acknowledge it

In a previous post, I said that a literature review wasn’t just a description of the content of the books and articles that you’ve found.  The problem is that you are just describing what other authors have said.  As the difference between descriptive and analytical writing is often also the difference between an average mark and a good mark, I’ll start by looking at what you can do to demonstrate your understanding of a subject in a way that doesn’t only involve description.

So, the purpose of the literature review is not to demonstrate to the reader that you know about the subject?  Well of course you do have to communicate to the reader or examiner that you know about the subject but your job here is not to explain the basics directly(even if you have had to spend time learning new terminology or background!).  For example, if I were working in the area of usability, perhaps I’d decided to “do some work” on the criteria that makes a car door usable,  I may well start the literature review by looking at definitions of usable and usability.  Look carefully at what I’ve just said.  I did not say “explain usability”.  To clarify, I would read good (more of what “good” means later) articles and examine the way in which authors had defined usability.  To be absolutely clear, that’s not just one definition, from one author, but many definitions from many authors.

I might start by making some notes on each definition.  How has the author defined it?  Are there common definitions?  How many authors use the same one?  Does this make that definition right? Or more authoritative? Why might they have arrived at different definition?  Did they undertake any research that led them to this definition? Was the research carried out in the same geographical area? To summarize this information, I would produce a table with common features of the definition down the left hand side and authors’ names across the top (or vice versa) and put ticks in boxes to indicate which features were found in which author’s work.  A table is a good way of clarifying information – but it does not replace you writing about it. You will need to adopt a definition and write about it: compare the various definitions you have read to argue the case for the one that you chose to adopt. You might, alternatively, decide to bring together various elements from different definitions and create one of your own. This becomes the definition that you use in the remainder of your work and there should be an accompanying argument to support it that involves examining the work of other authors analytically and critically.

So, you have described the definitions that various authors have made.  You have demonstrated that you are able to analyze what they said by tracing the steps they made to arrive at their definition.  Finally, you have demonstrated that you are able to think critically when, at the end of this process, you adopt a particular definition to use in your work. Of course, defining terms is just the beginning!

So what is a literature review?  It’s an opportunity to assess the (usually) academic work that has been undertaken in a particular area, analyze trends and common threads in other authors’ writing and communicate it in writing.  Your study of the literature will need to be extended to include what is relevant to your research questions. Looking at the literature in an analytical and critical way, you will, inevitably, demonstrate your understanding of the subject. You might, incidentally, clarify what your research questions will be or find new areas that you are interested in researching.