Sometimes we have problems writing a literature review. There are different styles of review which complicates matters.
Some reviews are a critical analysis of key papers in the area, another type of review known as a review paper actually gathers literature over a period (of say 5 or 10 years) and then classifies it and determines research trends and gaps. However, the most common, and the one you are likely to use in your thesis is to analyse the literature related to your particular research questions. Note that I mention research questions!
Building a literature review around your research questions gives your literature review immediate structure. You don't have to use the questions themselves as sub-heading but you can use the major themes of each question as a sub-heading. The point is, a literature review should be focused and not just a review of background articles related to your topic.
The major trap is to try to include everything that you have read. You need to read widely related to your topic at first so you have a good understanding of the domain and related domain for your area of study. Then you need to focus on the specific areas and articles of relevance to your research focus, which just happens to be expressed in your research questions.
The aim with a literature review is not to have 25,000 words of background material but to have a focused analysis of the work closely related to your topic. This will clearly indicate to the examiner that you understand the background material but are focusing on the important issues.
What do you do if you haven't got research questions yet? Well, you probably need to conduct a broad review of the area as mentioned above and pick out the trends and broad research gaps. Then you can do a more focused review once you have your questions.
You can structure your data findings according to your research questions and even your discussion chapter. That way it is consistent to the reader throughout the thesis
www.CompletePhD.com
Some reviews are a critical analysis of key papers in the area, another type of review known as a review paper actually gathers literature over a period (of say 5 or 10 years) and then classifies it and determines research trends and gaps. However, the most common, and the one you are likely to use in your thesis is to analyse the literature related to your particular research questions. Note that I mention research questions!
Building a literature review around your research questions gives your literature review immediate structure. You don't have to use the questions themselves as sub-heading but you can use the major themes of each question as a sub-heading. The point is, a literature review should be focused and not just a review of background articles related to your topic.
The major trap is to try to include everything that you have read. You need to read widely related to your topic at first so you have a good understanding of the domain and related domain for your area of study. Then you need to focus on the specific areas and articles of relevance to your research focus, which just happens to be expressed in your research questions.
The aim with a literature review is not to have 25,000 words of background material but to have a focused analysis of the work closely related to your topic. This will clearly indicate to the examiner that you understand the background material but are focusing on the important issues.
What do you do if you haven't got research questions yet? Well, you probably need to conduct a broad review of the area as mentioned above and pick out the trends and broad research gaps. Then you can do a more focused review once you have your questions.
You can structure your data findings according to your research questions and even your discussion chapter. That way it is consistent to the reader throughout the thesis
www.CompletePhD.com
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