The renormalization-group (RG) analysis of turbulence, based primarily on KG Wilson's coarse-graining procedure, leads to suggestive results for turbulence coefficients and models. Application of the method to turbulence evolved from the contributions of many authors and received widespread attention following the 1986 work of V Yakhot and SA Orszag. The Yakhot-Orszag method involves the basic renormalization-group scale-removal procedure, as well as additional hypotheses and approximations; their analysis is reviewed here with an attempt to clarify those approximations. Discussion of some related and subsequent literature is also included. Following the work of M Avellaneda and AJ Majda, a simpler version of the method is appplied to a model passive scalar problem wherein it is seen that, in certain cases, the RG method can recover exact results.