Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social
sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both
summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. A summary is a
recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a
reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a
research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

 Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
 Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
 Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most
pertinent or relevant research, or
 Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a
problem has been researched to date.

Elements in a Literature Review

The purpose of a literature review is to:

 Provide foundation of knowledge on topic

 Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other
researchers
 Identify inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in previous studies, open questions
left from other research
 Identify need for additional research (justifying your research)
 Identify the relationship of works in context of its contribution to the topic and to
other works
 Place your own research within the context of existing literature making a case for
why further study is needed.
The following are reasons how literature review adds value and legitimacy to the study:

There are several reasons why we do this.

R1: To Demonstrate Understanding:

Literature review can be used to demonstrate the understanding of the subject matter. This
means identifying, summarizing and critically assessing past research that is relevant to work.
R2: To Justify Research :

The literature review also plays a big role in justifying study and setting research question.
This is because examining past research allows you to identify gaps in the literature, which
you can then attempt to fill or address with your own work.
Reason #3:

Setting a Theoretical Framework : It can help to think of the literature review as the
foundations for the study, since the rest of the work will build upon the ideas and existing
research to be discuss therein.
A crucial part of this is formulating a theoretical framework, which comprises the concepts
and theories that your work is based upon and against which its success will be judged.
Reason #4:

Developing a Methodology : Conducting a literature review before beginning research also

lets you see how similar studies have been conducted in the past. By examining the strengths
and weaknesses of existing research, you can thus make sure you adopt the most appropriate
methods, data sources and analytical techniques for your own work.

Reason #5: To Support Own Findings : The significance of any results you achieve will
depend to some extent on how they compare to those reported in the existing literature. When
you come to write up your findings, your literature review will therefore provide a crucial
point of reference.
If your results replicate past research, for instance, you can say that your work supports
existing theories. If your results are different, though, you’ll need to discuss why and whether
the difference is important.

1. The literature is primarily scrutinized to identify gaps in the knowledge of the field
source. This gap is further explored during research to establish Latest facts or
theories that Provide value to the field.
2. The concept of conducting a scientific and systematic study necessitates observation
of existing knowledge, thus, facilitating the need for literature review
3. The literature review also helps in indicate the current study’s place in the schema of
the field.