How to Write a Literature Review for Dissertation

A dissertation is a research project containing original research, an improvement of previous research work. For this reason, it’s important to provide a review of existing knowledge and research a topic you intend to pursue. This information forms the dissertation literature review page, a section that appears after the introduction.

Literature review takes a big chunk of any dissertation because it introduces existing literature, discusses the literature, and thus providing a foundation for your own work. But the question remains, do you know how to write a literature review? Perhaps you don’t have a clue, or you got a vague idea but do not know where to start.

Get started

• First of all, before you can think of writing the dissertation literature review, you need to identify a topic. Narrow down your topic to something manageable within the specified number of pages.
• Identify theories, literature, and research work done on the topic. It’s important to keep a record of only the most relevant literature on the topic you want to explore.
• Take time analyzing your literature and understanding how it can support your problem statement.
• As you read each piece of literature, note down the strengths and weaknesses as well as gaps you might have noticed.
• Plan your literature review.

It is important to have an excellent understanding of the literature before you begin writing your dissertation.

Note that the main aim of writing a literature review for a dissertation is to show your scholarly ability to recognize and identify literature or research work concerning a subject. It also shows your extensive critical thinking abilities and integration of material. The literature review also recognizes your clear awareness of concepts and its broader relevance to situations.

Literature review for dissertation is very important. If done well, it can earn you a lot of marks.