The Literature Review for a Thesis or Dissertation

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The Literature Review for a Thesis or Dissertation

• Victor Rosenberg
• Winter 2005

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The Form of a Thesis

• Description of the Problem
• Statement of the Hypothesis (es)
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Presentation of Data
• Analysis of Data, Discussion
• Conclusions and Recommendations
• Bibliography

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The Review of the Literature

• Annotated Bibliography
• Each work is independently reviewed.
• Works organized by subject
• The Review Essay (preferred)
• Information is organized and explained
• A Review of Literature is NOT a summary or an
  abstract of articles. It IS an analysis and
  synthesis of the source materials, written in a
  specific style which flows from broad to narrow,
  and takes into account both the theoretical and
  empirical issues.

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Literature reviews should include the following
elements

• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under
  consideration, along with the objectives of the
  literature review
• Division of works under review into categories
  (e.g. those in support of a particular position,
  those against, and those offering alternative
  theses entirely)
• Explanation of how each work is similar to and
  how it varies from the others.
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best
  considered in their argument, are most convincing
  of their opinions, and make the greatest
  contribution to the understanding and development
  of their area of research

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The purpose of the survey is to

• Place each work in the context of its
  contribution to the understanding of the subject
  under review
• Describe the relationship of each work to the
  others under consideration
• Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on
  any gaps in, previous research
• Resolve conflicts among seemingly contradictory
  previous studies
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent
  duplication of effort
• Point the way forward for further research
• Place one's original work in the context of
  existing literature
• The literature review itself, however, does not
  present new primary scholarship.
• Source http//library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literatu
  rereview.html

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Example

• Annual Review of Information Science and
  Technology
• Retrieval Techniques, Nicholas J. Belkin and W.
  Bruce Croft, ARIST, Vol. 22, 1987, Martha
  Williams, Editor, Elsevier

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The Bibliographic Essay
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