Importance of Conducting a Quality Literature Review
A literature review is a comprehensive analysis and summary of research, such as scholarly articles, books, or journals done by various authors relevant to a particular area of study. A quality literature review enables a researcher to assess the current state of research on a topic. Assessment makes it possible for a researcher to provide a foundation of knowledge and understanding on the topic through ascertaining what is already known and how extensively it has been researched (Hart, 2018) . Also, a researcher will have an opportunity to identify areas on the topic that need further exploration, thereby preventing the duplication of work done by other authors. By analyzing and examining how similar studies were conducted, a researcher will also have an opportunity to adopt or develop the most appropriate methodology or analytical techniques for his or her work.
Types of Literature Reviews
The four major types of reviews are narrative, systematic, theoretical, and argumentative literature reviews. A narrative literature review comprehensively overviews a thesis of a topic through critique and summary of a body of research previously done by other authors ( Pan, 2016). A narrative review is helpful when a researcher wants to identify existing gaps in the literature to help refine research questions. A systematic or quantitative review, on the other hand, gives details on the timeframe within which the research was selected and analyzes or appraises the findings using standardized statistical or non-statistical procedures. A theoretical review examines a pool of theories developed regarding the issue under study. It determines the relationship between existing theories to help develop a hypothesis to be tested. Argumentative reviews examine the available literature to support or refute an argument, an assumption, or a philosophical problem analyzed by previous authors.
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Components of a Literature Review
A quality literature review should have three essential components, which include the overview of the subject, categorizing available literature sources, and conclusion. In the overview section, the researcher introduces the topic, presents the questions under investigation in the context of the field of inquiry, and writes a preliminary thesis. The literature sources are into several categories, and discussing their strengths and weaknesses in addressing the thesis is comprehensively discussed. The conclusion section details whether the available sources supports or contradicts the topic and how the study will resolve any existing differences.
References
Hart, C. (2018). Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Pan, M. L. (2016). Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Routledge.
