A literature review is a chapter of a thesis or dissertation which gives an account on the state of the knowledge in a particular subject area by compiling what has been published on the topic by accredited researchers and scholars from learning institutions such as colleges and universities. Occasionally, this can also be a separate assignment that is not part of an actual dissertation or thesis project. Instead, a student who is about to embark on a dissertation or thesis writing project can be assigned to write sections of it with all other parts of the project being factored in as a given in order to prepare them for the actual thesis writing project.
In writing the literature review, a writer's purpose is to convey to the reader the knowledge and ideas that have been established regarding a subject through citing the works of previous researchers. The researcher will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these works. Since the literature review is still a piece of writing it must have a guiding concept such as the following:
· the research objective
· the problem or issue being investigated
· the argumentative thesis
A literature review is not merely a descriptive list of published material, and neither is it a set of summaries of the same. Everytime a student conducts a literature review, it will present a chance for him or her to broaden his or her knowledge about the topic. In addition, it will demonstrate the student's skills in the following areas:
· Finding information by being able to scan existing literature about a subject efficiently through manual or computerized methods. The end goal of the researcher is to find a set of useful journal, newspaper or magazine articles as well as books that will serve as a sufficient background for the thesis project he or she is doing.
· Critically appraising the content of the published materials found. The writer will apply the principles of analysis that he or she has learned in his or her previous studies as a way to identify valid published works that are also free of bias.
