How to write review of literature in dissertation: Overpassing Tips

Review of literature or literature review lays the foundation of any dissertation. The literature review is basically a text written by some other author who highlights the critical points of the research and the associated findings relevant to that particular dissertation for which the literature review was written for.

Purpose of the Literature Review:

Before discussing the tips on writing a good literature review, we should first understand the purpose of the literature review in points. Following are some of the key points underlining the purpose of the literature review:

• It has to accurately define and also limit the problem on which you are working.
• One pivotal purpose of the literature is to put your study in a historical perspective.
• It also enables you to eliminate any unnecessary duplication of study.
• It also evaluates and prioritizes the most beneficial and promising research methods.
• It also provides a mean to relate your research to previous studies and also suggest any further research.

Key points to consider in writing a good Literature review for your Dissertation:

The main point to consider first is to make sure that your literature review doesn’t necessarily have to contain the exact descriptions of what other researchers have published. Actually, your literature review should take the form of some critical discussion which shows awareness and insights into different other theories and approaches. Precisely, it should be a critical analysis of a relevant published work which directly or indirectly relates to your own research.

Following are some of the key points in writing a literature review:

• Start with the comparison and contrasting of issues with the views of different authors or researchers.
• One best practice can be to group together those authors who have a similar conclusion.
• The critical point should be to criticize the major aspects of a particular methodology.
• Pinpoint those areas where you notice that most of the authors disagree with others.
• Emphasize the gaps and the exemplary studies in research.
• You should be able to prove in your literature review that how your study relates to the previously carried research or studies.
• You should also be able to prove that how your studies relate to the literature of your dissertation in general.
• The conclusion of your literature review should be made by summarizing what actually the literature says.