Guide in writing the Literature Review and the Introduction of your

proposal

1. Zero-in immediately on the topic of your study. Dont clutter your Introduction with remotely
related materials. Include and discuss only those that have direct bearing on your study.

2. Start with what is known about the topic area. This should set the background or larger
intellectual context of the proposed study. What studies were done on the topic? Again, discuss
only those that are directly related to your study. Likewise, synthesize your presentation. Dont
write a review of each article written on the topic area. Instead, combine, contrast, and analyze
the articles so that the writing comes out as yours.

3. Having discussed what is already known, proceed to identify what still needs to be
studied, resolved, addressed, or improved (i.e., RESEARCH PROBLEM/GAP). This will be the
basis for stating the OBJECTIVE/S of your proposed study, which is what you intend to do in
order to address the research problem/gap. The objectives will make sense only if the
research problem/gap has been elaborated first. Moreover, the objective/s should be
aligned to the research problem/gap identified.

4. The Introduction (which includes the Literature Review, whether as a separate section
or not) is an argument in itself that, in the end, should convince readers that the proposed
study is worth conducting. It should be logically structured as follows:
What is the state of knowledge on the topic/issue? (CONTEXT/BACKGROUND/
RATIONALE)
What is the issue/gap that you have identified and that your study intends to focus on?
(RESEARCH PROBLEM/GAP)
What will your study propose to do to address the identified research problem/gap
(OBJECTIVE/S)
Why is your study important? (SIGNIFICANCE/CONTRIBUTION)
5. All articles referenced or discussed in the review must contribute towards building up
the argument of the proposal.

6. Do a calibrated discussion of the literature. Spend more discussion on materials that

are central to the study, less on those that are not. On this basis, some references will be
discussed more thoroughly (i.e., the key literature); others, simply cited (i.e., the background
literature).

7. Requirements:
Quality literature to ensure quality output (all references, or at least an overwhelming
majority should be from peer-reviewed journal articles)
Enough literature to build/back-up the argument (not less than 15 core or key journal
articles referenced in the proposal text; to get to these key journal articles, it is
expected that the proponent would have read about ten times more than these actual
materials cited)
Good writing skills, logical argumentation