In this video, we are going to explain how to structure your literature review chapter
step by step. We will unpack each of the sections to help you write the best literature review in
the most time-efficient way. If you are new to the oftentimes intimidating world of academic research
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covering all things research related. Also if you are working on a dissertation or thesis
check out our free collection of easy-to-use chapter templates
to fast-track your research project. You can find the link to those in the description. If
you would prefer one-on-one support check out our private coaching service where we hold your hand
throughout the research process step by step. You can learn more about that and book a free
initial consultation at gradcoach.com. Right, with that out of the way let us jump into it.
As with all parts of the research process, it is important to understand the why before you start
working on the literature review chapter. As we discussed in our literature review how-to video
you can find that here a good literature review needs to achieve a few important objectives.
Specifically, it should demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic
in other words show that you are up to date regarding the current state of knowledge in the
research area. Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to one of these
and provide the foundation for your conceptual framework if you plan to have one of course.
So keep these objectives front of mind as you write up your literature review.
Even the best structure will not be of much help if you do not clearly address these points.
Conversely, a good structure will help highlight how you have addressed each of
these and make life a little easier for your reader and marker. Right, so let us look at
the basic structure of a literature review. As with all chapters in a dissertation or thesis
the literature review chapter needs to include an introduction or opening section, a body where
most of the word count will be and a conclusion or concluding summary. Let us unpack each of these.
As the opening section of your chapter, the introduction needs to start off
by stating the purpose of the chapter. That is to review and synthesise the existing literature
in relation to your research aims. This might seem a bit odd since your reader
will most likely already know what a literature review is but as I mentioned earlier you need
to demonstrate to your marker that you know what you are doing and why you are doing it.
So start off with a line or two clearly stating the purpose of the chapter.
Next, you will need to briefly outline your topic including any tricky terminology or jargon.
The objective here is to give the reader a quick reminder of your topic or an overview if they have
not read the preceding chapter. So do not go into too much detail a paragraph is just fine.
In this section, you should also state the scope of your literature review. In other words what you
will and will not be covering and why. Clearly defining your scope will help ring-fence your
literature review and achieve a clear focus. The clearer and more narrow your focus the deeper you
can dive into the topic which is key to earning marks. So do not be afraid to have a tight scope.
Lastly, you will need to provide a brief outline of the layout and structure of the core content
which will be in the body of the section up next. The objective here is to give your reader a feel
of what is coming up and a big-picture view of the discussion to help them understand how it all fits
together. For this section, a little visualisation can go a long way. Here is an example to give you
an idea of what this could look like. As you can see this figure provides an easy-to-understand
snapshot of the chapter layout so that the reader and marker can easily see how you are
organising the discussion. Depending on the nature of your project you could also present your stance
or point of view at this stage. In other words, after working your way through all the literature
you will likely have an opinion about what the trends and concerns are in the field as well as
what is lacking. The introduction section can then be used to lay a foundation for these core ideas
and concepts so that it is clear how your project connects with existing research. Right, with the
introduction laid out it is time to get into the meat of the literature review, the body section.
The body of your literature review is the beating heart of your literature review chapter. This
is where you will present, analyse, evaluate and most importantly synthesise the existing
research. In other words, this is where you are going to earn or lose the most marks.
So it is important to think carefully about how you will organise your discussion
to present it in a clear way. Importantly the body of your literature review needs to
synthesise the existing research in relation to your research aims, objectives and questions in
other words your golden thread. So when thinking about how to structure your literature review
you need to think about which structural approach will provide the best review for your
specific type of research. If you are unclear about what your specific research aims are
you will need to first get clarity on that. For more info check out our golden thread
video to help you pin down your focus. You can find a link to that in the description.
All right so let us look at these structural options there are broadly speaking three options
for organising your literature review namely thematic, chronological and methodological.
Let us look at each of these. The first option for structuring the body section of your literature
review is the thematic approach. As the name suggests this approach involves organising your
body discussion by theme or category. As you have been collecting and synthesising literature
you will likely have started seeing some themes or patterns emerging.
You can then use these themes or patterns as a structure for your discussion. For example,
if you were researching which factors contributed towards people trusting an organisation
you might find themes such as the perceptions of an organisation's competence,
benevolence and integrity. Using the thematic approach you could then structure your
literature reviews body section to discuss each of these themes one section at a time.
So you discuss all the literature that focuses on competence as one group then move on to
the literature that discusses benevolence as another and so on. The thematic approach is the
most common approach and is particularly useful for structuring literature reviews where the
research aims involve identifying factors that contribute to an outcome or variables that fit
into a conceptual framework or model. It can also be useful for highlighting contrasting viewpoints
in the literature as you can group the discussion by proponents and opponents of a specific
viewpoint. Next up we have the chronological approach. With this approach, you start with
the literature that was published first and work your way through until you reach the work that was
published most recently. For example, if a student of politics is investigating how the understanding
of democracy has evolved over time they could use the chronological approach to provide a narrative
that demonstrates how this understanding has changed through the ages. The benefit of the
chronological option is that it makes it easy to discuss the developments and debates in the field
as they emerged over time. Organising your literature chronologically also allows you
to highlight how specific articles or pieces of work might have changed the course of the field.
In other words which research has had the most impact? Therefore this approach is very useful
when your research aims involve understanding how the topic has developed over time
and is often used by scholars in the field of history. Of course, in some ways, chronology is
a factor regardless of how you decide to structure your literature review because you will always to
a certain extent be analysing how the literature has developed. However, with the chronological
approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over time as
opposed to how all the literature links together which is the focus of the thematic approach.
The final option we will cover here is the methodological approach. As the name suggests
with this approach you will structure your literature review discussion based on the research
methodologies or methodological approaches used. This could mean structuring your discussion
based on whether the methodological approach was qualitative, quantitative or mixed methodologies
or whether studies use a specific data collection or analysis method. Structuring your literature
review by methodology can be useful if you are drawing research from a variety of disciplines
and are critiquing different methodologies. The point of this approach is to question how existing
research has been conducted as opposed to what the conclusions and or findings of the research were.
Although these could of course be connected. As you can see the right structural approach
depends largely on what you are trying to achieve with your research. In other words,
what your research aims, objectives and research questions are. As I mentioned earlier if you are
unclear about what your specific research aims are you will need to first get clarity on that.
Be sure to check out our video covering this golden thread to help you pin down your focus.
Whichever structural approach you decide on you will need to make sure that your discussion
achieves the purpose of the literature review, the why that we discussed earlier. In other
words, you need to clearly demonstrate your understanding of the current state of knowledge
by reviewing and synthesising the literature. You also need to clearly highlight the research gap or
gaps and clearly explain how this links to your specific research so that your project is firmly
rooted in the literature. Right with the core of the body of the literature review out of the way
let us move on to the final piece of the puzzle the conclusion.
Now that you have presented your core discussion you will need to wrap up your literature review
and pull all the pieces together to set the direction for the rest of your dissertation or
thesis. The conclusion is where you will present the key findings of your literature review. In
other words, the most important takeaways that your reader needs to be aware of. In this section,
you should emphasise the literature that is especially relevant to your research questions
and highlight the gap in the literature that your project will address. Based on this you need to
make it clear what you will add to the literature. So basically you need to justify your own research
by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified. Last but not least
if you plan to develop a conceptual framework the conclusion section is a good place to present
this. This framework can also be a useful way to summarise the key insights from the literature
especially if you are investigating potential factors that influence an outcome. Here is an
example of a conceptual framework that outlines potential variables following on from their
discussion in the body section of the literature review. Even if your study does not involve
developing a conceptual framework you might still want to consider using some sort of visual aid to
summarise your chapter. After reading thousands of words in your literature review chapter
your reader and marker will be grateful for a little visual support to help tie all the concepts
and arguments together. Also, some readers will only read the intro and conclusion section while
skimming through the body. So this summary will help communicate the essence of your lit review.
All right so that wraps things up for today. If you enjoyed the video please hit the like button
and leave a comment. For more videos be sure to check out the Grad Coach channel
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if you are looking for one-on-one support be sure to check out our private coaching service
where we hold your hand throughout the research process step by step. You can
learn more about that and book a free initial consultation at gradcoach.com.