What is a Literature Review?
A thorough and comprehensive examination of the research and/or theory relevant to a topic. A literature review analyzes and integrates scholarly research and theory in an organized, prose fashion.
Purpose of a Literature Review
As a means of disseminating information to scholars in a particular discipline the literature review has four purposes:
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to describe work done on a specific area of research
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to evaluate this work
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to identify areas of controversy in the literature
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to formulate questions that need to be addressed further
Next Step: See Structure of a Literature Review