Literature reviews for postgraduates
A literature review presents and evaluates major research and theories in your field. It tells the story of what’s been studied and shows where your work fits. Think of it as a focused map of existing studies arranged around your research question or the gap you aim to address.
At postgraduate level, its main purpose is to uncover the research gap, the area your study will address. This often works alongside your thesis introduction to set the context for your research.
A literature review can eventually form a major chapter, or sometimes several chapters of a student’s higher degree thesis.
Image: How a literature review might appear in different thesis types
A postgraduate literature review will consist of many article reviews combined where you compare article “X” with articles “Y” and “Z”, and so on, in relation to your topic. It should be noted that they are not set out separately like an annotated bibliography, critical review, or reading log. You want to end up with one document that combines relevant information from each of the articles.
In a literature review, the work of others is integrated into a coherent whole, typically divided into themes. For an undergraduate student, a literature review is much less extensive and demanding. It may be that the first draft of your document reads like a mess of unstructured ideas. This is normal for a first draft. It will require several drafts to get it right.