Before beginning your thesis, you will always look for the existing literature to contribute something unique in your field.
A well-written literature review will establish an understanding of current research in the field. It will highlight the gaps present in your field and help you identify the need for your research question.
Wondering how to write one as a part of your final year dissertation or thesis? This blog offers a step-by-step guide on how to craft an effective literature review that enhances the value of your work.
A Guide On Writing A Literature Review:
What is A Literature Review?
A literature review comprises a critical analysis and evaluation of existing research publications in your field of interest. Literature reviews are a part of the thesis or dissertation writing process.
This survey of existing scholarly articles allows you to provide a detailed overview of current theories and methods associated with your research topic.
Moreover, it identifies the gaps present in the literature and supports your research topic by highlighting the need for an answer.
A good literature review goes beyond just summarizing the existing literature in your field.
It demonstrates your comprehensive skills and research regarding your topic by evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing previous research and theories.
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How To Write A Literature Review?
Clearly Define Your Topic:
Before beginning with the review, you should have a clear picture of your research question.
A well-defined research question will ease the search process for you. Start by sorting relevant keywords associated with your topic. Make a list of synonyms or related concepts that you’re going to add in the search bar.
Conduct An In-depth Research:
Here comes the most crucial part. The internet is full of published journals. However, you need to choose the right source and verified publications to add value to your literature review.
You can find peer-reviewed scholarly articles on the following databases:
- Google Scholar
- EBSCO
- JSTOR
- PubMed
- Science Direct
- Inspec
- Project Muse
Whenever you find a credible source that has a strong link with your research question, read its abstract. The title and summary of the publication will provide you with a better idea of the relevance associated with your research topic.
Read And Evaluate The Resources:
This is the most time-consuming part of writing a literature review. However, you need to invest yourself in the world of journals and read every publication carefully.
While you analyze each piece of literature, focus on making notes to gather all the valuable information. This will help you with the review process.
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Take a look at these main points to get a better understanding of each literature:
- What was the research problem discussed?
- What are the frameworks used in the research?
- What are the key methods, concepts, and theories behind the research?
- What are the findings of the study?
- What contribution does the study make to the field of research? Did it verify, support, challenge, or bring something new?
- Are there any gaps present in the literature? What are the key strengths of that study?
Find The Connections Between Your Sources:
- This is the time to gain something valuable out of the reading process you conducted.
- Analyze the publications and find the common patterns, themes, and trends among the studies.
- Determine the contradictions present across multiple research studies, or is there any debate in the field?
- Are there any methods frequently used in the publication?
- Is there any unanswered question present among them? Is there a need for a new research question to fill in the gaps present in the existing studies?
Analyzing these questions will help you determine the structure and outline for your literature review.
Write The Literature Review:
The structure for a literature review includes an introductory paragraph, body, and conclusion.
The main focus of this piece of writing is not to explore the details associated with existing research. Instead, it provides a brief overview and sets the stage for highlighting the unique difference your research question is going to make.
The introduction section should discuss the type and purpose of this review. It will highlight the research problem and the scholarly background linked to the existing studies.
This paragraph will also focus on sharing the criteria used for selecting the literary sources.
In the main body of your review, your focus should be on summarizing and synthesizing the information present in these literary texts. The focus should be on comparing and contrasting the multiple findings of these studies and creating a whole point out of these.
Instead of paraphrasing the information present in these studies, you should add your perspective and critically analyze these research findings.
Structure your body paragraph properly by presenting a logical flow between connections, comparisons, and findings of each source.
In the conclusion section, you need to present the major concepts from these studies.
As a part of your thesis or dissertation writing, this section will focus on a smooth flow towards the methodology section. It will emphasize how your research is going to fill the gaps present between these studies and bring new contributions.
Structure Of Literature Review
Take a look at these four different approaches to form an outline for your literature review:
Chronological: A chronological structure follows the evolution of a research topic over time. It provides insights regarding the key points and debates present in the field.
In this approach, you will work on providing a comprehensive overview of how the developments took place in your chosen research field.
Thematic: This type of literature review analyzes the patterns and recurring themes associated with existing literature.
It then discusses the gaps present in these studies and emphasizes the need for searching for answers to these incomplete findings. These answers are usually found by your research question.
Methodological: This type of review assesses the research methods and compares the findings of various studies. Example (results from a qualitative vs. quantitative approach)
Theoretical: A theoretical literature review discusses the theories that exist in the literature and identifies the common themes and relationships between them.
FAQS
Q. What are the 5 rules for writing a literature review?
The five rules for writing a literature review include:
- Searching credible databases for finding literature.
- Examining and evaluating the relevant sources.
- Identifying the gaps and themes of these sources.
- Outline the structure for your literature review.
- Start writing the draft.
Q. Where does the section of literature review come in a dissertation?
A literature review is usually written in the beginning part of your thesis/ dissertation. It comes after the introduction section and is written before or combined with the heading of methodology.
Q. What are the benefits of a literature review?
A literature review is performed for the following reasons:
- It determines the scholarly research done related to your topic of choice.
- It confirms that your research question is bringing something new to the field of literature.
- It discusses the current findings and debates regarding the topic.
- It sheds light on the unanswered questions that your research is going to solve.
- It provides a summary of current knowledge regarding your topic, eliminating the need for the reader to go through all the research presented.
- It helps in the formation of the theoretical framework of your research.
Final Word
A literature review is a significant part of your dissertation writing. By following the steps above, you can craft a well-versed literature review that surveys existing literature in your field.
This critical analysis of current publications can help you strengthen your research question and support the need for your research, which can bring new knowledge to the field.