Dissertation Literature Review

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Unearthing new theories don't materialise easily out of nowhere; they build upon the findings of previous academic research and explorations. A literature review illustrates how the academic investigation you are conducting fits with what has been written before and puts it into perspective. A literature review demonstrates to your reader that you are able to:
 
• Understand and critically analyse the background research
• Select and source the information that is necessary to develop a context for your research
• Shows how your investigation relates to previous research
• Reveals the contribution that your investigation makes to this field
• Provides evidence that may help explain your findings later
 
If you are doing a dissertation, or significant assignment it is likely that you will need to include a literature review. If you are doing a lab write-up or a shorter report, some background reading may be required to give context to your work, but this is usually included as an analysis in the introduction and discussion sections.

A literature review is an analysis of existing research which is relevant to your research topic, demonstrating how it relates to your investigation. It explains and justifies how your investigation may help answer some of the questions or gaps in this area of research. A literature review is not a straightforward summary of everything you have read on the topic and it is not a chronological description of what was discovered in your field. A longer literature review may have headings to help group the relevant research into themes or topics. This gives a focus to your analysis, as you can group similar studies together and compare and contrast their approaches, any weaknesses or strengths in their methods, and their findings. One common way to approach a literature review is to start out broad and then become more specific. Think of it as an inverted triangle. (1) First briefly explain the broad issues related to your investigation; you don't need to write much about this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the breadth of your subject (2) Then narrow your focus to deal with the studies that overlap with your research. (3) Finally, hone in on any research which is directly related to your specific investigation. Proportionally you spend most time discussing those studies which have most direct relevance to your research. How do I get started? Start by identifying what you will need to know to inform your research:

• What research has already been done on this topic?
• What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to explore?
• What other research (perhaps not directly on the topic) might be relevant to your investigation?
• How do these sub-topics and other research overlap with your investigation?

Note down all your initial thoughts on the topic. You can use a list to help you identify the areas you want to investigate further. It is important to do this before you start reading so that you don't waste time on unfocussed and irrelevant reading.

Searching for sources It's easy to think that the best way to search for texts is to use the Internet - to 'Google it'. There are useful online tools that you may use, like Google Scholar. However, for most literature reviews you will need to focus on academically authoritative texts like academic books, journals, research reports, government publications. Searching Google will give you thousands of hits, few of them authoritative, and you will waste time sorting through them. A better idea is to use databases. These are available through the Library in paper and electronic (usually online) forms.

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