Guide about Literature Review for Dissertation

Dissertation is a research based writing task in which students are required to write about one of the aspects of their respective study field after conducting research about it. Dissertation is a lengthy essay and includes about nine to eleven chapters that are considered an essential component of the dissertation and plays an important role in making a dissertation successful. One of those chapters is literature review which is usually written after the introduction chapter in the dissertation because it explains that history and significance of students’ research questions.

A literature review for dissertation usually contains information about the studies that are already been conducted by other writers related to students’ chosen dissertation topic. Students usually highlight the weak points and study gaps of those previously published studies in this chapter in order to state the reasons because of which they have chosen their research questions or topic and also to highlight the significance of conducting research about their chosen topic. This is why; students are required to pay their maximum attention while writing their literature review chapter. 

There are many other reasons that make the literature review chapter a compulsory and the most important part of the dissertation essay; some of them are listed below:

• This chapter guides students in explaining their selected research questions in a very clear manner.
• It provides a perfect and effective background to their dissertation research study.
• It helps students in getting knowledge about the things that have already been discussed and that they need to avoid repeating in their dissertation.
• It helps students in selection of effective methodologies for conducting their research study.

The importance of literature review chapter can be clearly understood from the reasons mentioned above. Students just need to write their literature review in an effective manner if they want to create a good impression on their professors.

So, it can be concluded that literature review is an important part of the dissertation in which students write about the previously published studies that relate to their topic. They explain the weaknesses of those studies for highlighting the significance of their research topic.