MY TOPIC

REVIEW OF LITERATURE 

          

 Review of the Literature 

A literature review is a piece of academic writing demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a specific topic placed in context. A literature review also includes a critical evaluation of the material; this is why it is called a literature review rather than a literature report. It is a process of reviewing the literature, as well as a form of writing.

Definition

A literature review is an assessment of a body of research that addresses a research question. An organized written presentation of what has been published on a topic by the scholars (burn and Grove 2005) an account of what has been published by accredited scholars and researchers (Taylor, 2011)

Types of Literature Reviews

A standalone literature review can be a single work in its own right. Examples include:

A class assignment

A review article

Reasons to Review of the Literature:

Identify the developments in the field of study

Learn about the information sources and the research methodologies

Find gaps in the literature that can become research questions

Validate the originality of a research project

Evaluate the methods

Identify errors to avoid

Highlight the strengths, weaknesses and controversies in the field of study

Identify the subject experts

When writing your review, there are objectives you should keep in mind:

Inform the audience of the developments in the field

Establish your credibility

Discuss the relevance and significance of your question(s)

Provide the context for your methodological approach

Relevance of Review of the Literature

The level of detail or comprehensiveness of your literature review may depend on many things, but especially the purpose and audience of your review. For example, if you're writing a literature review that will aid you in writing a thesis or dissertation, you may want to have a very comprehensive lit review that reviews all relevant literature on a topic, as well as relevant sources beyond what is immediately and freely available (e.g. foundational scholarly articles not available through library collections

In a larger piece of written work, such as a dissertation or project, a literature review is usually one of the first tasks carried out after deciding on a topic. Reading combined with critical analysis can help to refine a topic and frame research questions. Conducting a literature review establishes your familiarity with and understanding of current research in a particular field before carrying out a new investigation. After doing a literature review, you should know what research has already been done and be able to identify what is unknown within your topic.

Things to Remember 

Summarise and analyse previous research and theories;

Identify areas of controversy and contested claims;

Highlight any gaps that may exist in research to date.

 What Is An RRL In A Research Paper?

A relevant review of the literature (RRL) is an objective, concise, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article. In an RRL, you discuss knowledge and findings from existing literature relevant to your study topic. If there are conflicts or gaps in existing literature, you can also discuss these in your review, as well as how you will confront these missing elements or resolve these issues in your study.

To complete an RRL, you first need to collect relevant literature; this can include online and offline sources. Save all of your applicable resources as you will need to include them in your paper. When looking through these sources, take notes and identify concepts of each source to describe in the review of the literature.

A Good RRL Does NOT:

A literature review does not simply reference and list all of the material you have cited in your paper.

Presenting material that is not directly relevant to your study will distract and frustrate the reader and make them lose sight of the purpose of your study.

Starting a literature review with “A number of scholars have studied the relationship between X and Y” and simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar concluded is not going to strengthen your paper.

A Good RRL DOES:

Present a brief typology that orders articles and books into groups to help readers focus on unresolved debates, inconsistencies, tensions, and new questions about a research topic.

Summarize the most relevant and important aspects of the scientific literature related to your area of research

Synthesize what has been done in this area of research and by whom, highlight what previous research indicates about a topic, and identify potential gaps and areas of disagreement in the field

Give the reader an understanding of the background of the field and show which studies are important—and highlight errors in previous studies

Conclusion

A literature review is an account of the previous efforts and achievements of researchers on a phenomenon. It helps to compare with other previous study. And a good review of literature is the foundation for a good research. reviews of literature, and theoretical articles