Educational Counseling: Literature Review

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, dissertations, conference proceedings and other resources which are relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory and provides context for a dissertation by identifying past research. Research tells a story and the existing literature helps us identify where we are in the story currently. It is up to those writing a dissertation to continue that story with new research and new perspectives but they must first be familiar with the story before they can move forward. 

Purpose of a Literature Review

• Identifies gaps in current knowledge
• Helps you to avoid reinventing the wheel by discovering the research already conducted on a topic
• Sets the background on what has been explored on a topic so far
• Increases your breadth of knowledge in your area of research
• Helps you identify seminal works in your area
• Allows you to provide the intellectual context for your work and position your research with other, related research
• Provides you with opposing viewpoints
• Helps you to discover research methods which may be applicable to your work

Greenfield, T. (2002). Research methods for postgraduates. 2nd ed. London: Arnold.

• University of Wisconsin-Madison Writer's Handbook

  What is a literature review?
  Writing the introduction
  Writing the body
  Writing the conclusion
• University of North Carolina Writing Center

  A guide to writing a literature review, including things to include, narrowing your topic, finding models, organizing your review, etc.
• UC Stanta Cruz: How to Write a Literature Review