This guide is the first of three looking at the purpose and process of conducting a literature It includes advice on:Why write a literature review?New discoveries don't materialise out of nowhere; they build upon the findings of previous experiments and A literature review shows how the investigation you are conducting fits with what has gone before and puts it into A literature review demonstrates to your reader that you are able to: • Understand and critically analyse the background research • Select and source the information that is necessary to develop a context for your researchIt also:• Shows how your investigation relates to previous research • Reveals the contribution that your investigation makes to this field (fills a gap， or builds on existing research， for instance) • Provides evidence that may help explain your findings laterIf you are doing a thesis， dissertation， or a long report it is likely that you will need to include a literature If you are doing a lab write-up or a shorter report， some background reading may be required to give context to your work， but this is usually included as an analysis in the introduction and discussion What is a literature review?A literature review is a select analysis of existing research which is relevant to your topic， showing how it relates to your It explains and justifies how your investigation may help answer some of the questions or gaps in this area of A literature review is not a straightforward summary of everything you have read on the topic and it is not a chronological description of what was discovered in your A longer literature review may have headings to help group the relevant research into themes or This gives a focus to your analysis， as you can group similar studies together and compare and contrast their approaches， any weaknesses or strengths in their methods， and their One common way to approach a literature review is to start out broad and then become more • First briefly explain the broad issues related to your investigation; you don't need to write much about this， just demonstrate that you are aware of the breadth of your • Then narrow your focus to deal with the studies that overlap with your • Finally， hone in on any research which is directly related to your specific Proportionally you spend most time discussing those studies which have most direct relevance to your How do I get started?Start by identifying what you will need to know to inform your research: • What research has already been done on this topic? • What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to explore? • What other research (perhaps not directly on the topic) might be relevant to your investigation? • How do these sub-topics and other research overlap with your investigation? Note down all your initial thoughts on the You can use a spidergram or list to help you identify the areas you want to investigate It is important to do this before you start reading so that you don't waste time on unfocussed and irrelevant Searching for sourcesIt's easy to think that the best way to search for texts is to use the Internet - to 'Google it' There are useful online tools that you may use， like Google S However， for most literature reviews you will need to focus on academically authoritative texts like academic books， journals， research reports， government Searching Google will give you thousands of hits， few of them authoritative， and you will waste time sorting through A better idea is to use These are available through the Library in paper and electronic (usually online) Use journal articles: They normally have the most up-to-date research and you will be expected to refer to them in your literature You may find review articles that survey developments in your These are very useful for identifying relevant sources - but do go back to the original texts and develop your own critical analysis if Another good way to find sources is to look at the reference lists in articles or books already identified as relevant to your You will be expected to prioritise recent research， but it's also important to acknowledge the standard texts in your An easy way to identify these is to check reference lists to see which texts are frequently
