Why Write a Dissertation Literature Review

When writing a dissertation, a student has to accomplish a number of important tasks and activities. One of these tasks is writing a dissertation literature review. Why does a university student need to undertake a review of literature related to his dissertation?

A dissertation is a large academic research. It is a venture into an academic territory that is previously unknown. The chances of achieving dissertation success are not nil, but are fairly slim. To increase the chances of success, a student needs to have something from which he could launch his academic research.

A dissertation literature review offers a critical study and assessment of anything that is related to the topic – including published researches, dissertations as well as other reading materials. While many may thing that a literature review is just a summary of previous researches, it is not. It is a critical evaluation of related knowledge in relevance to a student’s dissertation. A literature review allows a student to identify the gap within a set of literature that the dissertation will try to fill in.

There could be time that the literature on a chosen topic is so many. In this case, a student should cover only literature that is most applicable to the focus of the dissertation. It may be necessary to seek advice to make sure that the student is only appropriate researches.

Indeed, a literature review is an important part of a dissertation. Thus, when writing a dissertation literature review, a student must be all business.