Summary/Introduction
Not to be confused with a book review, a literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources (eg., dissertations, seminar papers, and conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a description, fundamental information, summary, and critical evaluation of each work.
The purpose is to offer an overview of the significant literature published on a topic. A literature review is not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another.
It’s usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify key issues or identify trends, including relevant theory.
You are not trying to list all the material published but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question which is most relevant to your study.
Finally, the literature review is:
- Continuity of research.
- Avoid needless duplication of efforts.
- Minimizes the risk of pursuing dead-ends in research.
- Source for addressing research design questions.
- Provides the latest updates on current empirical and theoretical controversies, that help in the development of research design and hypothesis formulations.
- A literature review may constitute an essential chapter of a thesis or dissertation, or maybe a self-contained review of writings on a subject.
This PDF Note Covers
- Concept of Literature Review/Literature Survey
- Purpose and Functions of Literature Review
- Steps in Literature Review
- Evaluation Criteria of Literature
- Guidelines for Conducting Literature Reviews
- American Psychological Association (APA) Format
- Theoretical Framework and Its Components
- Concept of Theory
- Theory and Research
- Concept, Construct, Proposition, and Variables
- Deduction: Testing Theory
- Induction: Building Theory
- Which Approach Would Be Better? (Deductive Vs. Inductive)
- Broad Problem/Preliminary Information Collection
- Problem Indetification
- Research Questions
- Concept of Hypothesis
- Functions of Hypothesis
- Types of Hypothesis
