A literature review analyses and evaluates existing knowledge within a particular domain.
The review, like other forms of academic writing, has an introduction, body and conclusion, well-formed paragraphs, and a logical structure. However, in other kinds of expository writing, you use relevant literature to support the discussion of your thesis; in a literature review, the literature itself is the subject of discussion.
A literature review gives an overview of what has already been said on the topic, who the key writers are, what the prevailing theories and hypotheses are, what questions are being asked, and what methodologies and methods are appropriate and useful.
A critical literature review shows how prevailing ideas fit into your own thesis, and how your thesis agrees or differs from them.
This depends on what the literature review is for, and what stage you are at in your studies. Your supervisor or lecturer should specify a minimum number of references.
Generally speaking, a reasonable number of references in a literature review would be:
Find out what has been written on your subject. Places to start are:
Many abstracting journals and electronic databases are available. Subject support is available for databases and bibliographies relevant to your field.
Write down the full bibliographical details of each book or article as soon as you find a reference to it. This will save you an enormous amount of time later on. Referencing management software, such as , can be useful to manage citation information.
Take notes as you read the literature. You are reading to find out how each piece of writing approaches the subject of your research, what it has to say about it, and (especially for research students) how it relates to your own thesis.
Questions to consider include:
Other questions may be relevant. It depends on the purpose of the review.
Having gathered the relevant details about the literature, you now need to write the review. The kind of review you write, and the amount of detail, will depend on the level of your studies.
A literature review synthesises many texts in one paragraph. Each paragraph (or section if it is a long thesis) of the literature review should classify and evaluate a common theme you have discovered in your research which is relevant to your thesis.
Like all academic writing, a literature review should have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
The introduction should include:
The body paragraphs could include relevant paragraphs on:
The conclusion should include: