WHAT IS LITERATURE REVIEW

Friday, July 6, 2012

          In chapter two researcher starts writing about the broad problem area and then narrows it down to the precise problem statement. Literature review is a mention of known theories on the subject, where researcher tries to explore the phenomenon to that extent which can justify current pursuit for new research. Researcher narrates past research efforts which have been discovered so far within the domain of current topic. 
          Literature review is the chain of thoughts which were extended to the current level of knowledge. And all interlocking bits and pieces of such knowledge should be branched out in order to identify any missing link in the cluster. This sequence of thoughts and ideas will help researcher to draw a mind map where blank cells  may lead to the answer of current research questions. They are those factors which are still undiscovered or loosely captured in past theories.

While reviewing the literature, following points should be taken care of:

• From where researcher should take a start to discover facts in this entire issue. 
• How can researcher develop a chain of ideas or proven theories in the past.
• What are main factors (identified so far)-which govern objective of the study.
• How far past theories are successful in explaining the current issue.
• What is still missing in the past research efforts on the subject.
• Is the gap evident between existing and the expected level of knowledge on the subject.
• What are those possible gray areas which researcher assumes as undiscovered or loosely captured.

          Literature review will help researcher to develop precise problem statement and discover underlying factors/variables. Quality of problem statement depends on the way researcher narrows down the broad problem areas to the brief statement of the research objective justifying the current research effort.
(Author: Muhammad Azeem)