Key points to consider on a 'literature review'

Before you attempt to undertake a literature review, have a look at some examples. Most journal articles include a short review of the relevant literature. Some academic books, particularly if they are based on research, will include a more extended review of relevant literature. If you can access an academic library have a look at some of the theses and dissertations which are retained on their shelves. Failing that you may be able to access some good reviews on your chosen topic through the Internet.

The literature review provides a synthesis of current thinking and research. That means that you need to go beyond simply summarising each relevant work. You also need to relate these works to each other, e.g. Jones observed that...but Smith found that...

A good literature review is an integral part of your dissertation and not just something which stands alone. It should provide the theoretical underpinning for your research, with clear links to the research questions you have formulated and the research design you have devised. But you will also want to refer back to it when reporting and interpreting your findings. This is what is meant by situating your research within a theoretical and evidence-based research context.

Therefore, the review should go beyond a descriptive summary of what has been written (however up-to-date and relevant that summary might be). It also needs to be analytical. The examiner will be looking for your reactions to this literature, particularly its conclusions.

Finally, think carefully about the structure of your review chapter. Are you going to structure it around different schools of thought, different research approaches, different themes that you will focus on in your own study, or different issues which have emerged during the course of your reading. Make sure that the criteria you use for structuring your Review are clearly relevant to your own study. The examiner will be looking for that. If, for example, you structure it around different schools of thought but then never refer to these schools of thought elsewhere in your dissertation the examiner may well wonder either why you chose to structure the review in this way or highlight in the chapters where you report and interpret your findings how you might have identified links with the different theoretical perspectives you identified in your review. Put more bluntly, the examiner will quickly recognise (a) when you are padding out your review with material that is not germane to your research or (b) when you are failing to spot the theoretical relevance and implications of your findings.