How to Write a Literature Review for a Dissertation
How to Write a Literature Review for a Dissertation
The literature review is one of the most challenging parts of writing a dissertation. It requires synthesizing a large body of research and critically analyzing existing studies to justify the need for your own research. The key is to synthesize the findings rather than just summarize them.
Steps for Writing:
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Define Your Topic: Identify key themes in the research and establish what area of knowledge needs further exploration.
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Search for Relevant Sources: Use academic databases (like JSTOR, ProQuest, and Google Scholar) to gather peer-reviewed articles, books, and conference papers.
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Analyze and Synthesize: Compare and contrast findings across different studies. Identify agreements, contradictions, and gaps.
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Organize by Themes: Arrange the literature into coherent themes, such as methodology, results, and conclusions.
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Write: Structure the review logically, starting from broad concepts and narrowing down to your specific area of focus.
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Summarize the Gaps: End the literature review by identifying the gaps in the existing research that your dissertation will address.
