A literature review may consist of simple a summary of key sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:
- Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations
- Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates
- Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant
- Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date
The purpose of a literature review is to:
- Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the research problem being studied
- Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration
- Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in previous research
- Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies
- Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort
- Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research, and
- Locate your own research within the context of existing literature
Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.
FIND US ON