Literature Review Content

Some questions (not sections) to address in the general field literature review:

What are the main issues arising in this general field?
The main challenges to be addressed?
What is the empirical range of the general field?
Who are the most influential and most cited thinkers?
What are the theories, interpretative frameworks, or paradigms which order knowledge in the field?
What are the main questions being asked by the intellectual and practical leaders in the field?
As a body of work, what practical questions does the literature set out to address?
What range of practices does the general field spawn? What are its most exciting and promising areas of innovation?
What absences or gaps are there in our knowledge? What work needs to be done?

Your General Field literature review sets the context for your tentative dissertation research question/s demonstrating that you have discovered, presented and analyzed the value of the key sources that contain the theories, practices, data, and applications associated with your General Field and your tentative research question.

It will provide the context and evidence leading to the claims made by the literature.
It will evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and impact of key scholarly sources, but through the voice of the literature.
It is not a summary, explanation, or exposition of the issue that you are interested to address, nor does it contain your unverified opinions.
To be literal, in the literature review you must cite/attribute almost every sentence unless it is an introductory statement or transitional sentence that will be stated in the following cited literature.
You are building an argument or case for the significance of your area of focus and research question based on your analysis of the general field.

Action Item #1: Create a Literature Review Outline After you have completed your personal (not for submission) annotated bibliography and feel you have a good sense of the theories and tentative themes for your general field, write a high level outline of your general field literature review based on the theories and themes that were revealed as a result of your examination of the literature. Be very clear that these were revealed by the literature and not your pre-determined themes. Keep an open mind and allow your outline to evolve based on the literature you find. Follow the gossip – that is explore the references of the literature you are reading and look for the experts in the field.

Action Item #2: Write a literature review that provides evidence that you have a command of the wider field of scholarly endeavor associated with your research question that will eventually become the first part of Chapter 2 of your dissertation. Roughly 5000-6000 words. The specific content and structure guidelines can be found below while the process guidelines can be found on our website.

***Get started on the right track – Download the Doctoral Template for your manuscript – https://grad.illinois.edu/academics/thesis-dissertation/format-requirements

Part 1: General Field: [Insert the title of your general field]

Introduction: The general domain and how your topic fits within that domain
Definitions associated with your field (these may be in a stand-alone section or embedded in the main body of the work depending on the topic and the types of terms being defined)
Theoretical Frameworks Associated with [your topic] used in the field, as revealed by the literature – do not discuss only the theories you are interested in
Key concepts, debates, challenges, trends, etc. used in the field grouped by themes as revealed by the literature – do not call this section “key concepts” – this should be organized based on the themes)
Gaps in the Literature
Conclusion: where the field is heading, the tasks ahead for people (like you!) in this field
References