Researching and Writing Literature Reviews
Why do a literature review?
- So that your research will have a strong theoretical base on which to stand.
The literature review is not a chore to be finished quickly so that you can get on to the meat of your project, or a university department-imposed hoop to jump through before you can get on with the writing of your thesis or dissertation. It is the very basis of your research: the platform on which you will build your argument. It places your research in context within your discipline and demonstrates how your research improves your discipline. In other words, the literature review is the meat of your project.
- To justify your research!
- To prove that there are gaps in knowledge in your field that merit a closer investigation.
- To demonstrate that your work will improve your field in some way, filling in gaps and adding to knowledge in and understanding of your field.
- To prove that your work hasn't been previously done, thus ensuring that your intellectual contribution is indeed original.
- For purely practical considerations: a good literature review demonstrates to your dissertation or thesis advisor that you've read extensively in your field, that you have a thorough comprehension of your field, and that you are capable of intelligently and knowledgeably critiquing others' work.
- As an exercise in thesis development.
- To educate yourself on the primary theoretical approaches to your discipline, as well as the primary actors:
- Who are the most important scholars in your discipline?
- What questions have they asked and answered?
- What controversies remain within the discipline?
- To provide yourself with an intellectual, historical and theoretical context within which to frame your research and writing.
- To illustrate how your field has been previously studied, and any flaws/gaps/problems with previous research.
- A good literature review will help you do the following:
- Narrow your research focus;
- Pose questions that might not have previously occurred to you; and
- Build a knowledge base for future research.
