source. The sources searched
can be listed in any order. In the review of literature the main findings are organized around the
main themes that emerge from your literature. Different studies in which the same theme is
identified are referenced in one place where the theme is being discussed as part of the literature
review; and under each theme the main findings relating to it from all the sources you have
searched are mentioned and compared, pointing to similarities and differences between them. A
summary of the literature is a summary of the main findings from each relevant reference you
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 searched; in a literature review you describe each theme that emerged during the literature search,
citing its origins, comparing it with others and integrating it in a logical manner with the rest.

How to review the literature:

The literature review should be focused around your research problem and should concentrate on
the main themes of it; it should be undertaken as if you seek to answer the following questions:
a) What is already known in the area?
b) What is not known or what are the gaps in the existing knowledge?
c) What questions have remained without answers?
d) Are there some conflicting ideas?
e) What theories are relevant to your study?
f) What suggestions have been made for further research?
g) What research strategies have been employed by others undertaking similar research.

Steps for conduction a literature review: there are four steps involved when reviewing the
literature:

1. Searching for the existing literature: to search effectively for the literature in your field of
study, you must have some idea about the subject area and the problem you wish to
investigate. You must also have some idea about the study population; i.e. immigrants,
women, youth, students, etc, and what you want to study, i.e. in the case f immigrants you
might want to study their settlement process and conditions, reason for immigration, etc.
There are four sources that you can use to search for the existing literature which are: books,
journals, conference papers, and the net.
a) Books: they are central parts for any literature and bibliography; and all the materials published in
a book are usually important and of a good quality. The best way to search for a book is to check
a library catalogues. Narrow the subject area searched by selecting the appropriate key words,
then read carefully through these titles found and identify those books you think are likely to be
of interest to you; and be aware that some titles do not provide enough information that help you.
b) Journals: they provide you with the most up to date information, even though there is a gap of 2
or 3 years between the completion of a research project and its publication in a journal. You
should select as many journals as you can, then prepare a list of those you want to examine and
start by the latest one and check its content page to see if there is an article relevant to your topic.
In most libraries, information on books, journals and abstracts is stored on computers; in each
case the information is classified by subject, author and title.
c) Conference papers: these refer to papers presented in professional conferences and have been
published. They can provide you with the most recent researches in the area, thus try to get copies
of the papers presented at recent conferences in your area of interest.
d) The Internet: it becomes an important tool for finding published literature in almost every
academic and professional field. Through the Internet search you can identify published materials
in books, journals and other sources with ease and speed.
2. Reviewing the selected literature: after identifying several books and articles to use, the next
step is to start reading them to pull together issues that are relevant to your study. Use

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 separate sheets of paper for each theme or issue you identify and put the information where it
logically belongs under the themes as long as you read. When going through the literature
you should carefully and critically examine according to the following aspects:
a) Note whether the knowledge relevant to your theoretical framework has been confirmed
beyond doubt;
b)Note the theories and their criticism, basis and the methodologies adopted;
c) Notice whether there are significant differences of opinions among researchers and give your
opinion about their validity;
d)Notice the gaps that exist in the body of knowledge.
3. Developing a theoretical framework: examining the literature can be never en ending task, but
as you have limited time it is important to set the parameters by taking the themes related to
you your topic. As you read the literature you discover that your research problem has its
roots in a number of theories. Therefore, the information obtained from different books and
journals need to be stored under the main themes and theories highlighting agreements and
disagreements among the authors, and identifying the unanswered questions and gaps.
Literature relevant to your study may deal with universal/general information and more
specific information; therefore you should start with the general information and gradually
narrow it down to the specific.
4. Developing a conceptual framework: it stems from the theoretical framework and usually
focuses on the sections which are the basis of your study. It describes the aspects you selected
from the theoretical framework to become the basis of you enquiry; thus it becomes the
foundation of your study.

Writing about the literature reviewed

Now; all what remains is to write about the literature you have reviewed. As mentioned
previously; literature review seeks to provide a theoretical background to your study and to
enable you to contextualize your findings in relation to the existing body of knowledge, in
addition to refining your methodology. Therefore; the content of your literature should reflect
these two purposes. In order to achieve the first purpose, you should identify and describe
various theories relevant to your field and specify gaps in existing knowledge in the area, recent
advances in the study, current trends and so on. In order to fulfill the second purpose you should
integrate to results from your study with specific and relevant findings from the existing
literature by comparing the two for confirmation or contradiction.

While reading the literature for the theoretical background to your study, you will realize
that certain themes have emerged; list the main ones converting them into subheading. Some
people write the entire literature review in one section entitled “Review of Literature”,
“Summary of Literature”, or “Literature Review” without subheadings of the author, but you
should write your literature review under subheadings based upon the main themes that you have
discovered and which form the basis of your theoretical framework. These subheadings should
be precise, describe the theme and follow a logical progression. Then; under each subheading,
record the main findings or information with respect to the theme (thematic writing 1),
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A style of writing which is written around the main theme.
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highlighting the reasons for and against an argument if they exist, identifying gaps and issues. Be
sure to provide a reference for any borrowed material in an acceptable format.

Your literature review can include a critique of methodology relevant to your study; the
critique of methods and procedures should be involved under their respective headings, for
example: critique on the sampling design should be included under ‘sampling’. Note that the
suggested research proposal should not specify a section for reviewing literature entitled “survey
of the literature” or “literature review”; references to literature review should be integrated with
your arguments and should be part of your research report. It should be reviewed under the main
themes that emerge from your reading and various issues should be discussed under their
respective headings. For quantitative proposal you need to be very specific in proposing how to
you are going to undertake each step of the research journey, whereas in qualitative proposal
such details are not expected as your methodology is flexible and unstructured to accommodate
in depth search.