A literature review is an evaluation and analysis of existing research and scholarly articles on a certain topic or subject.

What Is A Literature Review

A literature review is an evaluation and analysis of existing research and scholarly articles on a certain topic or subject. It is crafted to give an overview of the current knowledge, to help the researcher know the methods, theories, and gaps that exist in research.

A thesis literature review entails a comprehensive examination of academic materials pertaining to a certain subject of research. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive summary of the existing information, enabling researchers to understand the methodologies, hypotheses, and research gaps that currently exist.

Thesis Literature Review Example

The Significance of Conducting a Literature Review for a Thesis lies in its Importance.

A literature review is an essential component of a graduate thesis, serving as a fundamental element for its completion. Here is an illustration of the primary advantages of conducting a literature review for your thesis.

• Demonstrates your level of expertise in the subject matter being studied.
• Provides you with a chance to cultivate a thorough approach.
• Illustrate how your research will effectively bridge the current deficiency in your chosen area of study.
• Ensure that your impact on your field of study is noticeable.

Conducting a literature study necessitates the gathering and examination of academic resources that are relevant to your subject matter. The process of performing a literature review can be divided into five distinct stages.

2. Search for pertinent academic sources. This process involves the examination of many materials, including academic publications and books, that are relevant to your area of study.
3. Assess the available resources. This involves meticulous categorization of various materials to determine the most pertinent ones.
4. Identify the discussions and areas of missing information in these resources. This is a more in-depth examination of the academic materials to identify the primary arguments and potential areas of research that have not been adequately addressed.
5. Create your outline. The literature review format provides a structured framework for discussing diverse areas of interest.
6. Compose the literature review. The final phase entails documenting the conclusions derived from the analysis of various sources.

In order to assist you in creating a well-constructed literature review for your thesis, I will outline the primary steps that you should adhere to.

Step 1:  Search for the Appropriate Academic Sources

Once you reach the stage of writing your literature thesis, you would have already completed chapter one, which serves as the introduction and provides a clear definition of the topic. However, you can still review it again before embarking on the search for the appropriate materials. By formulating the problem, you can examine the resources that are directly relevant to the research inquiries and issues.

An alternative approach to finding pertinent research is conducting a search with specific keywords. It is advisable to utilize the primary databases to access the most up-to-date journals, books, and articles. Several of these databases include:

• Medline.
• JSTOR.
• Inspec.
• Project Muse.
• Google Scholar.
• The Library of Your University.

After extracting several materials, verify their relevance by reviewing the abstract. If the resource is pertinent, examine the final section, the bibliography, for supplementary resources. If a particular resource appears repeatedly among the resources, it indicates its high relevance.

Step 2: Assess (Evaluate) the available resources

After collecting a variety of resources, it is likely that some of them will not be utilized during the study. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a thorough evaluation of these options in order to ascertain which ones are suitable for inclusion in the study. Here is a method for assessing each resource:

It is advisable to select only the most pertinent materials. Furthermore, it is crucial to acknowledge that when working in the field of sciences, the review must be centered on the most recent resources. However, if your thesis is in the field of humanities, it may be imperative to use older resources in order to highlight the historical viewpoints. While reading, it is important to maintain a record of the materials by taking notes, bookmarking the pages, and citing them accurately.

Step 3: Determine deficiencies (gaps) in existing resources

Prior to organizing the arguments in the literature, it is advisable to fully understand the relationships between the resources. What criteria should you consider?

• Patterns and trends, particularly in theories, methodologies (methods), and outcomes (results).
• Discussions, significant disputes, and inconsistencies or contradictions.
• Topics (Themes)
• Deficiencies (Gaps) in the existing literature.
• Significant publications.

Step 4: Create the framework (outline) for the literature review section of the master's thesis.

The structure of your literature review offers a comprehensive overview of the topics you should address at various points in your discussion. Several ways can be employed to effectively prepare a literature review.

It is important to note that you have the option to use one or combine many strategies to enhance the clarity and effectiveness of your literature review.

Step 5: Write Your Literature Review

Similar to other types of scholarly writing, your literature review should adhere to the following structure: introduction, body, and conclusion. Here is a comprehensive list of the necessary components for each section:

• Introduction: This section serves to provide the main emphasis of the literature study.
• Body: The body of the literature review focuses on the specific and intricate aspects of the review. Here, you are required to perform the following actions:

1. Provide a concise overview (summary), examine in detail, and explain the meaning.
2. Conduct a thorough evaluation.
3. Compose your writing with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that it is organized in a coherent and easily comprehensible manner.

Literature Review Example

In order to develop a strong thesis for your literature review, it is crucial to consider the entirety of your topic. This implies that while you are examining literature, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the approaches you will employ. Below is an example paragraph from a thesis literature review. This paragraph has been excerpted from the literature review section of a thesis that examines the impact of cyberbullying.

“Cyberbullying gives the bully a much larger spectrum to choose from when it comes to how exactly they want to intimidate their victims, which may be why it is often easier for them to carry out the act. Of all the different ways to cyberbully Faucher et al. (2014) found the most common platforms for cyberbullying to be social media, text messaging, and email, which were used to bully students about half of the time followed up by blogs forums and chat rooms which were 25 percent. This is no surprise that social media is the most common platform for cyberbullying because it can allow for the bully to remain completely anonymous to your average victim. This allows people who may not fit the mold of your average bully to create a fake account and build their own persona in order to bully others.”

• Conclusion.

After writing the main content of the literature review, it is necessary to provide a conclusion. This is a concise overview of the literature review that encompasses the key aspects that you have examined.

Step 6: Write Your Bibliography

This advice on writing a literature review for a thesis would be incomplete without incorporating a bibliography. Here is a comprehensive compilation of all the resources you utilized during the review. It is crucial to adhere to the formatting and referencing method recommended by your supervisor. Observe two reference samples provided below.