A literature review discusses published information in a
particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular
subject area within a certain time period.
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the
sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines
both summary and synthesis.
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a
particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research,
literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping
stone.
Since it provides a foundation for the research paper,its very
important that the search for the literature comes from credible
sources or writers in his/her fields. Comprehensive knowledge of
the literature of the field is essential to most research
papers.
Its also suggested that to write a literature review the
material should be collected specific to the topic and in your area
of discipline,and read them to get a sense of the types of themes
you might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize
your final review.
Since there are hundreds and thousands of topics its important
that for writing a literature review,the topics need to be narrowed
down which will make it easier to limit the number of sources you
need to read in order to get a good survey of the material.
The current nature of the material you are searching is also
important.Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or
literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your
discipline expects.
A literature review may not have a traditional thesis statement
(one that makes an argument), but you do need to tell readers what
to expect. Try writing a simple statement that lets the reader know
what is your main organizing principle.
These are some vital suggestions for conducting a literature
review before actually writing it down.