Review on 'Literature Review' : How to do it

What is a Literature Review?

A ‘literature review’ is a comprehensive survey of authoritative research that is written before on a specific topic. It describes the facts of the research and gives the authorization to define and analyze the conceptions, actions, and void in it.

A literature review contains 4 basic motives. These are:

1. Summary of previous research.
2. Analyzing the given theories in a broader way.
3. Exhibiting the acquaintance with particular knowledge and setting up the authenticity of the author’s findings.
4. Narrating a critical appreciation of the theories.

In brief,  a literature review gives the reader an in-depth view of the summary all the previous researches and how it can be connected with the author’s own findings on that particular area of knowledge.

How to do a literature review?

The purpose of a literature review is to discuss in detail on a specific topic from different sources like articles, journals, books, etc. A literature review represents authentic knowledge of a particular subject. It evaluates, analyzes, and summarises the sources in the review.

Hence, it should be written on a certain research question and it must represent the author’s own findings. Some steps should be followed to do a literature review.

The major steps are given below with explanations:

1. Investigating:  Before writing a literature review author must investigate or search for the research question and find out the authentic information.
2. Evaluating: Since a literature review should be constructed on a specific question, it is important to select evaluated information from different journals, articles, or research papers.
3. Identifying: To write a literature review author must identify the gaps, problems, themes, theories, and methods.
4. Analyzing: To write a literature review analyzing the facts is the major part. The weakness, strengths, and conflicts need to be analyzed.

To sum up, in addition to these steps to write a literature review the author also needs to connect his own outcome with the existing research of other authors by investigating and analyzing the specific area of knowledge.