Literature Review - A guide on how to write one
What exactly is a literature review? How do you write a literature review? Many people may think that a literature review is the same as reviewing a book. This is not true. A literature review examines articles, books and other sources of information that pertain to a particular issue, theory, or area of research. It will provide a description, summary, and evaluation of each piece of work. The purpose is to offer an overview of important pieces of work published on a specific topic.
There are steps you should take when developing a literature review. First you should determine which topic or field is being examined and also determine the integral issues. You should also find materials that are relevant to the subject you are reasearching. Next you should decide which publications, articles, documents, etc. will make a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. Finally, you will need to discuss what you have found and what conclusions you have made about the literature review sources you are reviewing.
Every literature review should include the following components:
- An overview of the subject, theory or issue, along with the objectives.
- A list of the works that you are reviewing, split into categories, such as those is support of, those against, and those offering alternatives to the other two options.
- An explanation of how each piece of work is similar to the others and how it varies from the others.
- Conclusions as to which pieces make the greatest contribution to the understanding of the area of research and those which are most convincing of the opinions they convey.
When deciding which pieces to include you should consider the following components:
- What are the author’s credentials, and are the author’s arguments supported by evidence?
- Is the author’s perspective fair or prejudiced to a particular point of view? Is some pertinent data ignored to prove the author’s point of view?
- Which of the author’s pieces are the most or least convincing?
- Which of the author’s conclusions and arguments are the most convincing? Is their work critical to the understanding of the subject?
- What is the purpose of a literature review and how do you use one?
- Each piece of work is placed in context to the understanding of the subject being reviewed.
- The relationship of each work to the others under consideration is described.
- New ways to interpret previous research is identified.
- Conflicts among contradictory studies are resolved.
- It places the original work of an author in the context of existing pieces of work.
If you should ever have the need to write a literature review, use these tips to help you get started.