Literature Reviews

The purpose of a literature review is to:

Convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

(Taylor, Univ. of Toronto; https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/literature-review/)

The primary purpose of a literature review is NOT to portray a list of what has been writing.

(Turner, 2023)

A literature review should:

• be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing,
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known,
• identify areas of controversy in the literature, and
• formulate questions that need further research. (Taylor, nd)

Additionally, literature reviews should also address the follwoing concerns:

• Is the topic selected of interest to your audience, the industry and/or the publication you are targeting?
• Does the literature make a significant, value-added contribution to new thinking in the field (Torraco, 2005).
• Does the literature add value to the field? What value?
• Does the literature identify a discrpancy in the literature, identify a gap in the literature, identify confilcing / contradictory views in the existing literature, or identify a change in common trends? (Turner, 2023)