Literature Reviews  

So you're going to create a thesis or dissertation! Feeling overwhelmed? Feeling like you got into graduate school but you don't have the first idea how to do this?

Your thesis or dissertation requires you to propose a research question and to perform a research project appropriate to your discipline. The resulting paper will include a literature review.

The primary purpose of a literature review is to give the reader context for your research question and to demonstrate how it is connected to the larger body of knowledge in the disciplines.

The research to create your literature review will likely continue throughout your entire research project. Your research will help you get started on your project but will also stop there. As you learn from your research, you will be able to better focus your research project and theories but new knowledge is published all the time. It takes continual monitoring to stay abreast of it.

Making the implicit explicit: creating performance expectations for the dissertation (2007)
By Barbara E. Lovitts

ISU Main Library LB2369 .L685 2007

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students by North Carolina State University Libraries

STRIDE: Students and Tutor's Reflections and Insights into the Dissertation Experience

Three graduate students share their insights and tips.

STRIDE: Students and Tutor's Reflections and Insights into the Dissertation Experience

Supervisors share their advice and insights concerning the literature review. "Supervisor" is the British term for a committee "advisor."