📝
Literature Review
Definition: A literature review is an objective, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic under consideration for research. Its purpose is to create familiarity with current thinking and research on a particular topic, and may justify future research into a previously overlooked or understudied area.
A typical literature review consists of the following components:
- Introduction: A concise definition of a topic To state the general findings of the review
- Main Body:
- There are many ways to organize the evaluation of the sources. Chronological and thematic approaches are each useful examples.
- Each work should be critically summarized and evaluated for its premise, methodology, and conclusion. It is as important to address inconsistencies, omissions, and errors, as it is to identify accuracy, depth, and relevance.
- Use logical connections and transitions to connect sources connect sources
- Conclusion:
- The conclusion summarizes the key findings of the review in general terms. Notable commonalities between works, whether favorable or not, may be included here.
- This section is the reviewer’s opportunity to justify a research proposal. Therefore, the idea should be clearly re-stated and supported according to the findings of the review.
A good literature review should be:
- Explains the background of research on a topic
- Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area
- Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas
- Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic
- Themes
- Concepts
- Researchers
- Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement
- Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.
