Thoughts on the Review of Literature

Literature reviews are to the nonfiction genre what literary analyses are to fiction. Literature reviews are examinations and critiques of existing documentation on a given topic or idea. They are most commonly found as early chapters of scholarly books, reports, and doctoral dissertations.

In the course of a literature review, the student starts with a particular topic or idea. He or she then seeks out pre-existing research reports, opinion papers, and white papers on the subject. During this initial collection process, the student is not interested in nor does he or she judge whether the material is supportive or critical of topic or idea. This judgment is performed afterwards, during the organizing step.

In most literature reviews, the results of the collection process are examined for content and position in regards to the review topic or idea with similar sources being grouped together for analysis and presentation.

In other literature reviews, the sources are organized chronologically. This technique is used to create insight into the progressive research and thought that have developed over the course of time and that have built the current understanding of the topic or idea. In either case, the analysis of literature review sources focuses on the content of the source, the timeliness of the source, and if available critiques the methodology of the source’s development. This is done to establish the source’s reliability and relevance to the review’s topic or idea.

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