What is a Literature Review Within a Dissertation?

A literature review is not a narrative essay, but rather investigates and synthesizes existing scholarship in a way that provides context for the research study and informs and eventually justifies the research question/s, theoretical framework, and selected research methodology.

A literature review is more than a summary of the sources, it has an organizational pattern that combines both summary and synthesis. It should not merely be descriptive—it should present definitions, theories, debates, and research data in the field of interest. It should be a fair representation of the perspectives and voices of a range of scholars across the field.

Literature Review Guidelines

What is a Literature Review Within a Dissertation?
Guiding Questions
Structure
Checklist for the Literature Review
Literature Review Overview (Videos)
Additional Help Resources

Guiding Questions

What motivates your concern for this issue?
As a body of work, what practical questions does this literature set out to address?
What is the empirical range addressed in this issue, theme, or topic?
Who are the most influential and most cited thinkers?
What are the main theories, interpretative frameworks, or paradigms which order knowledge when addressing this issue, theme, or topic?
What are the main issues arising for this issue, theme, or topic?
What range of practices does this field spawn? What are its most exciting and promising areas of innovation?
The are the main challenges to be addressed?
What are the questions being asked by the intellectual and practical leaders in relation to this topic?

Structure

Checklist for the Literature Review

Note that your purpose and organization will shift as you progress from the General Field —> Special Field —> Dissertation. Be sure that you start with your General Field first before referring to your dissertation study.

Tentative Research Question

While your General and Special Field literature reviews are not initially for your dissertation (they are initially for the purpose of your qualifying exams), please include your tentative research question in your introduction to provide context of what contributed to the selection of your general or special field.

Purpose: Is your purpose articulated and achieved?

The literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (eg. your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). Have you included and addressed the question that this literature review tries to answer? Does your introduction clearly convey the purpose of the literature review? Did your literature review meet that purpose?

It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author) determine the nature of your research. A literature review creates a “landscape” for the reader, giving her or him a full understanding of the developments in the field. This landscape informs the reader that the author has indeed assimilated all (or the vast majority of) previous, significant works in the field into her or his research.

In writing the literature review, the purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.(http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review)

Structure: Is your Literature Review organized?

1. Introduction
2. Theories and/or Frameworks
3. Key Concepts (one main section per theme and then sub sections as necessary to help organize your work and make it easier to read)
4. Gaps in the Literature
5. Conclusion
6. References

Diversity of Sources: Are there a variety of sources to confirm or critique a given theory or concept?

The literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research. The review should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively evaluate and clarify this previous research.

Synthesis: Have you grouped your topics by theory or theme?

A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. Do not describe each source individually. In a literature review it is best to build a case with selected sources by grouping them thematically so that you can analyze, compare and contrast the theories, and that policies and practices in the field you are studying or conveyed in an organized way.

The literature review acknowledges the work of previous researchers, and in so doing, assures the reader that your work has been well conceived. It is assumed that by mentioning a previous work in the field of study, that the author has read, evaluated, and assimilated that work into the work at hand.

Voice: Is the voice of the literature primary?

Check and see that your voice does not dominate. Your voice/opinion is represented by your journey of discovery –the sources you have selected and your analysis of them, including gaps in the literature that you have discovered –not by claims you make; All claims must be cited. The “experiential” part of the rubric does not mean that you must bring in your experience and voice throughout the work, but rather provide context to the topic, mainly in the introduction.

Given that you are presenting what the literature says about a field of study, not what you think or believe, you must cite those authors that actually make and provide the research evidence, theories, frameworks for practice etc. Are all the key ideas, findings and trends presented backed up by multiple sources? Your presentation of a field of scholarship/study in a literature review must be supported by multiple sources to demonstrate the trends, findings or key issues that you have discovered in the literature. You need to make sure that you are aware of the debates and counter arguments associated with your topic as well. In-text citations are key to a good lit review.

Discovery: Have you demonstrated what you have learned?

A literature review does not demonstrate what you know but what you have learned from your analysis of the topic or field.

Gaps in the Literature: What further research needs to be done?

Have you identified the gaps in the literature? What work needs to be done?

Also, you can include tables, infographics, videos, etc., but be sure to source them and demonstrate their relevance by connecting them in the nearby text. Be sure to cite them in captions. Best practice is to number them based on the chapter (Table 2.1, Table 2.2 while in Chapter 2).

Literature Review Overview (Videos)

Additional Help Resources

Please keep in mind our Exam-Dissertation Sequence Literature Review requirements when reviewing these other sources

Your Research Library and Bibliographical Database
Check the past Preliminary and Final Deposit manuscripts published on CGScholar
Writing a Literature Review by Jane Webster & Richard T. Watson

Additional Resources for Writing a Lit Review

Demystifying the Literature Review (UofI Library)
Illinois Library LibGuide Texts
Michigan Library LibGuide Texts
Writers Workshop website
Introduction to Literature Reviews
What Makes a Good or Bad Literature Review?
What is a Literature Review?
Write a Literature Review
Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students (video)
Literature Review Basics (link to more links)
APA Citations (UofI Library)
Write a Killer Literature Review (Udemy course)
Strunk, William and E.B. White. 1979. Elements of Style. New York NY: Longman. (A classic!)
Sword, Helen. 2012. Stylish Academic Writing. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 2017. The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. Online edition.
Coursera Academic Writing Course.
Links to a variety of other resources
Verbs for Reporting
Important: we ask that you not use “noted”, “highlights”, “mentions” – be sure select evidence-based verbs
When the examples say “Scholars say,” you should list the actual scholar(s) in that space like Bloom, Hasting, and Madaus (1971) claim formative assessment…
- Pay attention to the pluralization of verbs. Multiple authors claim; single author claims
Academic Phrasebook: This book has examples of the kind of language that is used for literature reviews. Click on the book cover to purchase.

Academic Phrasebook – Example Literature Review PhrasesDownload Example pdf

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