Literature Review for PhD Thesis

Steps to follow while developing Literature Review for your thesis/dissertation:

1
Find a topic
When you need to review literature for your dissertation or thesis, it is important to find a topic first. This can be done while searching the existing literature. When you know about the amount and relevance of your searched literature, you may tweak your topic by modifying it or narrowing it down.
2
Locate and review literature:
At this step, you should do a generic reading of your searched literature. This helps you in understanding more about the already covered topics, as well as those that have the scope of further investigation. You may also go through the linked theories and models that can be the basis of detailed research.
3
Establish the writing purpose:
Identify the aim of writing the literature review. Most of the times, it is about tracing ethical, legal and political issues and other historical developments. You may also need this for judging a treatment’s effectiveness or identifying the existing gaps in research.
4
Evaluate literature:
To give due importance to critical and relevant results in your study, it is also essential to interpret and evaluate literature. When you discuss about your study topic, it is important to develop your discussion based on literature that is built on relevant theories.
5
Do literature synthesis:
Based on your study’s design, framework and research model, it is required to synthesize your literature or group it. If any cracks can be noticed, then those can be used to explore the research gap.
6
Develop the first draft:
When you start writing the initial draft of your literature review, make sure to form meaningful headings and subheadings. Use your preferred or recommended professional citation style in a consistent manner. All relevant theories should also be developed properly.
7
Peer review the draft:
After you prepare the first draft, get it peer-reviewed to remove plagiarism and unnoticed errors. Based on the peer review feedback, make appropriate changes to shape your work well.