Guidelines For The First part of

the Literature Review Project

Choose a good question
• “First, skim through your textbook and identify broad topics in the discipline that
interest you.
• Second, read the chapters associated with the topics you pick to develop
familiarity with the vocabulary (key words), primary investigators, and issues or
controversies in the area.
• Third, talking to others, such as expert, or reading around a topic can also help to
identify what areas of the subject the reviewer is interested in and may help
indicate how much information exists on the topic (Timmins and McCabe, 2005).
• The next step, after choosing a topic, is to go to the library and search for journal
articles published in the area. Use key words to find article titles for specific
topics; sometimes abstracts are provided for the reader's reference. Abstracts can
be useful, time saving devices because they aid in weeding good, associated
literature from unrelated, peripheral articles.
 • Cronin (2008) explained that having sufficient literature is also
important, particularly when the review is an academic assignment.
These academic exercises usually have short deadlines, so having
enough literature is key from the perspective of being able to do the
review and submit it on time. Literature reviews that are part of
academic coursework usually have strictly enforced word limits and it
is important to adhere to that limit. Topics that are too broad will
result in reviews that are either too long or too superficial. As a rule
of thumb, it is better to start with a narrow and focused topic, and if
necessary broaden the scope of the review as you progress. It is much
more difficult to cut content successfully, especially if time is short. “1
1. Ramdhani, et. al. “Writing a Literature Review Research Paper: A step-by-step approach”, International Journal of Basic and Applied Science, Vol. 03, No.
01, July 2014, pp. 47-56
Example of Literature Review
• “Walker, Sara Louise (2011) Building mounted wind turbines and their suitability for the
urban scale - a review of methods of estimating urban wind resource. Energy and
Buildings 43(8):1852-1862.
For this review, the author focused on the different methodologies used to estimate
wind speed in urban settings. After introducing the theory, she explained the difficulty
for in-situ measuring, and then followed up by describing each of the different
estimation techniques that have been used instead. Strengths and weaknesses of each
method are discussed and suggestions are given on where more study is
needed. Length: 11 pages. References: 59.
Calm, J.M. (2008) The next generation of refrigerants - historical review, considerations,
and outlook. International Journal of Refrigeration 31(7):1123-1133.
This review focuses on the evolution of refrigerants and divides the evolution into 4
generations. In each generation the author describes which type of refrigerants were
most popular and discusses how political, environmental, and economic issues as well as
chemical properties effected choices. Length: 11 pages. References: 51.”1

1. Arizona State University Literature Revie Guide

Fill 4 Tables of references for your literature
review using the following style.

Author (year): Title: p.#

Purpose of Study
(why)

Methods

Findings

Optional:
Other interesting info.
Optional:
Quote (If any)
Notes about the table
• You may very well have more than 4 references for your literature
review but You need to just enter 4 references’ information with the
style shown in previous page table. That means you need to fill 4
tables separately and submit to me.
• You can add as many lines as you want to the table. However you
need to keep it short but informative enough.
• The deadline for the this part pf the project is 29.04.2019.
• You need to provide the references at the end of your report. Please
use one of the software introduced in the class (Mendeley or Zotero)
or you have access to.
• The references should be prepared according to IEEE citation style.

• Please take a screenshot of the software that you have used for the
citation part and attached it to your report.