Definition

A literature review is the critical evaluation of all the important information from the already-done search on a particular subject matter. Literature is a kind of short summary of the whole research article. We sum up the main points from the research article, write them down, and show them to our readers.

 Basically, the Literature review shows in a research article two things:

• Summary of all the main points in the research article
• A kind of reference, for example, in this particular research article, the researcher has shown this and that, etc.

Explanation

Whenever one is writing a research article, he will go through approximately 15-20 already researched works done by the other researcher and will be trying to find which part of that particular subject is not being explored by the researcher. This part, which is not being explored, is known as Research Gap.

And you will be exploring this gap. Now, as you have reviewed all those 15-20 research articles while writing your research article, you will be giving a short, brief summary or will give important points from them to show the reference and make an easy for the reader to see that these aspects have already been explored by that researcher. This part of your research article is known as Literature Review.

Purpose of Literature Review

The following are the main purposes of Reviewing a Literature

1. While writing a literature review, one can get to know that the researcher has a very vast background knowledge about the topic, and you have searched and explored the topics from every perspective.
2. When you write a literature review in your research article, it can provide knowledge to future researchers. As mentioned earlier, it can work as a reference to show that this particular researcher has shown that aspect of the topic.
3. Can be a help for other researchers so they can take help easily from your research work
4. To gain credibility. By not mentioning a literature review in your research work, one would think that you haven’t studied enough about the particular topic and you cannot give a strong basis to your research.
5. It also shows the problem faced by the previous researcher while reviewing.

Aims of Literature Review

Following are the aims and objectives of reviewing literature

1. Providing an organized overview of existing research on a particular topic.
2. Taking a critical and evaluative perspective of the published research.
3. To summarize, synthesize, and evaluate the work of other researchers.
4. It can improve your research methodology
5. It can only be done by reading more and more, so helps improve reading ability

How to write a Literature Review

Following are the basic steps to be followed while writing a Literature Review.

1. Narrow down your topic and select the ideas or papers accordingly.
2. Search for the particular literature.
3. Go through the selective and related articles to your research and evaluate.
4. Organize the selective papers while considering the pattern and developing subtopics within it.
5. After that, make and develop your own thesis statement.
6. Write down the literature review
7. Review it for mistakes and edit.