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Review of Related Literature ◦ Problem formulation—which topic or

field is being examined and what are
Survey of Literature and Related Studies its component issues?
 *most important components of a good ◦ Literature search—finding materials
investigatory research paper: relevant to the subject being
explored
- Properly planned, adeptly conceptualized,
and well written RRL ◦ Data evaluation—determining which
*Reviewing and organizing related studies is basic literature makes a significant
to all research. contribution to the understanding of
the topic
-provide additional knowledge and insights into the
topics  Analysis and interpretation—discussing
the findings and conclusions of pertinent
-help organize the concepts and principles literature
fundamental to research.
Working with Literature
Why a Review of Related Literature?

 Briefly summarizes studies directly related Workingwith

Working with
to your research Literature
Literature
 Includes purpose, procedures, major
Manag
Manag Revie
Revie
findings and recommendations for further Findit!
Find it! Useit!
Use it!
study of various researches conducted in Knowingeeit!
it! wwit!
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the past. the
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Reading your
your dingthe
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efficiently research
research litlitreview’s
review’s
types Keeping
Keeping topic purpose
 Discusses relevant information, reviews Using
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Developin
topic
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Ensuring
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most recent findings and identifies gaps in available
ofof
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Honing
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question coverage
coverage
existing knowledge about the problem or Honing references
Writing
references Arguing Writing
your relevant Arguing Writing
area being studied. your relevant your purposef
search annotation your purposef
search annotation rationale ully
skills Informing
rationale Working
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 Extensive review of research you can learn skills ss Informing Working
yourwork
your work on
on
which procedures and techniques have with
with style
style and and
proved useful and those that seem less theory
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theory
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tone
promising. gg
method
method
 Avoids unintentional replication of studies
that have already been conducted in the Some Helpful Tips in Writing the Review of
past. related Literature
 Place each work in the context of its  A. It must document accepted facts,
contribution to the understanding of the concepts and processes upon which
subject under review research is based.
 Describe the relationship of each work to  B. Reference information should be
the others under consideration correctly recorded so that proper
documentation of sources can be made and
 Identify new ways to interpret, and shed appropriate credit be given the author.
light on any gaps in, previous research
 C. Describe similarities and differences
 Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly among research studies as background
contradictory previous studies information for your current study.
 Identify areas of prior research to prevent  d. Include the following as a general
duplication of effort background information of your paper.
 Place one's original work (in the case of How to Organize the RRL
theses or dissertations) in the context of
existing literature  A. Create categories for your literature
review, grouping together similar studies or
Components of Lit. Review those that tackle similar aspects of your
Development of the literature review research.
requires four stages:  B. Begin with the most recent studies and
then work backward.
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 C. Whenever possible, include an extensive  Conclude by providing some insight into the
review of relevant local research so that you relationship between the central topic of the
will avoid unintentional duplication of literature review and a larger area of study
already conducted studies. such as a discipline, a scientific endeavor,
or a profession.
Writing the introduction
How to Use APA Citing and
In the introduction, you should: Paraphrasing to Avoid Plagiarism
 Define or identify the general topic, issue, or What is paraphrasing?
area of concern, thus providing an
appropriate context for reviewing the A paraphrase uses an author's idea, but expresses
literature. it in your own words, without the use of
quotation marks.
 Point out overall trends in what has been Just changing a few words from the
published about the topic; or conflicts in original is plagiarism.
theory, methodology, evidence, and Paraphrasing is permitted as long
conclusions; or gaps in research and as you credit the source.
scholarship; or a single problem or new
perspective of immediate interest. What is Quoting?
A quotation uses exactly the same words and
 Establish the writer's reason (point of view) puts them in quotation marks.
for reviewing the literature; explain the - If the quotation is more than 2 lines you should
criteria to be used in analyzing and put it in a separate paragraph and indent it from
comparing literature and the organization of both sides.
the review (sequence); and, when
necessary, state why certain literature is or What is a Summary?
is not included (scope). A summary should contain the main points
Writing the body from the author's text. Don't forget to
reference it with the author's family name,
 In the body, you should: date of publication and page number.

 Group research studies and other types of When Should I…

literature (reviews, theoretical articles, case
studies, etc.) according to common … …Quote? … Summarize?
denominators such as qualitative versus Paraphrase?
quantitative approaches, conclusions of 1. The author’s 1. 1. Not all author’s
authors, specific purpose or objective, words will be Everything words are
chronology, etc. difficult for your the author necessary e.g. if
reader to writes is the author gives
 Summarize individual studies or articles with understand? important examples or
as much or as little detail as each merits explanations that
according to its comparative importance in you don’t need to
the literature, remembering that space put in your text
(length) denotes significance. 2. Your 2. The 2. If paraphrasing
instructor wants
quotation or quoting will
 Provide the reader with strong "umbrella" to know if you will not make your text too
sentences at beginnings of paragraphs, understand the make your long
"signposts" throughout, and brief "so what" author comedy text too
summary sentences at intermediate points long
in the review to aid in understanding 3. You
comparisons and analyses. haven’t
Writing the conclusion used many
quotations
 In the conclusion, you should: already
APA General Guidelines
 Summarize major contributions of significant American Psychological Association
studies and articles to the body of  double-spaced
knowledge under review, maintaining the  standard-sized paper (8.5" x 11") with 1"
focus established in the introduction. margins on all sides
 APA recommends using 12 pt. Times
 Evaluate the current "state of the art" for the
New Roman font.
body of knowledge reviewed, pointing out
major methodological flaws or gaps in
APA Formatting
research, inconsistencies in theory and
List only the resources to which you have
findings, and areas or issues pertinent to
specifically referred, not those merely consulted
future study.
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• Place the page of references at the end of your Encyclopedia & Dictionary
assignment on a separate page titled References Format:
• Use authors’ names in the order they appear on Author's last name, first initial. (Date). Title of
the title page; do not alphabetize multiple authors of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume,
a source pages). City of publication: Publishing
• Invert authors’ names and include only initials of company.
first and middle names (i.e. Adam Smith becomes
Smith, A.) Use an ampersand (&) to connect two Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new
authors’ names (e.g. Spacey, K., & Butler, G.) encyclopedia britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-
• Use commas to separate authors and an 508). Chicago: Encyclopedia
ampersand for the last author if there are three to Britannica.
six authors
List the first six authors and then et al. if there are Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.).
more than six (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
• Begin the reference with the title of the work if no
author is given Magazine & Newspaper Articles
• Arrange the list alphabetically; if there is no author Format:
and the title begins with a, an, or the, alphabetize Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date).
by the second word Article title. Periodical title, volume
• Begin each entry with a hanging indent (first line number(issue number if available), inclusive
begins at the left margin and all other lines are pages.
indented ½ inch)
• Double space within and between entries in your Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for
list of references preparing psychology journal articles.
• Capitalize only the first word in the title and the Journal of Comparative and Physiological
first word after a colon Psychology, 55, 893-896.

APA Quick Tips Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade
An in text citation must point clearly to a specific in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
source in References.
The in text citations and the References list work Website or Webpage
together. Format:
The in text citation, a brief reference to a work, Online periodical:
enables the reader to identify the source of an idea Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of article.
quickly and easily. Knowing the author’s last name Title of Periodical, volume number,
(or the title) from the in text citation, a reader can Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
locate the complete publication information for that
work in the alphabetically arranged References list. Online document:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work.
Books Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Note: When citing Internet sources, refer to the
Book title. Additional information. City of specific website document. If a document is
publication: Publishing company. undated, use "n.d." (for no date) immediately after
the document title.
Examples: Break a lengthy URL that goes to another line after
Allen, T. (1974). Vanishing wildlife of North a slash or before a period. Continually check your
America. Washington, D.C.: National references to online documents. There is no period
Geographic Society. following a URL.

Searles, B., & Last, M. (1979). A reader's guide to Note: If you cannot find some of this information,
science fiction. New York: Facts on File, cite what is available.
Inc.
Devitt, T. (2001, August 2). Lightning injures four at
Toomer, J. (1988). Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. music festival. The Why? Files. Retrieved
New York: Norton. January 23, 2002, from
[Link]
Boorstin, D. (1992). The creators: A history of the
heroes of the imagination. New York: Dove, R. (1998). Lady freedom among us. The
Random House. Electronic Text Center. Retrieved June
19, 1998, from Alderman Library, University
Nicol, A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting of Virginia website:
your findings: A practical guide for creating [Link]
tables. Washington, DC: American Psychological ml
Association.
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APA recommends in-text citations that refer If the organization has a well-known abbreviation,
readers to a list of references: include the abbreviation in brackets the first time
If the in-text citation looks like this: the source is cited and then use only the
abbreviation in later citations.
Yanovski and Yanovski (2002) reported that “the
current state ofthe treatment for obesity is First citation: (Department of Science and
similar to the state of the treatmentof Technology [DOST], 2000)
hypertension several decades ago” (p. 600). Second citation: (DOST, 2000)

The References entry will look like this: Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses
Yanovski, S. Z. & Yanovski, J. A. (2002). Drug When your parenthetical citation includes two or
therapy: Obesity[Electronic version]. more works, order them the same way they appear
The New England Journal of Medicine,346, in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon.
591-602. (Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)

A Work by Two Authors Authors With the Same Last Name

Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last
parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the names.
word "and" between the authors' names within the (E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)
text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.
Two or More Works by the Same Author in the
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports... Same Year
(Wegener & Petty, 1994) If you have two sources by the same author in the
same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the
A Work by Three to Five Authors year to order the entries in the reference list. Use
List all the authors in the signal phrase or in the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text
parentheses the first time you cite the source. Use citation.
the word "and" between the authors' names within Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that...
the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.
(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993) Personal Communication
In subsequent citations, only use the first author's For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-
last name followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or person communication, cite the communicator's
in parentheses. name, the fact that it was personal communication,
(Kernis et al., 1993) and the date of the communication. Do not include
In et al., et should not be followed by a period. personal communication in the reference list.
(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4,
Six or More Authors 2001).
Use the first author's name followed by et al. in the A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students
signal phrase or in parentheses. had difficulties with APA style (personal
Harris et al. (2001) argued... communication, November 3, 2002).
(Harris et al., 2001)
Citing Indirect Sources
Unknown Author If you use a source that was cited in another
If the work does not have an author, cite the source source, name the original source in your signal
by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word phrase. List the secondary source in your reference
or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and list and include the secondary source in the
reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, parentheses.
chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. Johnson argued that...(as cited in Smith, 2003, p.
102).
A similar study was done of students learning to
format research papers ("Using APA," 2001). Electronic Sources
If possible, cite an electronic document the same
Note: In the rare case the "Anonymous" is used for as any other document by using the author-date
the author, treat it as the author's name style.
(Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the Kenneth (2000) explained...
name Anonymous as the author.
Unknown Author and Unknown Date
Organization As an Author If no author or date is given, use the title in your
• If the author is an organization or a signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in
government agency, mention the the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for
organization in the signal phrase or in the "no date").
parenthetical citation the first time you cite Another study of students and research decisions
the source. discovered that students succeeded with tutoring
• According to the American Psychological ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).
Association (2000),...
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