What is a literature review?
Students are often unsure of how to write a literature review. This is usually because, unlike other stages of a thesis such as Methods and Results, they have never written a literature review before.
FAQs about literature reviews
In the table below, you will find some of the questions that students ask, and some suggested answers.
QUESTIONS |
SAMPLE ANSWERS |
| What is it? | An evaluation of previous research on your topic |
| What is its purpose? |
|
| What do I need to include? | Minimum: well-established research in the field; most recent relevant research. |
| How do I organise it? | Some POSSIBLE approaches, which can be combined (there are others):
|
| What referencing system should I use? | The REFERENCE system you follow will be that of one of the leading journals in your field: check with your supervisor. |
| How do I refer to other authors? | How you refer to authors will depend on whether you want to focus:
|
| How long should it be? |
How long is a piece of string? Unless your School specifies the length, you can use the following as a rough guide: Around 15-30% of the whole thesis (see FAQs) OR Your thesis is expected to be 60% your own work. If your literature review is more than 40% of your thesis, it’s probably too long. |
| What am I supposed to DO in my literature review? |
You’re expected to show that:
|
Examples of literature reviews: organisation
Here you will find some examples from past Honours theses. The first set of examples shows part of the Table of Contents, so that you can see the kind of information included in a literature review. What can you notice about how the students have organised their reviews?
Example A
From the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................... 1
1.1 HEPATITIS C VIRUS................................. 1
1.1.1 Genome ................................................ 1
1.1.2 Pathogenesis.......................................... 2
1.1.3 Transmission.......................................... 3
1.1.4 Epidemiology.......................................... 5
1.1.5 Treatment.............................................. 5
1.2 QUASISPECIES............................................ 7
1.2.1 Quasispecies and Treatment Outcome....... 7
1.3 METHODS TO ANLAYSE QUASISPECIES........... 8
1.3.1 Cloning and Sequencing........................... 9
1.3.2 Heteroduplex Mobility Analysis (HMA)........ 9
1.3.3 Capillary Electrophoresis......................... 11
1.4 HYPOTHESIS AND AIMS ............................... 11
(Oon 2005, p.ii)
Question
What organisational approach has the student taken in example A?
Example B
From the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................... 2-1
2.1 CLASSIC DIFFUSION CONCEPT....................... 2-1
2.1.1diffusion mechanisms................................ 2-1
2.1.2 Fick’s law .................................................. 2-4
2.2 BORON DIFFUSION ........................................ 2-9
2.2.1 diffusivity ................................................ 2-9
2.2.2 segregation coefficient ............................. 2-10
2.2.3 silicon self-interstitial and diffusion rate....... 2-12
2.2.4 formation of boron rich layer (brl).............. 2-12
2.2.5 boron diffusion systems............................. 2-14
2.3 BORON NITRIDE SOLID SOURCE DIFFUSION..... 2-15
2.3.1 benefits and challenges.............................. 2-15
2.3.2 diffusion process........................................ 2-16
2.4 SOLAR CELL CHARACTERISATION..................... 2-18
Question
What organisational approach has the student taken in example B?
Examples of literature reviews: language
Here you will find some more examples of literature reviews, showing how the students refer to and comment on previous research. Look at the following examples and see how the students summarise a number of studies and contrast differing findings. Also notice the use of evaluative language to show the student's evaluation of the previous research.
Key
- Summarising language
- Contrast language
- Evaluative language
Example C
"Several studies [5, 6, 7] have reported the benefits of using boron solid sources over other types of boron diffusion source. … On the contrary, Warabisako et al [9] demonstrated that obtaining high efficiencies with boron solid source was no easy task. They reported severe degradation of bulk minority carrier lifetime after boron solid source diffusion" (Chen, 2003, pp.2-14-2-15).
Example D
"On evaluation of the studies performed thus far, genotype 1b RdRp proteins have been studied extensively while RdRp proteins from other genotypes have been somewhat ignored. Kim et al. was the only group to have published a 3a RdRp paper, although their focus was on the template requirement for the NS5B gene as opposed to polymerase activity" (Tan, 2004, pp.15-16)
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