Skip to Main Content
Banner Image Main site Library home page Library home page

Dissertation Support Guide

This guide provides you information that will help you throughout the process of preparing and writing your dissertation.

Literature Review

The literature review is a select analysis of existing research which is relevant to your topic, showing how it relates to your investigation. It explains and justifies how your investigation may help answer some of the questions or gaps in this area of research.

It is NOT summary of everything you have read on the topic or a chronological description of what was discovered in your field of study.

The purpose of the literature review is to provide an evaluation of the existing studies on your chosen topic. By writing a good literature review, you will give the reader a better understanding of the problem you are analysing and of existing theories surrounding it.

A literature review demonstrates to your reader that you are able to:

  • understand and critically analyse the background research.
  • select and source the information that is necessary to develop a context for your research.

The literature review has a number of functions, such as:

  • providing better knowledge of the field/subject area.
  • showing how your study relates to previous research.
  • providing useful datasets, statistics and theories that may help you explaining the findings of your own primary research.
  • allowing you to identify gaps in the literature.
  • ensuring duplication of research is avoided.

The themes of your literature review should always be aligned to your research question and objectives.

Tips on developing themes:

Step 1: Briefly explain the broad issues related to your investigation; you don't need to write much about this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the range of your subject.

Step 2: Narrow your focus and discuss literature that aligns with the specific focus of your paper; give an overview of literature that relates to the theme/s of your research.

Step 3: Discuss research that is directly related to your specific investigation. Proportionally you spend most time discussing those studies because they have most direct relevance to your research.


Articles that discuss broader issue(s)/background, articles addressing issues that overlap with your specific topic, articles directly related to your topic

Start by identifying what information you will need to know for your research:

  • What research has already been done on this topic?
  • What are the sub-areas of the topic you need to explore?
  • What other research (perhaps not directly on the topic) might be relevant to your investigation?
  • How do these sub-topics and other research overlap with your investigation?
  • Which aspects of the problems will you be investigating and which ones you won’t? Be selective – Only literature that is relevant to your specific topic should be included.
  • What keywords should you use when researching the topic?

Search for materials on reliable channels.

 USE:

  • academic articles
  • primary research
  • case studies
  • company or country reports
  • books

 DON’T USE:

    Wikipedia webpages with no recognisable author dissertations written by other students (they are not yet experts in their field) research and statistics that are more than 3 years old

Assess the information and ask yourself

  • Who is the author of the paper/website? Are they credible? Are they experts in that particular field?
  • What are the main arguments, findings, conclusions?

Then, evaluate the information. Take notes to summarise the main findings and theories discussed in the paper. Ask yourself:

  • What evidence is given to support the findings of the article?
  • Do many articles agree/say the same thing?
  • Do some articles have different findings/conclusions? There may be more contrasting theories on a problem.

You need to ask yourself if you agree with a viewpoint and if so, why? What is it that makes you agree or disagree?

  • Test out your own views against those you are reading about: What do you think about the topic?
  • Does the evidence presented confirm your view, or does it provide a counter-argument that causes you to question your view? Think about the methods used to gather the evidence - are they reliable or do they have gaps or weaknesses? Is the number of people who took part in the research (research respondents) too small for the data to be conclusive?
  • Use each of your headings (themes) to compare and contrast the differing views put forward in the relevant studies and explain how they relate to your investigation. Remember that your themes are always directly connected to the research question(s) and objectives.

    • Your literature review needs to tell an interesting "story" which leads up to how and why you are doing your investigation.You can reference many articles at once if a number of authors are in agreement on a theory or make similar statements.

    “…recommendations for the profession regarding information privacy and protection involved: improving awareness; creating effective policies and best practices aligned with laws, ethics and operations; educating users and the organisation on privacy issues; and continuous professional development. ”

    (Davies, 1997; Fifarek, 2002; Warren, 2002; Sturges et al., 2003; Coombs, 2004; Falk, 2004; Magi, 2007; Sutlieff and Chelin, 2010; O’Brien, 2013; Zimmer, 2014)


    Don’t just list facts and theories, you need to compare and contrast information. Your literature review should be analytical, not descriptive!


    Descriptive, Analytical, Descriptive Example, Analytical Example