For students in the Philippines with a draft Chapter 2 of an undergraduate or graduate thesis, the Review of Related Literature and Studies (RRL and RRS): literature and studies, foreign and local sources, the synthesis, and the link to the conceptual framework and the statement of the problem. Thesis manuals from Philippine colleges and universities are quoted where they set a rule. For the conceptual, theoretical and empirical layout of a five-chapter project, see chapter two literature review.
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Chapter 2 belongs to the proposal: Emilio Aguinaldo College Cavite's manual lists the thesis proposal as Chapters I to III. The same manual describes what the chapter covers: “Research literature consists of survey of studies, systems and researches conducted from foreign and local settings that pertain to the development of the current topic.” It names four subdivisions: foreign literature, local literature, foreign studies and local studies.
Other manuals set other headings. Pacific InterContinental College's 2025 guidebook allows only five subheadings in Chapter 2: local literature, foreign literature, local studies, foreign studies, and a synthesis of related literature and studies. Occidental Mindoro State College's research guidelines put the theoretical framework, conceptual framework, operational definitions and hypotheses in Chapter II as well, next to the related literature. The undergraduate thesis guidelines of the Institute of Biology at UP Diliman allow the review to be folded into the introduction and discussion. Your college's manual and your thesis adviser decide which version applies.
A hypothetical example of a commentYour paradigm of the study lists study habits, parental involvement and internet access as independent variables, but Chapter 2 reviews local and foreign studies only on study habits. Where is the literature for the other two?
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Get a free previewThe split in the chapter title is a split by kind of source. The 2019 thesis handbook of the Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) in Rizal states: “There are two major areas of the literature review: (1) the related literature, or sometimes called the conceptual literature, and (2) the related studies.” In the handbook, the related literature includes theoretical writings tied to the study's theoretical framework, while related studies are journal articles, theses and dissertations on research related to your own.
Under that split, theory and conceptual writing go with literature. Studies are empirical: someone collected data from a sample and reported findings, so a journal article that reports a survey is a study. A reader checks that each source sits in the right group, and that the studies section says what each study found, among whom, and with what design.
The second split is by place. In APNTS's handbook, local means within the geographical context of the thesis and international means outside it, and the studies categories are meant to show that the student has searched other seminaries and universities for theses, dissertations and surveys.
The split doesn't always have to drive the headings. APNTS allows two ways to show it: “Familiarity with these categories may be demonstrated either by arranging the chapter according to the literature types or by arranging the bibliography accordingly.” Pacific InterContinental College's guidebook requires them as subheadings in the chapter itself. Where the classification is unclear (a study by Filipino authors conducted abroad, say), state which rule you followed and check it with your adviser.
After the four groups comes the synthesis. It says where the reviewed sources agree, where they disagree and why (different respondents, instruments, levels, regions), which variables the studies covered and which they left out, and how the present study differs from each of the closest studies. It ends with the gap your study addresses.
San Pedro College in Davao describes the literature review as having a synoptic part and an argumentative part, and says the argumentative part “contains the sentence of problematizing or the need of the study that lead to the hypothesis of the study”. That sentence is what a panel looks for at the end of Chapter 2. For how to state and support a gap, see research gap in a thesis.
Chapter 2 supplies the variables that the conceptual framework draws. If your paradigm of the study is an IPO model, every input and the output you expect need literature behind them; if it shows independent and dependent variables, each variable and each arrow needs at least one study. The conceptual framework page covers the diagram itself.
The same tracing works for the statement of the problem. Each specific question (the profile of the respondents, the level of a variable, the significant relationship or difference) should have reviewed studies that measured something similar, and each null hypothesis should have studies that found, or failed to find, that relationship. If academic performance is measured by the general weighted average, the review needs studies that used GWA or course results, and self-rated achievement alone won't cover it.
The manuals quoted here don't share a rule on the number or age of sources. Pacific InterContinental College's guidebook sets its own: at the topic stage, a review of at least five related studies published within the last ten years for each proposed topic, and in Chapter 2, at least five each of local literature, foreign literature, local studies and foreign studies. That rule belongs to that college. Your manual may set another number, another time window, or none.
Without a fixed rule, a panel can still ask about old statistics when newer figures exist, or a review where every local study comes from one school. For length, see how long should a literature review be?
San Pedro College lists among the functions of its panel members to “Assess if the problem raised is systematically investigated, protocol correctly followed, and relevant techniques in the field of research supported by empirical/verifiable information and thorough review of related literature.” In Chapter 2 that becomes a set of concrete questions.
| What the panel looks at | What draws a question |
|---|---|
| Coverage of variables | A variable in the conceptual framework with no literature or studies |
| Literature vs. studies | A textbook under related studies, or a survey under related literature |
| Foreign vs. local | A local study conducted outside the Philippines, or no local studies at all |
| Each study | A finding with no respondents, design or setting given |
| Synthesis | Summaries repeated, no comparison, no gap |
| Link to Chapter 1 | A gap that differs from the problem the study states |
These fragments are made up. None of them comes from a real thesis.
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In Chapter 2, Esmond can flag what an adviser or panel would ask about in your own text: a variable from the conceptual framework with no reviewed source, a source filed under the wrong group, a study whose setting doesn't match its heading, a synthesis that repeats summaries without comparing them, or a gap that differs from the problem stated in Chapter 1. The sample report shows how those comments look, and how Esmond works describes the process. Other chapters are covered from thesis chapter feedback.
Esmond reads what you upload. If the file holds the whole draft, it can set this chapter against the others; if it holds one chapter, the review stays within that chapter and may raise a point that another chapter already answers.
Esmond doesn't search for sources or add literature to your chapter, and it doesn't check the chapter against your college's format or source minimum. Which comments you follow is your decision.
In APNTS's handbook, related literature (also called conceptual literature) includes theoretical writings tied to the study's theoretical framework, and related studies are journal articles, theses and dissertations on related research.
In APNTS's handbook, local sources come from the geographical context of the thesis and international sources from outside it. If your manual doesn't settle a borderline case, state the rule you followed and check it with your adviser.
It depends on your college's manual. Pacific InterContinental College, for example, asks for at least five each of local literature, foreign literature, local studies and foreign studies. Ask your adviser what applies to you.
It is a literature review organized by kind of source (literature and studies) and by place (foreign and local), as in the Philippine manuals quoted here. Other formats organize Chapter Two as a conceptual, theoretical and empirical review.
Read on November 8, 2026.
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