LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND

REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

CHAPTER 4

“If I have seen further…. It is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

-Isaac Newton
1. CRITERIA IN
SELECTING,
CITING, AND
SYNTHESIZING
RELATED
LITERATURE
LITERATURE REVIEW

Is an integrated synthesis
drawing upon a select list of
academic sources(mainly journal
articles) with a strong relation to
the topic in question. It is a paper
that includes a description and a
critical evaluation of past research.
(Sta.
Clara University, 2017)
The literature review is not merely a list of every
item and resource with any possible relation to your
topic no matter how tenuous.

Is focused on a particular question or area of

research.

Is not a widespread, comprehensive list of all

materials pertaining to a particular discipline or field
or inquiry.

A literature review is NOT a summary of available

materials without any critical description or
component; or an annotated bibliography.
 LITERATURE
REVIEW VS
ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
DIFFERENCE IN PURPOSE:
An annotated bibliography is a list of what’s available
in a given field, accompanied by a short discipline.
In short: a literature review usually has a thesis or
statement of purpose, stated or implied, at its core.
(Sta. Clara University, 2017)

DIFFERENCE IN FORMAT:
A literature review is a prose document similar to a
journal article or essay; not a list of citations and
description.
An annotated bibliography is simply that: a
bibliography ( a list of works or resources),
accompanied by annotations.
 B. HOW TO
SELECT AND
REVIEW THE
LITERATURE
STEP ONE
STEP TWO:
AUTHORITY

CURRENCY

DOCUMENTATION

INTENDED AUDIENCE

OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE

RELEVANCY
STEP THREE
STEP FOUR

Content
STEP FIVE

Writing the
STEP SIX
C. HOW TO WRITE THE
REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE

STEP ONE:
Present relevant findings and issues from your research
articles in your literature review.

STEP TWO:
Decide on what organization pattern makes sense for
organizing the studies into a coherent presentation:
chronological, categorical/topic, general to specific, know to
unknown, etc.
STEP THREE
Follow the models of the research articles you’re
reading and the textbook’s description of previous
research as closely as possible.

STEP FOUR
Do not include ALL the information from each study;
rather you will use each study to help you advance
the necessary the necessary definitions, context,
explanation, and rationalization for variables, gaps,
and the argument your paper is making.

STEP FIVE
Your study rationale is the last part of the body
section of your literature review.
 2. ETHICAL
STANDARDS IN
WRITING
RELATED
LITERATURE
A.

Is the notion that the

written work of an
author, be it a
manuscript for a
magazine or scientific
journal, a research paper
submitted for a course,
or a grant proposal
submitted to a funding
agency, represents an
implicit contract between
 “is a term used to describe a practice that involves
knowingly taking and using another person’s work and
claiming it, directly or indirectly, as you own.” (Neville,
2007)
TYPES OF PLAGIARISM

Blatant plagiarism is an act in which the

written tries to deceive the teacher or
readers-either for a grade or acclaim –
into believing he or she is totally
responsible for or originator the content.

Technical plagiarism occurs when the

writer is not trying to cheat or deceive but
fails to follow accepted method of using
and revealing sources.
A
RESEARCHER
MUST
OBSERVE
THE
FOLLOWING
TO AVOID
FRAUD.
A. HONESTY
B.
OBJECTIVITY
C. INTEGRITY
D.
CAREFULNES
S
B. ETHICS IN
REVIEWING LITERATURE
Report your findings with complete
honesty.
Do not misinterpret, misinform, mislead,
and/or intentionally misinterpret.
Give appropriate credit when using other
people’s work.
Avoid plagiarism by fully acknowledge all
content belonging to others.
(Logan University, 2017)
 3. THE
DEFINITION OF
TERMS AS USED
IN THE STUDY
A.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Is basically setting the parameters or
boundaries how certain “terms” are going to
be used in the research or study.
A formal definition consists of three parts.
 The term(word or phrase) to be defined
 The class of object or concept to which the
term belongs.
 The differentiating characteristics that
distinguish it from all others of its class.
(Pepper & Driscoll, 2015)
 FOR EXAMPLE:
Water (term) is a liquid (class) made up of molecules
of hydrogen and oxygen in the ratio of 2 to 1
(differentiating characteristics).

Comic books (term) are sequential and narrative

publication(class) consisting of illustrations, captions,
dialogue balloons, and often focus on super-powered
heroes (differentiating characteristics).

Astronomy (term) is a branch of scientific study

(class) primarily concerned with celestial objects
inside and outside of the earth’s atmosphere
(differentiating characteristics). (Pepper & Driscoll,
2015)
B. WHY DEFINE TERMS?
 C. HOW TO WRITE THE
“DEFINITION OF TERMS”
Step One: Identify the terms to define. Make a list of these terms.

Step Two: Select the terms of your Thesis Statement: Adjective +

Noun combinations such as:
-illegal immigration
-school uniforms
-campus romance (Cabrera, 2013)

Step Three: Select the terms of your Thesis Statement: Verbs

such as:
-influence
-affect
-determine(Cabrera, 2013)
Step Four: Select the terms of your Thesis Statement: Verb + adjective
combinations such as:
-is more effective
-are bigger
-can be detrimental (Cabrera, 2013)

Step Five: Select the terms of your Thesis Statement: Adverb + Verb combinations
such as:
-negatively influence
-positively affect (Cabrera, 2013)

Step Six: Use the following format:

In this research, the term(term1) is used to mean “your own meaning inside the
quote marks.”
In this paper, the term (term2) is used to mean “your own meaning inside the
quote marks.”
Step Seven: You can write in paragraph format. Use one
paragraph for each term, including dictionary definition
and your own definition.

Step Eight: you can write in list format. The term being
defined is in italics.

Example:
Troll – According to Webster (2001), the term troll is a noun
that means “insert definition here.” In this paper, the term
troll is a verb that means “to collect” as in “to troll the
internet for quotes.”
Step Nine: The definition terms can be placed after the
paragraph that describes the purpose of the study.
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Definitions
Significance of the Investigation
REMINDERS ON
DEFINING TERMS
1. Always observe the three components in a
definition.
a. The term
b. The class
c. The differentiating characteristics
2. Avoid defining with “X” is when” and “X is where”
statement.
3. Do not define a word by mere repetition or merely
restating the word.
4. Define a word in simple and familiar terms
5. Keep the class portion on your definition small but
adequate.
Parenthetical Citation
Name of the author and the year of publication
of the material cited is included in the
paragraph. May be written at the beginning or at
the end of the sentence.
Commonly use styles of citing
information in Literature Review
MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (MLA)
Commonly used in liberal arts and humanities discipline
Follows author – page method of text citation (author’s
last name and page number(s) where paraphrase and
quotation are cited.
Complete bibliographic information appears on “Works
Cited” page
Author’s name in text: Palomar emphasized that (20-
21)
Author’s name in parentheses: This is given an
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
(APA)

Commonly used in social sciences

discipline.
Author date system of citation (last
name of author and date of publication
of the work must appear)
Appears on reference
Single author – last name of the
author year of the publication. When
the name of the author is part of the
narrative, only date is placed in the
parenthesis.
Smith (1983) compared reaction
Two authors - name both authors in signal phase or in
parenthesis each time you cite the work. Use “and” between
authors’ names within text and ampersand in the parenthesis.
Santos and Reyes (2014) explained that ….
… as has been shown (Santos & Reyes, 2014)

Work by 3-5 authors – list all authors in the signal phrase or in

parentheses the first time you cite the source. Use “and”
between the authors’ names within the text and ampersand in
the parentheses.

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)

Six or more authors – use first author’s name
followed by “et al.” in the signal phrase or in the
parentheses.
David et al. (2014) argued….
(David et al., 2014)
Unknown authors – cite the source by its title in
the signal phrase or use the first word or two in
parentheses. Book titles and reports are italicized or
underlined; titles of articles , chapters and Web
pages are in quotation marks.
A similar study was done of students learning to
format research papers (“Using APA,” 2001).
In rare cases “Anonymous” is used for author,
treat it as the author’s name: (Anonymous, 2001)
Organization as an Author – if
organization or agency, mention the
organization in the signal phrase or in
the parenthetical citation the first time
you cite the source.
First citation : According to the
National Institute of Chemistry
(2013)…
Second citation: (NIC, 2013)
WRITING THE REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE
Identify the broad problem.
Indicate why the topic is being reviewed.
Distinguish between research findings and other
sources of information.
Indicate why certain studies are important.
If citing classic or landmark studies, identify it as
such.
Landmark study – pioneering study on
certain topic. It is suggested to include this
kind of study to give emphasis on the topic
being reviewed.
Discuss other literature review on your topic.
Avoid long list of nonspecific references.
Cite separately inconsistent or varying results of
previous studies.
Can you use newspaper articles in
a research paper?
Yes, you can cite it. Generally
people do that if they want to talk
about a case example, on the
prevalence of a problem, or if they
want to say something about how
the media reports on a topic.
What should you include in a literature
review?
Image result for literature review from a
newspaper
The basic components of a literature review
include:
a description of the publication;
a summary of the publication's main points;
a discussion of gaps in research;
an evaluation of the publication's
contribution to the topic.
How do you begin a literature review?
Write the review
Start by writing your thesis statement. This is
an important introductory sentence that will
tell your reader what the topic is and the
overall perspective or argument you will be
presenting.
Like essays, a literature review must have an
introduction, a body and a conclusion.
Is a newspaper article a literature?
Literature can be a book, a book chapter,
a journal article, a conference paper, a
newspaper, a government report, a
webpage, a thesis...
Visit the following links
https://
www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/primary-sources/media-litera
ture-review#newspapers

https://libguides.cayuga-cc.edu/c.php?g=172017&p=1134109 (Literature
Databases)

https://iupui.libguides.com/literaturereview/search

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdJxY4w9XKY
1) for the order of information for a live television
broadcast.
Title of the episode or segment, if appropriate (in
quotation marks)
Title of the program or series (italicized)
Name of the network (if any)
Call letters and city of the local station (if any)
Broadcast date.
Medium of reception (e.g., Radio, Television)
Television or Radio Broadcast
Episode of a television show on DVD
"Title of Episode." Title of Series. Writer's
Name. Director's Name. Distributor's Name,
Year of Release. Medium of Publication.
Examples
"Episode One." Downton Abbey. Writ. Julian
Fellowes. Dir. Brian Percival. Carnival Films.
2010. DVD.

"The Trip." Seinfeld. Dir. Tom Cherones. NVC,

12 Aug. 1992. Google Video. Web. 15 Aug.
2007. DVD.
In text citation

The Seinfeld episode "The Trip" is one of the few

episodes that takes place outside New York city.

Full television series (whole season) on DVD

Title of Series. Writer's Name. Director's Name.
Original broadcast date. Distributor's Name, Date
of DVD release. Medium of Publication.
Example
Friends: The Complete Sixth Season, Writ.
Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen. Dir. Kevin Bright.
NBC. 10 Feb. 2000. Warner Brothers, 2004. DVD.
In text citation
The characters in Friends have interesting pasts,
families, ethnicities and contexts that provide
opportunities for deeper understanding of
character.