The Literature Review: The Basis of Your Dissertation

A literature review is the basis of your dissertation and should not be overlooked. A good literature review will provide an overview of the research that has been done on a topic and what gaps in knowledge still exist. This blog post will cover some tips for writing a thorough and complete literature review to make sure you have all of the information needed to complete your project!

One reason it is essential to include a literature review in your dissertation

is that you need to be able to do thorough research on an idea or topic. Literature reviews are done for several reasons: provide background information, establish relevancy and importance, show how this work is different, and provide support for your argument. Literature reviews are usually done in the intro to a paper or dissertation but can be included at other points within the project.

A literature review is not just about summarizing research already completed on a topic. Instead, it should highlight what gaps still exist.

Tips for Writing Literature Reviews

- Do not be afraid to start writing your literature review early on in the process. The earlier you begin, the more time you will have to incorporate new information and ideas as they come up during data collection.

Your research question must have a long enough timeline to publish key articles during your study. You do not want to miss out on important material since it was only recently released!

- Organize the articles you plan to include in categories of similar topics, rather than by publication date. This will make for a more accessible literature review when writing and allow you to see common themes between research projects across publications.