Literature review structure

Before you emulate what you have read, be aware that plagiarism extends to copying the structure of others' work, so please acknowledge any influences appropriately. In addition, to assist you in organising your review, see your supervisor or department to identify the format of your thesis, as this can impact the organisation of the literature review (Mauch & Birch, 1998).

The information in the literature review is synthesised, or brought together to form a cohesive whole. Those who read the review should clearly understand the reasons for selecting your research area or question, its relationship to past work, and the central procedures that have been employed by past investigations. In addition, they should know the weaknesses of past studies and how your research contributes to this field in the advancement of knowledge.

As you review books and journals, write down the topic words that you have selected. It is suggested that you create a mind map of the all of the terms that apply to your topic before conducting a literature search. This mind map can then be used to guide your literature search as well as making sure that you discuss pertinent concepts in the review itself. See an example mind map.

This mind map and its sections can also be the subsections that you use for storing the results of your research e.g. in Endnote.

This section is most likely the longest section of the thesis. It includes:

• An introduction
• A review of the past and present literature in relation to your research purpose
• Clarification of the purpose of study
• General hypotheses to be tested.

The review begins with an introduction that discusses the topic, key concepts and terms, and describes the scope and organisation of the review. You can use the two-topic format or the funnel format (see Alternative methods below). Both formats include the identification of key topics that will be covered in the review. In addition, these formats guide the way the review is structured, which makes the writing of the task easier because you can focus on writing one section at a time and keep on track with your review topics.

This section outlines relevant theories that impact your study.

You may find it difficult to find information for this section, especially in new fields of research. Still, even in ground-breaking research, there should be some theoretical foundation upon which your work rests. There may not be a strong link in this case, but it does help if there is some basis for your work, albeit indirect. Whatever topics you include in your review, they must bear some relationship to your focus. Though you may not find literature that specifically relates to your topic you should integrate key points from related studies that to allow you to make inferences and indicate what you expect to happen in your study.

This section is a review of the literature on the instruments or measures you will use as part of your study.

You need to present evidence that supports your choice of instrument over those not chosen. This section should be focused on relevant literature specific to the study. One suggestion is to examine the most current instruments first and work back from there. You need to include reliability and validity estimates and a description of the samples that have received the instrument. When dealing with many variables, it is useful to write a separate section on each variable in the review (Cone & Foster, 1993; Newman et al., 1997).

The summary is a precis of what has been written about in the chapter. It should not be verbose, or a repetition of the entire contents of that chapter, but rather a succinct account of the current state of knowledge on your topic and the instruments used in the study. In addition, there should be a sense that you have explained the background to your study that endorses the decision you have made to study your topic.

• Cover studies that examine related independent variables. e.g. “What strategies enhance organisational effectiveness?” You can organise the review according to the strategy type.
• Cover studies that examine related dependent variables. e.g. “Characteristics of adult children of alcoholics”. You could organise the review according to personality studies, drinking patterns, relationship skills, and so on.
• Organise by type of design. The order usually moves from weaker to stronger designs, for example correlational before experimental designs.
• Organise by chronology. Particular theories may develop according to strict chronological changes perhaps due to technology, expansion of theories, or social changes, etc.
• Organise by theoretical premises. This is useful if you are dealing with competing explanations or when different theories contribute to your research question.
• Organise by findings. You may wish to use findings to develop a rationale for your studies. This can be the most difficult way to organise your review.

The two-topic format thesis is a thesis that examines the relationship between two variables. This thesis tends to be easier to organise simply because of the lack of variables you need to discuss. This does not mean the review is less extensive or necessarily easier. Examples of two-topic formats are: Does depression relate to quality of life? Does anxiety relate to learning? And so on. The organisation of your review will look something like this: Firstly, an introductory paragraph, a literature review on topic one, a literature review on topic two, a review of the literature linking topics one and two, and finally, a statement of the purpose of the proposed study. In some cases, this may be included in the summary.

Alternatively, the funnel format, which is commonly used in essay writing, may be used to structure your literature review. In this approach you begin by discussing the topic in the most general of terms, and then gradually narrow the focus of the discussion to become closer and closer to the topic or purpose of the present study.