What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a survey and a discussion of the literature in a given area of study. It is a concise overview of what has been studied, argued, and established about a topic; it is generally organized chronologically or thematically. A literature review is also written in essay format.

A literature review is not an annotated bibliography because it groups related works together and discusses trends and developments rather than focusing on one item at a time. It is also not a summary; rather, a literature review evaluates previous and current research in regards to how relevant and/or useful it is and how it relates to your own research. Therefore, a literature review is more than an annotated bibliography or a summary because you are organizing and presenting your sources in terms of their overall relationship to your problem statement.

A literature review is written to highlight specific arguments and ideas in a field of study. By highlighting these arguments, the writer attempts to show what has been studied in the field and also where there are weaknesses, gaps, or areas needing further study. The literature review must also demonstrate to the reader why the writer’s research is useful, necessary, important, and valid.

Literature reviews can have different types of audiences, so consider why and for whom you are writing your review. For example, many literature reviews are written as a chapter for a thesis or dissertation in order to support a proposal or are written in order to help the writer develop a base of knowledge in a particular business area.

Asking the following questions will assist you in sifting through your sources and organizing your literature review. Remember, your Literature Review organizes the previous research in light of what you are planning to do in your own project.

· What’s been done in this topic area to date? What are the significant discoveries, key concepts, arguments, and/or theories that scholars have put forward? Which are the important works?

· On which particular areas of the topic has previous research concentrated? Have there been developments over time? What methodologies have been used?

· Are there any gaps in the research? Are there areas that have not been looked at closely yet but should be? Are there new ways of looking at the topic?

· Are there improved methodologies for researching this subject?

· What future directions should research in this subject take?

· How will your research build on or depart from current and previous research on the topic? What contribution will your research make to the field?

How Do I Organize and Structure the Literature Review?

There are several ways to organize and structure a literature review. Two common ways are chronologically and thematically. You will be using the thematic structure in this review. In a thematic review, you will group and discuss your sources in terms of the themes or topics they cover. This method is often a stronger one organizationally, and it can also assist you in resisting the urge to summarize your sources. By grouping themes or topics of research together, you will be able to demonstrate the types of topics that are important to your research. For example, if the topic of the literature review is improving productivity in organizations, then there might be separate sections of research involving service-oriented businesses, production-oriented businesses, non-profit organizations, governmental organizations, etc. Within each section of a thematic literature review, it is important to discuss how the research relates to other studies (how is it similar or different, what other studies have been done, etc.) as well as to demonstrate how it relates to your own work. This is what the review is for; do not leave this connection out!

What is the Final Format?

As previously stated, the paper will be written in current APA format, must be a minimum of 16 pages (not including the title page, abstract, and references), and must utilize at least 15 scholarly references. The final format must include the following:

· Title page;

· Abstract;

· Outline;

· Introduction (no longer than 1 page);

· Findings (a minimum of 13 pages);

· Conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions for further study (a minimum of 2 pages); and

· References that are current (less than 3 years) or important for historical background