Literature Review

Literature Review

What is Literature Review?

Literature Reviews are conducted by many people on a topic of what they know and what they don't know. According to Language Center, Asian Institute of Technology(2005), "the literature" means the works you consulted in order to understand and investigate your research problem. These sources can be journal articles, books, Conference proceedings, Government/corporate reports, Theses and dissertations, News papers, Internet, CD-Roms and Magazines. The Writing Center(2012), defines literature review as a discussion on published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. Taylor (2012) gives a simpler definition of Literature Review as an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. 

From the above information the author can get a clear picture as what literature review is, which is discussion, investigation or a publication of work on a subject area or a research problem.

Purposes of Literature Review

There can be many reasons for a literature review to be conducted. According to Cooper(1988) cited in  Language Center, Asian Institute of Technology(2005), the main reasons to conduct a literature review is to describe, summarize, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content in primary reports. As said by Bruce (1994) cited in Language Center, Asian Institute of Technology(2005), the purpose of a review is to provide the background to and justification for the research undertaken.

However, as said by The Writing Center(2012) Literature Review is mainly to provide a handy a guide on a particular topic. If one have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give them an overview or a stepping stone on their particular subject. These also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation.

How to Write a Literature Review?

University of Houston Victoria(2012), describes in 14 steps the process of writing a literature review. Given below are the steps in brief.

1. Find articles that is related to the research topic. Go through their bibliographies and consider repeated sources as credible sources.
2. Be clear of what you have to accomplish during the literature review.
1. ) Define your Research Problem
2. ) Read and Evaluate significant works for the relevant problem
3. Once you begin reviewing, make an entry with complete bibliographical information and comments for each work that you are going to include in the review.
4. Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between these articles.
5. Form a clearly written thesis which is logically supported by different literature.
6. View the articles briefly and jot down any notes that may seem related.
7. Decide on the best organizational pattern and format for the topic.
8. Construct an appropriate outline for the literature review.
9. Write an introduction that introduces the topic, reveals your thesis statement, and arranges key issues
10. Organize the body of the paper and write it to an appropriate format: topical or chronological
11. Write a conclusion that reconciles similarities and differences on the topic and reemphasizes the criteria used to arrive at this conclusion. 
12. Complete the final draft of the literature review
13. Check over the final draft for grammar and punctuation errors.
14. Use the checklist provided here to make sure that all parts of the literature review are addressed and focused

Literature Review
(Google Images, 2012)

Conclusion

   There are number of definitions on what a literature review is, but the simplest possible definition which can be derived from all the definitions the author went through is that Literature Review is a research overview on a specific topic conducted by the aid of credible sources to answer unanswered questions about the topic.
A well written literature review consists of the following components.

• Organizes literature
• Evaluates literature
• Identifies patterns and trends in literature
• Synthesizes literature

References

Google Images, 2012. [Online] Available at: http://eloquentscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/All+About+Dissertation+Literature+Review+Examples.jpg [Accessed 10 December 2012].

Language Center, Asian Institute of Technology, 2005. WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW. [Online] Available at: http://web.pdx.edu/~bertini/pdf/literature_review.pdf [Accessed 10 December 2012].

The Writing Center, 2012. How to Write a Literature Review. [Online] Available at: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/mihelich/UNC%20Lit%20Review.pdf [Accessed 10 December 2012].

University of Houston Victoria, 2012. Literature Review. [Online] Available at: http://www.uhv.edu/ac/wac/pdf/litreview.pdf [Accessed 10 December 2012].

University of Toronto, 2012. The Literture Review: A Few Tips on Conducting it. [Online] Available at: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review [Accessed 10 December 2012].