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What does the literature review do?

• It boils down the results of your research into a concise, coherent account of what is known in your field of inquiry and what remains to be learned.
  
  What do we know about the discipline? What is accepted knowledge and what remains unexamined? What gaps of knowledge exist?
  
  
  
• It identifies controversies and differences of opinion among scholars in your field, and makes a case for your research as a valid, important response and possible resolution of those controversies.
  
  What are the points on which scholars differ? What are the differing theoretical approaches to the question? What differing conclusions have been drawn by scholars from the available research? And how do your conclusions differ, if at all? What part will your work play in the resolution of said controversies?
  
  
  
• It asks questions that need further research and examination.
  
  What remains to be done? What hasn't yet been thoroughly examined? What questions must be answered for the progress of the discipline?