What is a Literature Review?
A review of literature is an research paper in which the author identifies, relates, and evaluates the resources consulted for a research project. The review of literature is more than an annotated bibliography or individual summary of each article; it demonstrates the author’s awareness and understanding of the key resources in a particular field as well as his or her ability to evaluate the strengths and limitations of those resources.
It is important to understand the purpose of a literature review. What a literature review is not supposed to be is a random collection of books and articles that are only tangentially related to the subject under discussion. The materials covered should conform to the exact dimensions of the topic or problem with which the student proposes to deal. It goes without saying that this requires that the student should, before commencing the literature review, state carefully and concisely what his/her research is attempting to do. In addition to meeting the requirement of relevance, the University of Toronto’s publication that we have cited above lists three other things which a literature review should have. These are:
- A synthesis that informs the reader of the state of play respecting the topic, i.e., what is--and what is not--currently known about it
- Statements identifying points of scholarly contention concerning the topic
- Statements which point to areas in need of further research.
One of the fine points of literature review writing has to do with determining how exhaustive their coverage should be. There are some subjects which are so general that it would be simply impossible to find and discuss all of the things that have been recently published about them. In such cases one must educate oneself as to what the major fault line of disputation is concerning the topic and then ascertain who are the most eminent and creditable authorities on both sides of the line; the works of these people will be what is reviewed. However, if one has chosen to discuss a topic that is sufficiently narrow, one should make one’s selection of materials as comprehensive as possible.
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