Some of the most common questions students ask as they begin the dissertation process are "what is the literature review?" and "what do I include in the literature review?" The literature review is a chapter of the dissertation in which the writer discusses a variety of other research studies that are related to his or her dissertation topic. As a student presents his or her own original topic in the dissertation, one of the important first steps is to place his or her topic in the context of current knowledge in the field.
To start work on the literature review, a student can look to research papers and dissertations he or she has read during coursework and which may have given him or her the initial idea for a dissertation topic. These papers may well be relevant subjects for the student's literature review. Then, the student may want to check the literature reviews and reference lists within these papers, as they may contain references to other relevant literature in the field. If so, the student should obtain copies of and read these related research papers and dissertations.
The more literature a student reads, the more citations of other relevant research he or she is likely to come across. Preparing for the literature review can be a long process involving a lot of reading, but the more literature the student reads, the more well-informed he or she will be regarding the topic.
If the student has not read widely in the topic field, research for the literature review can be searched through the university library or online. The student may want to develop a list of keywords related to the topic for online searches. With Internet access available on the student's own computer or through the library, the student should be able to track down and read any relevant literature that exists.
After searching and studying the literature, the student should organize a report discussing the findings of other researcher and relating these findings to the student's own dissertation topic. To complete the literature review successfully, the student should show that the existing literature, though extensive, does not answer the student's specific research questions.
