How do I start writing an RRL?

Start with your research title and statement of the problem, not with a search engine. Underline the variables, the population and the setting. Those become your search terms and later your Chapter 2 headings. Then check your school's research manual for the required Chapter 2 outline before you collect anything.

How do I write the synthesis of an RRL?

Answer four questions. What do the reviewed sources agree on? Where do they disagree or use different methods? What has not been studied, especially in your setting or population? How does your study respond to that gap? Do not introduce new sources in the synthesis, and do not repeat each summary.

Should I organize my RRL by foreign and local, or by theme?

Use whatever your manual requires. If it requires foreign and local subsections, keep those headings and organize thematically inside each one. If it allows a thematic chapter, as the PUP manual does, use themes as your headings and mention within the text where each study was conducted.

How many paragraphs should each source get?

There is no quota. A closely related study may deserve a full paragraph covering its method, sample and findings. A background source may need one sentence. Several sources that found the same thing can share one sentence with a grouped citation.

What tense should I use in an RRL?

APA 7 recommends past tense or present perfect for describing earlier research, for example 'Hysing et al. (2015) found' or 'researchers have found'. Use present tense for claims that are still considered true and for your own commentary on the literature.

Can I copy the abstract of a study into my RRL if I cite it?

No. A citation tells the reader where an idea came from. It does not give permission to reuse the author's wording. Paraphrase in your own words and cite, or quote briefly with quotation marks and a page number. Copied wording is still copied when it carries a citation.

How to Write an RRL: Structure, Template and Worked Example

This guide assumes you already know what an RRL is. Here is how to write one, from a blank Chapter 2 to a finished synthesis.

Step 1: Get your school's Chapter 2 format

The manuals this guide draws on show two patterns. Find out which one your research manual requires.

Pattern A: by source type and origin. This is the format in the Emilio Aguinaldo College thesis manual.

Review of Related Literature
- Foreign Literature
- Local Literature
Review of Related Studies
- Foreign Studies
- Local Studies
Synthesis

Pattern B: thematic. The PUP thesis manual requires the review to be organized by theme, with a synthesis at the end.

Introductory paragraph
Theme 1 (often your independent variable)
Theme 2 (often your dependent variable)
Theme 3 (the relationship between them, or the setting)
Synthesis of the Reviewed Literature and Studies

Also note three rules from your manual: the minimum number of sources, the allowed age of sources, and the citation style. PUP, for instance, asks for at least 20 works for an undergraduate thesis and applies a ten-year window except for classical theories.

Step 2: Turn your title into search terms

Take a sample title:

Smartphone Use at Bedtime and Sleep Quality Among Grade 12 Students in a Public Senior High School in Quezon City

Pull out the parts:

Part	From the title	Search terms
Independent variable	Smartphone use at bedtime	"bedtime smartphone use", "screen time before sleep", "mobile phone use at night"
Dependent variable	Sleep quality	"sleep quality", "sleep duration", "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index"
Population	Grade 12 students	adolescents, "senior high school students", "high school students"
Setting	Quezon City, Philippines	Philippines, Filipino, "Metro Manila"

Combine them with AND and OR. A first search might be ("smartphone use" OR "screen time") AND "sleep quality" AND adolescents. For local studies, add AND (Philippines OR Filipino). Where to run these searches is covered in where to find sources for your RRL.

Step 3: Log every source in a matrix

Before writing a single paragraph, record each source in a table. This is the step that makes synthesis possible. The rows below use four real, published studies, described from their abstracts. Full references are at the end of this guide so you can check each one.

Author and year	Type	Origin	Method and sample	Key finding	Theme	Relation to my study
Carter et al. (2016)	Study (systematic review and meta-analysis)	Foreign	20 cross-sectional studies, 125,198 children	Bedtime media device use associated with inadequate sleep quantity, poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness	Device use and sleep	Same two variables; pooled foreign evidence
Hysing et al. (2015)	Study	Foreign	Cross-sectional survey, 9,846 adolescents aged 16 to 19, Hordaland County, Norway	Daytime and bedtime device use related to short sleep duration and long sleep onset latency	Device use and sleep	Same age group as Grade 12; self-reported sleep
Chang et al. (2015)	Study (experiment)	Foreign	Adults read a light-emitting e-book or a printed book before bedtime	E-book reading suppressed melatonin, delayed the circadian clock and lengthened time to fall asleep	Mechanism	Basis for the framework; participants were adults, not adolescents
Buctot et al. (2020)	Study	Local	Online survey, 1,447 Filipino junior and senior high school students	62.6% met the study's criterion for smartphone addiction; smartphone addiction negatively correlated with health-related quality of life	Smartphone use among Filipino adolescents	Same population; outcome is quality of life, not sleep

These four studies are real and the table describes them from their published abstracts. They are here to show the method. Your matrix must contain the sources you have found and read yourself for your own topic.

Fill in "Relation to my study" for every row. If you cannot, the source probably does not belong in your RRL.

Step 4: Group the sources by theme

Sort the matrix by the Theme column. For the sample title, themes might be: how much adolescents use phones, how screen light affects sleep, and what studies say about the link between device use and sleep. In Pattern B these themes become your headings. In Pattern A they become the order of paragraphs inside each foreign or local subsection.

Step 5: Draft each section by comparing sources

A paragraph that reports one source at a time reads like a list of book reports. The Emilio Aguinaldo College manual calls this a "he said, she said" enumeration of summaries.

Weak:

Carter et al. (2016) reviewed 20 studies and found that device use affects sleep. Hysing et al. (2015) surveyed adolescents in Norway and found that device use affects sleep. Chang et al. (2015) ran an experiment and found that e-book reading affects sleep.

Better:

Bedtime use of electronic devices has been consistently associated with shorter and poorer sleep in young people. A meta-analysis of 20 cross-sectional studies linked it to inadequate sleep quantity, poor sleep quality and daytime sleepiness (Carter et al., 2016), and a survey of 9,846 Norwegian adolescents found the same pattern for sleep duration and sleep onset latency (Hysing et al., 2015). Experimental work suggests one mechanism: reading from a light-emitting screen before bed suppressed melatonin and delayed the circadian clock in adults (Chang et al., 2015). The observational evidence is cross-sectional and the sleep measures in Hysing et al. were self-reported, so the direction of the relationship remains open.

The second version makes a claim about the literature as a whole, groups the citations, and ends by pointing at a limitation. That limitation becomes part of your gap.

Useful sentence patterns:

Agreement: "Several studies have reported that ... (A, 2021; B, 2023)."
Contrast: "In contrast to A (2021), B (2023) found ..., possibly because ..."
Limitation: "These findings are based on ..., which limits ..."
Link to your study: "The present study addresses this by ..."

Step 6: Write the synthesis

The synthesis is the last section of Chapter 2 and the one panels read most closely. Answer four questions: what the sources agree on, where they differ, what is missing, and how your study responds.

Synthesis
The reviewed studies agree that bedtime use of electronic devices is associated with shorter and poorer sleep among children and adolescents (Carter et al., 2016; Hysing et al., 2015), and experimental work with adults points to melatonin suppression and circadian delay as one likely mechanism (Chang et al., 2015).
The studies differ in design and measurement. The observational evidence is cross-sectional, and the Norwegian survey relied on self-reported sleep, while the mechanism was tested experimentally in adults.
The one Philippine study reviewed here surveyed 1,447 junior and senior high school students and examined smartphone addiction in relation to health-related quality of life (Buctot et al., 2020). It did not measure sleep.
The present study therefore examines bedtime smartphone use and sleep quality among Grade 12 students in a public senior high school in Quezon City, using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index so that results can be compared with foreign findings.

This example rests on four sources so that you can check every statement in it. A real synthesis covers every source in your chapter, and a statement such as "no local study has measured sleep" is only defensible if your search record shows where you looked.

Step 7: Cite and check

Use the style your manual requires. For most Philippine programs that is APA 7th edition.
Every in-text citation needs a reference list entry, and every entry needs an in-text citation.
List grouped citations alphabetically inside the parentheses, separated by semicolons.
For an unpublished local thesis, see how to cite a dissertation or thesis.
Apply your manual's recency rule. Flag older sources and be ready to justify them.
Reread your paraphrases against the originals to make sure the wording is your own.

RRL checklist before you submit

Chapter 2 headings match the school manual.
Minimum number of sources met, within the allowed years.
Foreign and local sources are both present if required.
Each paragraph compares at least two sources or explains why one source matters.
The synthesis states a gap and links it to your study.
In-text citations and reference list match.
No source appears that you have not opened and read.

References

Polytechnic University of the Philippines. (2017). University thesis and dissertation manual. ISBN 978-971-95208-8-7. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/pupuniversitythesisanddissertationmanualwithisbnasof080717pdf/251450946
Emilio Aguinaldo College, Research and Development Office. (n.d.). Manual on thesis writing (A.Y. 2017–2018 edition). https://eac.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/EACC-RDO-Manual_on-Thesis-Writing.pdf
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Verb tense. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/verb-tense

Studies used in the worked example:

Buctot, D. B., Kim, N., & Kim, J. J. (2020). Factors associated with smartphone addiction prevalence and its predictive capacity for health-related quality of life among Filipino adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, 110, Article 104758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104758
Carter, B., Rees, P., Hale, L., Bhattacharjee, D., & Paradkar, M. S. (2016). Association between portable screen-based media device access or use and sleep outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(12), 1202–1208. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.2341
Chang, A.-M., Aeschbach, D., Duffy, J. F., & Czeisler, C. A. (2015). Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(4), 1232–1237. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418490112
Hysing, M., Pallesen, S., Stormark, K. M., Jakobsen, R., Lundervold, A. J., & Sivertsen, B. (2015). Sleep and use of electronic devices in adolescence: Results from a large population-based study. BMJ Open, 5(1), Article e006748. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006748

The matrix and theme steps work just as well on paper. In Wonders you can save papers from search, highlight findings, and drag them into groups in the Organize view, with each highlight linked to its source. The writing stays yours. See how to find RRL sources in Wonders.