Writing... A Literature Review

The third in a series of practical guides about writing for publication, presentation, or dissertation. This month, the importance of the literature review and how to get it right.

Introduction

A Dissertation Literature Review Is Defined As: 'a systematic... method for identifying, evaluating and interpreting work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners''. It is undertaken because, without it, 'the writer will not acquire an understanding of their topic, of what has already been done on it. How it has been researched, and what the key issues are'2. Furthermore, it provides the reader with the relevant background of what has already been undertaken in the field, so providing a context for the work.

The Fundamentals of Review

In my experience, many literature reviews, particularly from novice writers, do not exactly reproduce the relevant literature, resulting in its failure to correctly synthesize key information from various educational papers, which often reflect different educational viewpoints on a dissertation.