Chapter Two: The Literature Review
Chapter Two of the proposal and the thesis/dissertation is the literature review. In the proposal, it is frequently a brief review of pertinent literature grouped around major themes or topics. Some graduate programs require that it be completely developed on the proposal. Others may require an abbreviated review for the proposal and expect the fully developed review will be in place in the final document.
The literature review includes books, articles, interviews, or other print or non-print sources of opinion, fact or empirical data. The purpose of the literature review is to demonstrate that you are as current as anyone about what has been done related to the topic. A well-done literature review can establish you as an expert. At the very least, it should be establish that you know a lot about your topic and have a good writing knowledge of directly and indirectly related literature.
It is impossible to prescribe how many pages are appropriate for this chapter. This is determined by the topics and themes directly and indirectly related to the problem. It is not unusual for a completely developed Chapter Two to contain 50 to 75 pages.
Purpose of the Literature Review
1. To place the topic in a historical context
2. To provide for the assessment of previous studies
3. To justify selection of the topic
4. To assist in the selection of the research design and methodological procedures
5. To provide the theoretical framework
Establishing the Historical Context. It is fairly safe to say that no topic exists in isolation. When faced with making sense out of reams of computer-generated abstracts of literature relating to the topic, you may wish this were true, but it isn’t. When writing about the topic, the need is to establish where it fits in relation to current and past studies. What aspects of the problem have been studied? When were the studies completed? What problems have been encountered? How have they been resolved? Looking at the historical context will also help to establish how this study is different from other studies and help to establish researcher credibility.
Assessing Previous Studies. The literature review also provides an assessment of previous studies as they relate to the topic. How reliable are the data and the analysis? How sound are the recommendations? How and why is the cited literature relevant to your topic?
Using the Five W’s to Assess Relevant Literature. The five “W’s” (who, what, where, when, and why) are helpful in determining the literature to be included or omitted.
When looking at the “who” aspect, consider the reputation of the author. How will known is this person? How many books, chapters, articles, and so on has this person published? How prestigious are the journals or publishers of this person’s work? With the computer capabilities of most research libraries, it is relatively easy to run a search of the appropriate databases and determine how often the author and the articles have been cited.
Another dimension of “who” is to consider the population constituting the focus of the research. How were they sampled and what was the extent of the sampling? How does the “who” of this literature relate to your study?
Assess the literature in terms of “what” has been done as well as “what” are the results of that research. How can you use this literature? How does this relate to the proposed topic?
When looking at “where,” most literature reflects at least one of the following four perspectives: local, regional, national, and international. Review the literature from the most relevant perspective(s). For example, when considering a topic relating to industrial psychology, looking at regional differences might be considered irrelevant as people learn through the same basic psychological processes in California as they do in New York. However, if the study is concerned with differences in attitudes, it is impossible to assume that the opinions of individuals in the West are the same as those of the East. The key to controlling this is to know the topic and to review the literature accordingly.
The same logic can be applied to reviewing literature with a local, national, or international flavor.
The purpose of reviewing literature from a “when” perspective is to determine the currency of the material. Research often runs in cycles. There are times when a great deal of research is done on a particular subject, interest subsides, and then, for no apparent reason, it picks up again. Be sure to know if the literature being reviewed is an up or down cycle.
There are several other reasons for needing to know when the research was done. It will help establish the historical basis for the research. It will determine if the research interest in this topic has waned. If this is so, the following question is a good one to ask: “Why am I interested in it?” Knowing when the study was done will also help determine if replicability is needed or warranted. Would a study completed in 1950 have the same results if completed on a similar population today?
Rossman, M.H. (1995). Negotiating graduate school: A guide for graduate students.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.