Writing the literature review chapter in your

dissertation

Ian Forth
Ian.forth@southwales.ac.uk
Aims of this Power Point Presentation
• To reflect on the purpose of a literature review (LR)
chapter; what your reader/tutor expects.

• To consider how to organise and structure your LR and

establish an argument.

• To consider what ‘being critical’ means in your LR.

• To provide links to useful phrases to include in your LR.

• To provide a checklist for writing a good LR.

How to use the slides
• You will find a number of tasks or activities to try out when using these slides.

• It is recommended you spend some time carrying out these tasks and reflecting
on them before going on to the next slide.

• If possible try doing these activities with a fellow student and sharing your ideas.

• In some slides, certain key words and concepts have links to definitions. (Right
click to open hyperlink).
What is a LR chapter: definitions and
purpose
• The style and structure of any writing (a poem, an advertisement, an
essay, a political leaflet, etc) is influenced by its purpose and intended
audience or readers.

• The purpose of the introduction chapter in your dissertation is to

highlight the importance of problem, provide context, show how
your dissertation is organised and to present your main thesis or
argument.
• What do you feel is the purpose of the LR chapter?

• Can you write a brief definition of a LR in a maximum of between

25 to 30 words? Do this in 5 minutes - speed writing!

• A literature review is chapter in a dissertation that tells the reader ….

Definitions of a literature review

On the next 3 slides, read the various definitions of a literature review (A – G).

Consider (and if possible discuss) the following questions:

1. Which definition do you personally find the most clear, useful and helpful?

2. Make some brief notes (key words) about the main points that these
definitions have in common. What are the main ideas that link these
definitions?
Definitions of a literature review (A-C)
A. A literature review synthesizes ideas from different sources that
address a research question or problem.

B. A literature review summarises books and article that

are relevant to the research questions in a
dissertation.

C. The process of writing a LR is iterative; as you gain

understanding, you’ll return to earlier steps to
rethink, refine, and rework your literature review.
Definitions of a literature review (D-E)
D. A literature review is the process of reading,
analysing, evaluating, and summarizing scholarly
materials about your research topic.

E. A literature review is a chapter that identifies,

synthesizes and evaluates ideas and research by
writers that has relevance to your own research topic
and research questions.
Definitions of a literature review (F-G)
F. 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.

G. The literature review is not just a shopping list. It is

not a descriptive list or a ‘book by book’ or ‘article
by article’ summary. It must be organised and
structured by a guiding concept (e.g. your research
objective, the problems or issues you are discussing,
or your main argument.)
Summary of the main aims of a literature
review
A LR aspires to:
• survey relevant and up to date literature in your chosen area of
study.
• show your reader(s) that you have an in-depth grasp of your
subject.
• synthesize information from different books and articles into a
summary.
• evaluate or critically analyse information gathered: it compares
and contrasts ideas from your reading; it shows what you think
about the ideas and research; it shows the limitations and
strengths of theories and points of view.

• A LR is not a survey of every single thing that’s ever been

written about your topic. You choose and decide what you
want to show discuss.
And …
• writing a LR is a process in which you read, summarise,
evaluate, return to ideas, re-write, go back to your reading
until you feel you have a story to tell and write.

• It is an iterative process because the LR supports and

provides the conceptual framework to support your
‘Results and Findings’ chapter. Thus, when you have
analysed your findings, you may need to re-work your
literature review so that there is coherence between the 2
chapters.
How to organise and structure your LR chapter
and establish an argument

• Ilyana is doing an MA in TESYL (Teaching English to Young

Learners). Her dissertation is an Action Research project.
The working title is:
• ‘Ways of choosing stories for young children learning a
foreign language.’

• On the next slide, she discusses the process she used to

structure her LR chapter.
“ First, I started with reading some articles from journals
written in the last 2 or 3 years about using stories with
children. There were loads of things about stories for
children but I was able to narrow my search to stories for
foreign language learning. From these, I could get up-to-
date bibliographies and also an idea of the main areas or
topics within this field. And so I started to have an idea of
the key areas and how I would want to divide up my
literature review chapter. “
Dividing up the literature review into sub-
headings
• Ilyana’s sub-headings:
Defining a story;
the power and Developing
The language of benefits to young activities
stories: parallelism, learners around a
dialogue, vocabulary, story
metaphor

Evaluation of
Ways of choosing stories for similar research
young children learning a projects about
use of stories
Evaluating stories; foreign language
what are criteria for
‘a good’ story in the
classroom

How to make
stories accessible
Principles and for children in the
approaches to classroom:
young learners opportunities and
(Vygotsky, Piaget, challenges
Bruner.)
Putting the headings in some kind of
sequence
Once Ilyana had identified the main areas for
discussion within her literature review, she then
needed to structure and organise these areas so
that they would form a cohesive sequence or
order.
What order/sequence would you put these
sub-parts in?
• Number the areas (1 -7) to show which area you would start with and what would follow to make a logical sequence
for a literature review chapter.
Defining a story;
the power and Developing
The language of benefits to young activities
stories: parallelism, learners around a story
dialogue, vocabulary,
metaphor

Evaluation of
Ways of choosing stories for similar research
young children learning a foreign projects about use
of stories
Evaluating stories; language
what are criteria for ‘a
good’ story in the
classroom

How to make
stories accessible
Principles and for children in the
approaches to classroom:
young learners opportunities and
(Vygotsky, Piaget, challenges
Bruner.)
Ilyana’s sequence: how she finally presented her
sub-headings in her literature review.

1. Defining a
6.
3. The language of story; the power
and benefits to Developing
stories: parallelism, young learners activities
dialogue, vocabulary, around a story
metaphor

Ways of choosing stories for 7. Evaluation

young children learning a foreign of similar research
language projects about use
4. Evaluating
of stories

stories; what are

criteria for ‘a good’
story in the classroom

5. How to

2.
make stories
Principles accessible for
and approaches to children in the
young learners classroom:
(Vygotsky, Piaget, opportunities and
Bruner.) challenges
Ways of structuring your literature review
Organise the literature according to common
themes or sub-headings
Start from a general, wider view of the literature
being reviewed and move the specific focus of
your research

Move from principles and theory to policy and

practice

Move from problems to evaluation of possible

solutions
The literature review is not just a shopping list. It is not a descriptive list or a ‘book by book’ or ‘article by article’ summary. It must
be organised and structured by a guiding concept (e.g. your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your
main argument.)
What does ‘being critical’ mean in a LR chapter: Text 1

• Read the extract on the next slide (Leadership: Text 1)

taken from a literature review about leadership.

• Is this piece an example of good academic writing?

• How well does it use literature to back up statements
being made.
• To what extent is it ‘critical’?
Leadership: Text 1

Brown (2005) maintains that leadership is an essential

quality in nursing . This is confirmed by the recent
requirements of the National Health Service Plan (DOH,
2002). This Plan has emphasized the importance of
introducing the transformational model of leadership.
Smith (2001) explains that this is a leadership which
involves the use of charisma and interpersonal skills to
enable achievement. Jones (2004) argues that the key
characteristic of transformational leadership is empowering
others to achieve. This is confirmed by Fea (2001) who
argues that transformational leadership increases feelings
of self-worth and capability in their team members.
Evaluation of Text 1
The writing style is pretty good. It is academic sounding
and quiet formal
It paraphrases effectively.
Literature is used (references) to make and back up points in
argument.
There is no attempt to question or evaluate the literature. We
don’t get to know what the writer thinks (or feels) about these
points. There is no contrast or comparison of ideas. ( There is
no use of words such as ’However’ or ‘In contrast’. )
What does ‘being critical’ mean in your LR chapter: Text
2

• Read the second extract on the next slide (Leadership: Text

2) which is about the same subject as Text 1 – leadership.

• Is this piece an example of good academic writing?

• How well does it use literature to back up statements
being made.
• To what extent is it ‘critical’?
Leadership: Text 2
• Charisma appears to be a complex phenomenon to define . Davidzhar
(1991) suggests that it is an aspect of personality which makes the
individual irresistible to others, in terms of their ability to persuade
and empower others. However, other authors, such as Romano (1996)
and Harvey (2000) highlight the intangible nature of charisma and
emphasise the frustrating point that individuals know charisma if they
see it, but find it difficult to define .

• It appears problematic, therefore, to identify exactly how charisma can

become an integral part of developing transformational leadership in
nursing , if it is a quality which, in itself, is difficult to define. For
example, Smith (2001) maintains that transformational leadership
uses a combination of charisma and interpersonal skills to enable
achievement . However, identifying potential transformational leaders
may be a difficulty if the pre-requisite for identifying charismatic
individuals is an integral part of this selection process.
Evaluation of Text 2
The writer finds different definitions and examples and
compares them.

Once the literature is summarised, the writer questions,

evaluates and interprets the ideas.

The writer recognises the complexity of ideas being discussed.

Things are not simple!
A further example of critical writing:
appraisal of teachers

• In the next extract (see following slide) the writer is

discussing the advantages and disadvantages of appraisal
of teachers.

• In your opinion, is the writer evaluating or just describing

ideas here?
• What is the purpose of the highlighted phrases; to
describe or to evaluate?
Description or evaluation?
• According to Giallombardo (2006), using appraisal can provide
effective feedback to motivate teachers to focus on their
professional development. Similarly, Hefferman (2009) found
that appraisal also helped to facilitate a greater understanding
by management of difficulties experienced by individual staff in
their day to day work. Owen (2009) also notes that appraisal
can be useful for management in planning whole school
improvement targets. Lavender (2012:56), however, argues
that appraisal is sometimes seen by teaching staff as just a
routine and superficial process that is ‘empty of genuine
concern for problems’. Fox (2015) states, for example, that
many teachers feel that the appraisal is just a tick box exercise
and managers take little action to address issues discussed at
appraisal.
 Links to useful phrases to include in your writing of a LR.

• The writer in the previous slide is evaluating ideas (‘being critical’ ) by:

• 1. Showing understanding and links between similar arguments

(synthesizing)

• 2. By contrasting arguments

• Notice the language and phrases used for making critical contrasts,
such as:

• Lavender (2012:56), however, argues that….

• You can find more examples of these phrases to use in your writing at
the Academic Phrasebank
http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/
Checklist: what makes a good literature
review?
 Have I read with a focus on my research questions?
 Are the authors I mention relevant to my point/argument?
 Are any key authors missing?
 Is the literature up to date?
 Have I structured and organised my review to tell an
interesting story and present a coherent argument?
 Have I shown I fully understand the ideas/concepts that are
mentioned?
 Have I evaluated the ideas rather than just described them?
 Have I given balanced views?
 Have I paraphrased effectively? Use my own words?
 Are quotations incorporated appropriately?
 Have I referenced quotations and sources accurately?
References
• There are many books available to help with writing
your literature review. Also, most universities provide
study skills advice on their websites. Here are a few
books that have informed this presentation:
• Aveyard, H. (2010) Doing a literature review in health
and social care [electronic resource] : a practical guide
• Fink, A. G. (2009) Conducting Research Literature
Reviews: From the Internet to Paper.
• Jesson, J.K. (2011) Doing your literature review :
traditional and systematic techniques
• Machi, L.A. (2009)The literature review : six steps to
success