Help Sheet on Introduction section in the Literature Review

1. Statement of topic
Firstly, you need a few sentences just outlining / explaining what your topic is. You chose a topic
from the list, but you will have also narrowed down the focus somewhat – so what is that
focus?!

2. Importance of topic
You need to provide some context to your chosen topic. In several of the taught elements we
talk about the importance of not only the CONTENT of an article or paper, but also the PROCESS
and the CONTEXT. Similarly, here, we’re getting you to think about the CONTEXT of the topic. For
example: Is it a relatively new area or one that dates back decades? Has it been very heavily
researched? Is it something that has only been explored in certain countries or cultures? Why is
it important / interesting to a) academics, b) practitioners, c) society, d) Governments, e) you?!!
When it comes to talking about the importance of the topic to you, don’t be afraid to add a little
bit of personality here, when people are passionate about something, it is infectious, so sell it to
the reader!

3. Brief overview of topic including key definitions if needed

Having researched this topic for several months, you are now an expert in this area. Of course
your supervisors / markers will also have a good insight into the topic, but potentially, other
people will read your work and they may not have the same level of understanding. Therefore,
it’s important – but also good practice - from the offset to make sure you have clearly defined
and explained the key terms. Of course you can revisit these in the main body of the Literature
Review and explore them in more detail, but this is a good opportunity to ensure the reader
comprehends the basics, before they proceed with the rest of the review.

Please note: the definition doesn’t have to define the key term(s) addressed in your project in
the traditional way e.g. “X defines CSR as…”, which can be a descriptive way to assign meaning to
a term. Instead, it is preferable to explain the term and its potential variations / interpretations /
developments in the literature and then explain how this term is used in your research project
specifically. For instance, you may want to say that ’The original definition of CSR highlighted
that…. However, more recent interpretations of CSR focus on’ or ‘Although the mainstream
approach in the literature associates CSR to… This research projects adopts a more disparate
view that…’

4. Methodology of review (how you YOU conducted the review)

This is the part that sometimes causes a little confusion amongst students. We mention in
Lecture 2 that core elements of a Literature Review include being ‘systematic’ and ‘methodical’.
So much so, that other people could potentially replicate how you searched and found your
selection of papers. It’s more than likely that you will not be able to include ALL of the literature
published in your chosen topic; therefore you will have narrowed down your selection somehow.
You therefore need to explain your selection criteria AND include some justification to your
decision making. Some examples include – a) what were the search terms you used, b) what
databases did you use, c) did you have a specific date range, d) did you only look in journals with
high quality ratings, e) did you only choose articles published in a particular country. There will
be many more potential ways you can narrow down your searches and finalise your selection,
but whatever you do, it needs to be clearly outlined.

5. Structure of review and justification of themes chosen

The next part of the introduction should include an overview of the structure of the review. As
we have seen in Tutorial 1 – this can be as simple as outlining the headings / sections of the
review. For each ‘heading’ you should also include a sentence or two describing what content is
included in that section.

If you have developed themes (or sub-topics) within your topic then you also need to outline
these and provide some rationale behind your selection. In the same way that you will have had
to narrow down you selection of articles – chances are there were more themes that emerged
across the literature. So why / how did you choose the ones you did. Everything needs to be
explained and justified!

6. Link to next section

Finally, you want to include a few sentences which explain what the next section will cover /
include.