Writing the Literature Review

Writing the Literature Review

You will need to follow a structure in order to write your literature review. Follow the links below to learn about the Introduction, The Body and Conclusion.

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Questions

Writing the Literature Review

You will need to follow a structure in order to write your literature review. Follow the links below to learn about the Introduction, The Body and Conclusion.

The introduction will provide a clear direction that your literature review will take. You will let readers know:

• What you are trying to achieve? Why is it relevant/ necessary?

• What is the research question/topic you are assessing the literature?
• Provide context of your question/topic and background information. Why is it relevant to your field of study?
• Define subject specific terms and concepts.
• Highlight what the main points are in your review.

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Questions

Writing the Literature Review

You will need to follow a structure in order to write your literature review. Follow the links below to learn about the Introduction, The Body and Conclusion.

The body of your literature review will have several components.

• Describe what method you used to select the literature. Why have you chosen these sources?
• What steps did you take to when conducting your review? What was your search strategy?
• Introduce your sources (the literature) in a logical way. ie. The context/history of the research/ topic, current or recent findings/ understandings on the topic, or Study by Study or Topic by Topic.

For each source:When discussing each source you should:

• Identify the premise of the source the methodology the source used and conclusion.

• Identify inconsistencies and errors in order to determine the accuracy and depth of the source.
• What is the relevance of the source in relation to literature in the same field.

• Be logical when moving from one source to the next.

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Questions

Writing the Literature Review

You will need to follow a structure in order to write your literature review. Follow the links below to learn about the Introduction, The Body and Conclusion.

The conclusion should include the following:

• What do you think the research has found out?
• Can we trust it?
• Is it reliable?
• Are there areas we need to research further? What do we still not know?
• How would we do that?
• Practical recommendations
• How can we apply this knowledge to real life?
• How can we use what we know? Practical application

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Questions

Writing the Literature Review

You will need to follow a structure in order to write your literature review. Follow the links below to learn about the Introduction, The Body and Conclusion.

1) Demonstrating your knowledge and familiarity in your subject/topic: What are the significant and established themes of your subject/topic? What are the relevant sources? Why? Are they reliable sources? Why? What are the recent developments? Are they significant? Why? What are the appropriate methods of research? 2) Your critical analysis: What are the strengths of the themes of your chosen topic? What evidence have you found that supports this? Where are the gaps or weak areas in the literature? What are they? Are there areas of controversy? What are they? 3) Summarising your thoughts: What do you think? Why do you think that? (Based on the evidence you have gathered.) How does your project/research question link into this? Why does it need to be undertaken? (Try to give an explicit statement for your reader). What are the most appropriate research methods to use and why?

Introduction

The Body

Conclusion

Questions