Related

Literature
Roberto V. Gabriel Jr.
Teacher
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE (RRL)

Meaning of Review of Related Literature

Literature is an oral or written record of

man’s significant experiences that are
artistically conveyed in a prosaic manner.
Embodied in any literary work like essay,
novel, journal, history, biography, etc. are
man’s best thoughts and feelings about the
world.
 REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE (RRL)

A review of related
literature is an analysis of
man’s written spoken
knowledge of the world.
Purposes of Review of Related
Literature (RRL)

1. To obtain background knowledge

of your research.

2. To relate your study to the

current condition or situation of
the world
3. To show the capacity of your
research work to introduce new
knowledge
4. Expand, prove, or disprove the
findings of previous research studies
5. To increase your understanding of
the underlying theories,
principles, or concepts of your
research.
Purposes of Review of Related
Literature (RRL)

6. To explain technical terms involved

in your research study
7. To highlight the significance of your
work with the kind of evidence it
gathered to support the conclusion
of your research.
Purposes of Review of Related
Literature (RRL)

8. To avoid repeating previous

research.

9. To recommend the necessity of

further research on a certain
topic.
Styles or Approaches of RRL or Review of Related Literature
1. Traditional Review of Literature
To do a review of literature in a traditional way is to summarize present
forms of knowledge on a specific subject. Your aim here is to give an expanded or
new understanding of an existing work. Being necessarily descriptive, interpretative,
evaluative, and methodically unclear and uncertain, a traditional review is prone to
your subjectivity. This kind of review does not require you to describe your method
of reviewing literature but expects you to state your intentions in conducting the
review and to name the sources of information.
 You experience much freedom of flexibility in doing a traditional RRL so as an
undergraduate student taking BA, BSE, BSEED, or any four-year bachelor degree and
lacking much knowledge and expertise in research work, this is the appropriate method
for you. Attaining mastery in doing a traditional RRL is an excellent preparation for the more
demanding , second style of RRL called systematic review that is required at the graduate
level. Hence, being unprepared for systematic review, you have no other way but to do the
traditional review to complete the requirements of your course. (Jesson, 2011)

Traditional review is of different types that are as follows:

1. Conceptual review – analysis of concepts or ideas to give meaning to some national or
world issues
2. Critical review – focuses on theories or hypotheses and examines meanings and results
of their application to situations
3. State-of-the-Art review – makes the researcher deal with the latest research studies on
the subject
4. Expert review – encourages a well-known expert to do the RRL because of the influence
of a certain ideology, paradigm, or belief on him/her
5. Scoping review – prepares a situation for a future research work in the form of project
making about community development, government policies, and health services,
among others
…Styles and Approaches of RRL or review of Related Literature

2. Systematic Review of Literature

As indicated by its name, systematic, which means methodical, is a style of
RRL that involves sequential acts of a review of related literature. Unlike the
traditional review that has no particular method, systematic review requires you to
go through the following RRL steps (Ridley 2012):

2.1 Have a clear understanding of the research questions. Serving as the

compass to direct your research activities, the research questions tells you what
to collect and where to obtain those data you want to collect.

2.2 Plan your manner of obtaining the data. Imagining how you will get to
where the data are, you will come to think also of what keywords to use for easy
searching and how to accord courtesy and respect to people or institutions from
where the data will come such as planning how to communicate your request to
these sources of data.

2.3 Do the literature search. Using keywords, you look for the needed
information from all sources of knowledge: Internet, books, journals, periodicals,
government publications, general references, and the like.
…Styles and Approaches of RRL or review of Related Literature

2. Systematic Review of Literature

2.4 Using a certain standard, determine which data, studies, sources of

knowledge are valuable or not to warrant the reasonableness of your decision to
take some data and junk the rest.

2.5 Determine the methodological soundness of the research studies. Use a

checklist or a certain set of criteria in assessing the ways researchers conduct
their studies to arrive at a certain conclusion.

2.6 Summarize what you have gathered from various sources of data. To
concisely present a synthesis of your report, use a graph such as a table and
other presentation formats that are prone to verbosity.

A systematic review of literature is a rigorous way of obtaining data from written

works. It is a bias-free style that every researcher wanting to be a research expert should
experience. Limiting itself to peer-reviewed journals, academically written works, and
quantitative assessment of data through statistical methods, this style of literature review
ensures objectivity in every stage of the research. (Fraenbell 2012)
 The following table shows the way several books on RRL compare and contrast the two
styles of RRL.

Standards Traditional View Systematic View

Purpose To have a thorough and clear To meet a certain objective based

understanding of the field on specific research questions
Scope Comprehensive, wide picture Restricted focus

Review Design Infinite plan, permits creative Viewable process and paper trail
and exploratory plan
Choice of Purposeful selection by the Prepared standards for studies
studies reviewer selection
Nature of Inquiry-based techniques Wide and thorough search for all
studies involving several studies studies
Quality Reviewers’ views Assessment checklist
Appraisal
Summary Narration Graphical and short summary
answers
Structure of RRL

The structure of the whole literature review indicates the organizational

pattern or order of the components of the summary of the RRL results. For the
traditional review, the structure of the summary resembles that of an essay
where series of united sentences presents the RRL results. However, this structure
of traditional review, the structure is based on the research questions; so much
so, that, if your RRL does not adhere to a certain method to make you begin your
RRL with research questions, your RRL is headed toward a traditional literature
review structure.

Regardless of what RRL structures you opt to use, you must see to it that the
organizational pattern of the results of your review contains these three elements:
1) an introduction to explain the organizational method of your literature review;
2) headings and subheadings to indicate the right placement of your supporting
statements; and 3) a summary to concisely restate your main point.
Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
1. An informal or indirect expression of knowledge happens through
a. gestures b. books c. words d. sentences
2. Between world knowledge and RRL, the second serves as the
a. summary b. linker c. conclusion d. symbol
3. Your direction in RRL is given by your research
a. data b. design c. problem d. question
4. Your purpose in doing RRL is
a. dual b. plural c. specific d. singular
5. Research question is a must in a literature review called
a. traditional b. optional c. systematic d. scientific
6. Subjective literature review takes place in a review that is
a. traditional b. statistical c. systematic d. scientific
Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
7. Among the types of traditional review, these two share some similarities.
a. critical and conceptual c. state-of-the-art and scoping
b. scoping and expert d. critical and expert

8. A year from now, I will start my thesis writing for my MA degree. I must then
look forward to doing this RRL style.
a. scoping c. expert
b. state-of-the-art d. systematic

9. Being a first year BA student, I can conduct a literature review using this style
a. systematic and traditional c. systematic
b. multi-system d. traditional

10. Without research questions, your RRL structure can appear in a form called
a. narrative c. outline
b. statistical d. tabular
ANSWER KEY: Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
1. An informal or indirect expression of knowledge happens through
a. gestures b. books c. words d. sentences
2. Between world knowledge and RRL, the second serves as the
a. summary b. linker c. conclusion d. symbol
3. Your direction in RRL is given by your research
a. data b. design c. problem d. question
4. Your purpose in doing RRL is
a. dual b. plural c. specific d. singular
5. Research question is a must in a literature review called
a. traditional b. optional c. systematic d. scientific
6. Subjective literature review takes place in a review that is
a. traditional b. statistical c. systematic d. scientific
ANWER KEY: Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY. Circle the letter of the correct answer.
7. Among the types of traditional review, these two share some similarities.
a. critical and conceptual c. state-of-the-art and scoping
b. scoping and expert d. critical and expert

8. A year from now, I will start my thesis writing for my MA degree. I must then
look forward to doing this RRL style.
a. scoping c. expert
b. state-of-the-art d. systematic

9. Being a first year BA student, I can conduct a literature review using this style
a. systematic and traditional c. systematic
b. multi-system d. traditional

10. Without research questions, your RRL structure can appear in a form called
a. narrative c. outline
b. statistical d. tabular
Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 2
Directions: Explain each expression the way you understood them in relation to
research.
1. Related Literature _________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

2. Review of Related Literature _________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

3. Traditional review of Literature _______________________________________

________________________________________________________________

4. Systematic review of related literature _________________________________

________________________________________________________________

5. Structure or literature review results __________________________________

________________________________________________________________
Elaborating Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: PAIR WORK. In the space provided, give a graphical presentation of the
sequential acts of a systematic review of literature.

Activity 1
Directions: GROUP WORK. Form a group of four. Imagine you are guest
speakers in a seminar titled, “RRL or Review of Related Literature: The Key to
a Successful Research.” Have a division of work. See to it that you divide the
speaking parts equally among the four of you.
Elaborating Learned Concepts
Activity 3
Directions: INDIVIDUAL WORK. Using a comparison-contrast organization
technique, write a short essay about the two styles of review of related literature.
Give your work a good title.

_________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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Assessing the Extent of Concept Learning
Directions: Put a check mark (/) under the heading that speaks of how much you learned
the concepts behind each topic.

Topics Very Much Average Little Zero

Definition of RRL
Purpose of RRL
Systematic Review
Traditional Review
RRL Structure
Difference between Systematic and
Traditional Review
Research Questions in Relation to RRL
The Purpose of Review of Related Literature
Transforming Learned Competencies
Visit the section of your school library that is taking care of these and
dissertations. Examine the Review of Literature section of these materials and
based on what you learned about RRL, comment on how these appear in the
book. Produce a written copy of your observations about the RRL section in the
book and share this with your teacher and classmates. - END
ANSWER KEY:

1. 3RD 11. I 21. T 31. T 41. a

2. 3RD 12. J 22. F 32. T 42. a
3. 3RD 13. D 23. T 33. T 43. d
4. 3RD 14. H 24. F 34. T 44. d
5. 3RD 15. B 25. T 35. T 45. c
6. c 16. T 26. T 36. a 46. b
7. E 17. T 27. T 37. a 47. a
8. F 18. F 28. T 38. d 48. c
9. G 19. T 29. T 39. c 49. d
10. a 20. F 30. T 40. c 50. f
UNIT IV LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE

Lesson 8 The Process of Review of Related Literature

Intended Learning Outcomes
After this lesson, you should be able to:
1. widen your vocabulary;
2. communicate your worldviews through newly learned
words;
3. differentiate the three stages of review of related literature;
4. distinguish a superior source of data from an inferior one;
5. write a literature review in a critical or argumentative
manner;
6. link authors’ ideas based on a certain pattern, theme, or
theory; and
7. present and organize ideas using active verbs and
transitional devices.
Connecting Concepts

Linking Old and New Knowledge

Activity 1: Making Words Meaningful

Directions: PAIR WORK. Using the other words in the cluster as clues,
give the meaning of the underlined word.

1. subject to, disposed to, liable, susceptible

2. merely, purely, only, just
3. mergers, fuses, unites, combines
4. inclination, liking, penchant, prone
5. per individual, single, per, one
6. avoid, prevent, refrain, shun
7. empty, devoid, nothing, zero
Connecting Concepts

Linking Old and New Knowledge

Activity 1: Making Words Meaningful

Directions: PAIR WORK. Using the other words in the cluster as clues,
give the meaning of the underlined word.

1. subject to, disposed to, liable, susceptible (prone, inclined)

2. merely, purely, only, just (simply)
3. Mergers, fuses, unites, combines (joins, unifies)
4. inclination, liking, penchant, prone (fondness)
5. per individual, single, per, one (each, for each, for every)
6. avoid, prevent, refrain, shun (reject, ignore)
7. Empty, devoid, nothing, zero (lacking, wanting, without)
 Activity 2: Using the Newly Learned Words
TITTLE-TATTLE
Directions: Use the newly learned words in a chat with your
seatmate.
Stirring Up Imagination
FLASHBACK… FLASHBACK… FLASHBACK…
Look back into one period of your life when you were so eager or desirous to
know someone or something in this world. What did you do to satisfy your want to
know more about such person or thing? In the space provided, write a brief
memoir on your knowledge seeking.

A Memoir on My Search for Knowledge

___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Discovering More Concepts
What do you think? Will the following reading material freshen up or enliven
your memoir on knowledge seeking? Read this text well to discover more about
your quest of becoming knowledgeable about something.
THE PROCESS OF REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Curious about a person or a thing, you want to know more about the ins and
outs of this object of your interest. In your quest of becoming knowledgeable
about the “apple of your eyes,” you are inclined to find all ways and means to get a
full view, knowledge, or understanding of the center of your attention. And if there
is one activity of yours that really pushes you to continue searching knowledge up
to a certain period of time about the focus of your attention, it is research. From
the start up to the end of your research, you are prone to searching answers to the
many things you are curious about.
Your search for knowledge happens in every stage of your research work, but it
is in the research stage of review of related literature where you spend
considerable time searching knowledge about the topic. Exposed to various
sources of knowledge and conditioned by a timeframe of the research work, it is
necessary that you adopt a certain method in reviewing or reading varied works, it
is necessary that you adopt a certain method of reviewing or reading varied works
of literature that are related to your research problem or topic...
…Going methodical in your review of related literature means you have to go
through the following related stages of the process of review of related literature
that are true for any style of review (traditional or systematic) that you want to
adopt. (Lappuci 2013; Robyler 2013; Freinbell 2012)
Stage 1: Search for the Literature
This is the stage of review of related literature where you devote much of your
time in looking for sources of knowledge, data, or information to answer your
research questions or to support your assumptions about your research topic.
Generally, there are three basic types of literature sources: general references
that will direct you to the location of other sources; primary sources that directly
report or present a person’s own experiences; and secondary sources that report
or describe other people’s experiences or worldviews. Secondary sources of
knowledge give the most number of materials such as the Internet, books, peer-
reviewed articles in journals, published literary reviews of a field, grey literature or
unpublished and non-peer reviewed materials like theses, dissertations,
conference proceedings, leaflets and posters, research studies in progress, and
other library materials.
Websites introducing materials whose quality depends solely on every
individual, social media networks (Twitter, Facebook blogs, podcasts, YouTube,
video, etc.) and other encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, are the other sources of…
…information that you can consult during this stage. You may find these
reading materials valuable, especially, the Wikipedia, because of their
timeliness, diversified knowledge or information, varied presentation
formats (texts, sounds, animation) and 24-hour availability. But they are not
as dependable as the other as sources of knowledge. Some consider the
information from these as not very scholarly in weight because it is
susceptible to anybody’s penchant (fondness, liking) for editing. Since any
person is free to use the Internet for displaying information that is peer-
reviewed or not, you need to be careful in evaluating online sources. (Mc
Leod 2012)

You can have an access to these various sources of data in two

methods: manually, or getting hold of the printed form of the material, and
electronically or having a computer or online reading of the sources of
knowledge. Regardless of which method you use, all throughout your
literature search, your mind must be focused on the essence and purposes
of the library because most of the data you want to obtain are in this
important section of your school. Having familiarity with the nature of your
library will facilitate your literature search.
Here are pointers you have to remember in searching for the best sources of
information or data: (Fraenbell 2012)
1. Choose previous research findings that are closely related to your
research.
2. Give more weight to studies done by people possessing expertise or
authority in the field of knowledge to which the research studies belong.
3. Consider sources of knowledge that refer more to primary data to
secondary data.
4. Prefer getting information from peer-reviewed materials than from
general materials.
Stage 2 : Reading the Source Material
Reading, understanding, or making the materials meaningful to you is what will
preoccupy you on the second stage of reading RRL. You can only benefit much from
your reading activities if you confront the reading materials with the help of your
HOTS. In understanding the sources of knowledge with your HOTS, you need to
think interpretatively through these ways of inferential thinking: predicting,
generalizing, concluding, and assuming. On top of these should be your ability to
criticize or evaluate, apply, and create things about what you have read. Hence,
reading or making sense of the source materials does only make you list down ideas
from the materials, but also permits you to modify, construct, or reconstruct ideas
Stage 3 : Writing the Review
You do a great deal of idea connection and organization in this last stage of RRL
to form an overall understanding of the material by paraphrasing or summarizing it.
In doing either of these two, you get to change the arrangement of ideas, structures
of the language, and the format of the text using appropriate organizational
techniques of comparison-contrast, chronological order, spatial relationship,
inductive-deductive order, and transitional devices. Also, you make effective
changes not only on language structures and format but also the quality of ideas
incorporated into the summary or, paraphrase as well. This means that in writing
the review, based on the focus, theme, or theory underlying your research, you are
free to fuse your opinions with the author’s ideas. (Corti 2014)
A simple presentation of the findings or argumentations of the writers on a
particular topic, with no incorporation of your own inferential, analytical, and
comparative-contrastive thinking about other people’s ideas indicates poor
literature review writing. This mere description, transfer, or listing of writer’s ideas
that is devoid of or not reflective of your thinking is called dump or stringing
method. Good literature review writing shuns presenting ideas in serial abstracts,
which means every paragraph merely consists of one article. This is a source-by-
source literature writing that fails to link, compare, and contrast series of articles
based on a theory or a theme around which the research questions evolve. (Remlen
2011)
 Juxtaposing or dealing with studies with respect to each other is your way of
proving the extent of the validity of the findings of previous studies vis-a-vis the
recent ones. Reading the source material and writing the review analytically,
argumentatively, or critically, you give yourself the chance to express your genuine
or opinionated knowledge about the topic; thereby, increasing the enthusiasm of
people in reading your work. (Radylyer 2013)
Another good approach to writing an excellent review is adopting good opening
sentence of articles that should chronologically appear in the paper. Opening an
article with a bibliographical list that begins with the author’s name like the
following examples is not good.
Aquino (2015) said…
Roxas (2016) said…
Perez (2017) wrote…
Mendoza (2018) asserted…
Examples of better article openings manifesting critical thinking through
analysis comparison and contrast of ideas and findings are as follows:
One early work by (Castro, 2017) proves that…
Another study on the topic by (Torres, 2017) maintains that…
The latest study by (Gomez, 2018) reveals that…
The research study by (Rivera 2017) explains that..
Coming from various books on literature review writing are the
following transitional devices and active verbs to link or express
author’s ideas in your paper. Using correct words to link ideas will
make you synthesize your literature review, in a way that evidence
coming from various sources of data, will present an overall
understanding of the context or of the present circumstances affecting
the research problem.

 Transitional devices – also, additionally, again, similarly, a similar

opinion, however, conversely, on the other hand, nevertheless, a
contrasting opinion, a different approach, etc.

 Active verbs – analyze, argue, assess, assert, assume, claim,

compare, contrast, conclude, debate, defend, define. Demonstrate,
discuss, distinguish, differentiate, evaluate, examine, expand,
explain, exhibit, identify, illustrate, imply, indicate, judge, justify,
narrate, outline, persuade, propose, question, relate to, review,
suggest, summarize.
Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: PAIR WORK. Write the letter of the word or phrase in column B that
corresponds in meaning to the expression in Column A.
A B
__________1. Theme or Theory a. Some paragraphs but one article per par.
__________2. Wikipedia b. Lacking in well-learned ideas
__________3. Websites c. Comparing-contrasting two findings
__________4. HOTS d. Elicits opinions on the topic
__________5. Dump method e. Biographical list
__________6. Serial abstract f. Inferring, criticizing, applying, creating
__________7. Juxtaposing g. Dependent on readers for its quality
__________8. Argumentative view h. Basis of linking authors’ ideas
__________9. Aquino (2018) i. Reading comprehension
suggested…
_________10. Grey literature j. Thesis, dissertations, posters
k. Plain union of author’s
ANSWER KEY: Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 1
Directions: PAIR WORK. Write the letter of the word or phrase in column B that
corresponds in meaning to the expression in Column A.
A B
____h_____1. Theme or Theory a. Some paragraphs but one article per par.
____i_____2. Wikipedia b. Lacking in well-learned ideas
____g_____3. Websites c. Comparing-contrasting two findings
____f_____ 4. HOTS d. Elicits opinions on the topic
____b_____5. Dump method e. Biographical list
____a_____6. Serial abstract f. Inferring, criticizing, applying, creating
____c_____7. Juxtaposing g. Dependent on readers for its quality
____d_____8. Argumentative view h. Basis of linking authors’ ideas
____e_____9. Aquino (2018) i. Reading comprehension
suggested…
____j____10. Grey literature j. Thesis, dissertations, posters
k. Plain union of author’s
Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 2: Modified True or False
Directions: Write T if the sentence is true and F, if it is false. Then, underline the part
that makes the sentence false and write the correct word/s on the line provided.
_______ 1. Doing a literature search alone proves that literature review writing is an
interconnected process.
_______ 2. Editing by readers contributes to the inferiority of Wikipedia as a source
of information.
_______ 3. Much editing by readers happens in grey literature.
_______ 4. Bibliographical list is not a good way to begin an article.
_______ 5. A researcher is discouraged from using this opening: One study by (Lim,
2017) asserts that…
_______ 6. Being an interconnected process, literature review stages affect one
another.
_______ 7. HOTS take place extensively in Literature-review reading and writing.
_______ 8. Primary source is better than secondary source.
_______ 9. Similarly, also, on the other hand are good article openings.
_______10. You begin your review of related literature by peer-reviewed journals.
ANSWER KEY: Explaining Learned Concepts
Activity 2: Modified True or False
Directions: Write T if the sentence is true and F, if it is false. Then, underline the part
that makes the sentence false and write the correct word/s on the line provided.
____T___ 1. Doing a literature search alone proves that literature review writing is
an interconnected process.
____T___ 2. Editing by readers contributes to the inferiority of Wikipedia as a source
of information.
____F___ 3. Much editing by readers happens in grey literature.
____F___ 4. Bibliographical list is not a good way to begin an article.
____F___ 5. A researcher is discouraged from using this opening: One study by (Lim,
2017) asserts that…
____T___ 6. Being an interconnected process, literature review stages affect one
another.
____T___ 7. HOTS take place extensively in Literature-review reading and writing.
____T___ 8. Primary source is better than secondary source.
_______ 9. Similarly, also, on the other hand are good article openings.
____F___10. You begin your review of related literature by peer-reviewed journals.
Elaborating Learned Concepts

Activity 1
Directions: GROUP WORK: Form a group of five, agree on one thing
you want to know more. Ask three questions about this puzzling
thing, and then list down as many sources of information as you
can through which you can obtain knowledge to answer your
questions.

Such information about your chosen topic may come from your
school library and research databases and other online resources
such as DAAI, ACM, ERIC, CINAHI, PROQUEST, EBSCOHOST, etc.
Read the articles found in these sources of information, and then
synthesize or summarize them into one coherent written discourse
or composition to shed light on your research questions.
Assessing the Extent of Concept Learning

Directions: Choose which of these words --- poor, good, very good, and excellent
---can indicate the extent of your understanding of the ideas behind each topic.

1. Manual searching of information _____________________________________

2. Inferiority of online encyclopedia _____________________________________
3. Stringing method of the review writing ________________________________
4. Thematic writing of the review _______________________________________
5. Argumentative review ______________________________________________
6. Bibliographical list _________________________________________________
7. Transitional devices ________________________________________________
8. Active verbs in review writing ________________________________________
9. RRL stages as interconnected process __________________________________
10. Grey literature ____________________________________________________

Grey literature or unpublished and non-peer reviewed

materials like theses, dissertations, conference proceedings,
leaflets and posters, research studies in progress, and other
library materials.
Transforming Learned Competencies

POSTER MAKING

Create a poster reflecting the three stages of Review of Related Literature. Invite
more students to attend a conference on research by displaying your finished
posters in conspicuous (visible) place in your classroom. Label your poster with a
caption or a general title reflecting the theme or idea of the conference. Likewise,
provide each colorfully illustrated RRL stage with a catchword or short, eye-catching
expression.