Literature Review 1

 The format of a review of literature may vary from discipline to discipline and from assignment to assignment.  Most of us aware that it is a process of gathering information from other sources and documenting it, but few have any idea of how to evaluate the information, or how to present it.  It is often written as part of a postgraduate thesis proposal, or at the commencement of a thesis, or before conducting a research.  It is a critical and in depth evaluation of previous research. 2

What is a literature review?  A Literature Review: is an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to your selected area of study. The review should describe, summarise, evaluate and clarify this literature. And it showing how it relates to your investigation. It explains and justifies how your investigation may help answer some of the questions or gaps in this area of research.  A literature review is not a straightforward summary of everything you have read on the topic and it is not a chronological description of what was discovered in your field.  A longer literature review may have headings to help group the relevant research into themes or topics. This gives a focus to your analysis, as you can group similar studies together and compare and contrast their approaches, any weaknesses or strengths in their methods, and their findings. 3

4  One common way to approach a literature review is to start out broad and then become more specific. Think of it as an inverted triangle. How to think about it?

 First briefly explain the broad issues related to your investigation; you don't need to write much about this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the breadth of your subject.  Then narrow your focus to deal with the studies that overlap with your research.  Finally, sharpen in on any research which is directly related to your specific investigation. Proportionally you spend most time discussing those studies which have most direct relevance to your research. 5

Why do we write literature reviews?  Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic.  A literature review shows how the investigation you are conducting fits with what has gone before and puts it into context, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone.  Shows how your investigation relates to previous research.  Reveals the contribution that your investigation makes to this field (fills a gap, or builds on existing research, for instance). 6

 Provides evidence that may help explain your findings later.  For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field.  A literature review demonstrates to your reader that you are able to:  Understand and critically analyse the background research.  Select and source the information that is necessary to develop a context for your research. 7

Literature Review Is Not:  It is not a collection of quotes and paraphrasing from other sources. A good literature review should also have some evaluation of the quality and findings of the research.  It is not a chronological catalogue of all of the sources, but an evaluation, integrating the previous research together, and also explaining how it integrates into the investigated research.  A good literature review should avoid the temptation of impressing the importance of a investigation research. The fact that a researcher is undertaking the research program speaks for its importance, and an educated reader may well be insulted that they are not allowed to judge the importance for themselves 8

How do we get started?  Start by identifying what you will need to know to inform your research:  What research has already been done on this topic?  What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to explore?  What other research (perhaps not directly on the topic) might be relevant to your investigation?  How do these sub-topics and other research overlap with your investigation? 9