Writing the parts of scientific reports
19 Writing the literature review or background chapter
General
The more advanced you are in your studies, the more important it will be to make the connection between your own research and the research of others. Therefore, when you begin a project or have identified a research question, you usually go and search for relevant work done by others.
The literature review consists of two parts (Ridely, 2012): the finished product which is part of a thesis and the process which is searching and critically reading the work done by others, which is often called literature search or in this book literature–based research. So, the purpose of what is called literature review is initially often to read around the subject, to explore the field and gain a thorough understanding of current work and perspectives. However, this reviewing of literature is an ongoing activity and lasts until the day you complete the final draft because understanding and comparing with existing literature can help you to analyse and interpret your results.
Purpose of the literature review
The purposes of a literature review can be summarized as follows:
- To provide a historical background for your research.
- To explore the current context in which your research is situated by referring to debates, issues or questions in the field, which helps to show the significance of a problem for research.
- To identify a discussion of relevant theories and concepts, which you then will probably draw on.
- To gain an overview of relevant methodology or methods used to collect and analyse data in a particular field.
- To clarify and introduce relevant terminology to be used in your research.
- To identify relevant research and to show how your work extends or challenges it.
- To establish a gap in the work in the field.
- To provide supporting evidence for a problem or claim.
When is a specific literature review chapter required?
Even though no research can be done without knowledge of and referring to relevant research of others, your (primary) purposes and whether you will write a dedicated chapter with the title Literature review depends on the kind of research project and the conventions within your discipline. There is for example a significant difference between applied and theoretical research, where more extensive and critical literature reviews are expected. There are further significant differences between research done at the beginning of your university studies or for a BA, BSc, MA, MSc or PhD thesis. For a Master or PhD thesis a high level of awareness of the research done in your field and deep and broad discussion of it is expected.
However, the insights from your literature review will strongly influence the content of other chapters, such as the Background (if you include such a section in your study) or the Methodology section. As already mentioned, you very often refer to theory (i.e. literature) when analysing and interpreting data in the Discussion section.
Note: the decision if you need a separate literature review chapter has to be made at an early stage of your work, namely when you decide and draft an outline of the structure of your paper. If you change your mind at a later point, this will lead to numerous shifts in numbering and relocation of the pertinent information.Overall structure
If you include a separate chapter with the title literature review, you can follow the principle below. As always organize your writing along a general-to-specific pattern:
| Introduction | Restate the aim/objectives of your research
Explain how this section is organised |
| Headings/ subheadings of the main themes
|
Summarize, synthesise and evaluate research done by others.
The order of these sub-sections could be based on a certain line of argument or start with the most important questions/ issues. Every item of this review must be closely connected to the aim and objectives of your research. |
Since the process and the product literature review consist of evaluating the work of others and connecting your work to theirs it is vital to adhere to academic conventions of citing and referring to them correctly. This important convention shows “the interactive nature of research writing” (Ridley, 2012, p.119) and that you become part of a research community. For details of the ‘whys’ and – which is often more problematic- the ‘hows’ of these conventions, go to Chapter 6, Avoiding Plagiarism.
For useful phrases to lead your reader through the literature review, go to the AcademicPhrasebank, Referring to Sources.