Literature Review

Although I have heard the word literature before I never understood the proper meaning. When we were told we are going to be doing a literature review I was quite taken back because I had not got a clue what to be doing or where to start. The lecture helped as it broke it down bit by bit and was easier to understand.

A literature review is a review of any literature written by others on a topic which is being written about. The main point of one of these reviews is to question the topics theory or concept.

What I found hard was the topic we had to do our review on. Most times when compiling a literature review it is important to pick a subject that interests you or you can relate to. This would help you in your opinion if you agree or disagree with the authors points.

Books, articles, journals and reports are good sources to locate good literature. It is important to remember that there is a structure in these reviews. An introduction, the main body and a conclusion. The main body is the largest part, where you discuss the authors points. The conclusion is where you either accept or reject the authors reviews.

The conclusion is where I struggled to come to an outright opinion as in my case I agreed with some of the authors points while rejecting some others.

Finally I would stress that it is important not to be too biased as others might be reading your work in the future.