A literature review is written in essay format and groups related works together and discusses trends and developments rather than focusing on one item at a time. It is not a summary; rather, it evaluates previous and current research in regard to how relevant and/or useful it is and how it relates to your own research. The format of a review of literature may vary from discipline to discipline and from assignment to assignment. A review may be a self-contained unit -- an end in itself -- or a preface to and rationale for engaging in primary research.
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A Literature Review is ...
... more than an Annotated Bibliography or a summary, because you are organizing and presenting your sources in terms of their overall relationship to your own project.
What is it?
A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge and or methodological approaches on a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources, and as such, do not report any new or original experimental work.
Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such as theses, a literature review usually precedes a research proposal and results section. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as future research that may be needed in the area.
A well-structured literature review is characterized by a logical flow of ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic.
"The first step to a literature review is a clear statement of the research problem"
What is the purpose?
Situate your research and place it in context as well as to establish your expertise in this area -- this means you do not need to read everything about this topic but you should have read enough and be familiar enough to make sure you have hit the definitive and seminal pieces and be able to name the authors known for their work in this area.
Mutual support
The statement of the research problem and the literature review are mutually supportive. The statement of the research problem clearly defines the subject area to be treated. The literature review demonstrates that the research problem has received prior attention, and shows that further research is needed to resolve the problem. James B. Fisher states, "To be EFFECTIVE, a literature review must be a CLEAR, COHERENT, and PERSUASIVE analysis of the current state of the literature."
More advice
Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination (Published in association with The Open University)
Amazon Price: $40.57 (as of 11/24/2009)
More information about writing literature reviews
- UCSC Library - How To Write a Literature Review
- literature review study guide
- Literature Reviews
- This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction
- Review of literature
- review of literature
- HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW
- HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW
- How to Write a Literature Review
- How to Write a Literature Review
- Links for How to Write a Literature Review
- Selected Links to Resources on Writing a Literature
- WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW
- WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW
- How to Write a Literature Review
- How to Write a Literature Review
- The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It
- The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It
- HOW TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW
- WHAT IS THE LITERATURE?
- Wiki - How To Write A Literature Review
- How To Write A Literature Review
- How to Write a Literature Review
- How to Write a Literature Review
- Literature Review
- How to write a good literature review
- Writing the literature review
- What we are talking about here is the writing of the review.
- Writing the literature review
- Writing the literature review
- Conducting a literature review
- Conducting a literature review
- The Literature Review
- How to write a literature review
- How to write a literature review
- How to write a literature review
- Writing literature reviews
- Writing literature reviews
- Writing a Psychology Literature Review
- Writing a Psychology Literature Review
- The literature review
- The literature review
Advice or questions about writing a literature review?
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Reply
- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Aug 5, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
- Welcome to The Totally Awesome Lenses Group.
Lizzy
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Reply
- lollyj lollyj Feb 19, 2009 @ 10:57 am
- Since I'm a semi-retired book reviewer, this lens was particularly interesting to me.
The academic books I've reviewed were the hardest.
Good info!!
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Reply
- Irenemaria Irenemaria Feb 10, 2009 @ 8:34 am
- Thank you for this lens. I will show it to my son too.
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Reply
- tdove tdove Nov 1, 2008 @ 4:02 pm
- Thanks for joining G Rated Lense Factory!
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