How to Structure Your Master's Dissertation Literature Review
You master’s thesis literature review will be the second
chapter of your thesis. Some studies also divide the literature review into two
chapters, and for your doctorate you might even require three chapters of
literature review. If you have a lot of literature to cover, you could choose
two broad themes and make each one a separate chapter of literature review within
your thesis. However, in the vast majority of cases, one chapter with a few
subheadings will be more than sufficient in a master’s dissertation. Aim for
around 10 – 25 pages. Studies in the social sciences should aim for the higher
end of that spectrum.
Your literature needs to give citations and paraphrase as
much of the knowledge in your field that relates
to your study as possible. You need to make sure that you are covering the
literature relating to your theoretical
background, your main themes and
any previous studies that are
similar to what you are undertaking, or that you are relying on to inform your
study. You might also consider including literature related to ethical concerns which could arise in
your study.
Your supervisor/ promoter and examiners will be looking out
for certain things when they assess the strength of your literature review.
Firstly, they will consider whether it is comprehensive;
do you cover all of the most important readings that relate to your study? Are
there any major ideas or scholars that you don’t touch on? Secondly, they will
assess you on how organized your
ideas are. Do you present your ideas in a way that is easily readable and that
doesn’t confuse the reader? Are there clear subheadings which help to show
trends in the reading? Thirdly, they will consider whether the literature
review is logically linked to your study.
Have you shown clear gaps in knowledge that your study is responding to? Does
the chapter have a logical flow between ideas, all leading up to a conclusion
which incorporates the motivation for
your research? And finally, your supervisor and examiners will be
considering whether you show a clear
understanding of all of the literature presented. Are you just parroting
ideas, or do you really grasp all of the challenging concepts that you need to
know in order to be considered a competent, knowledgeable scholar in your
field? You need to master all of these aspects in order to do well in your
literature review.
The key to a successful literature review is to plan it
thoroughly. You’ve probably already done some relevant readings, but try and do
proper planning as early as possible in the process of writing a literature
review. If you go into your research with clear objectives, it’ll be much
easier to keep a logical structure to your chapter.
Plan your review in the same way you plan your research
papers. You need to know what each subheading will be in your literature review
before you start reading, and then with each new article you read, you can add
a few citations or paraphrases under the relevant subheading. Plan your subheadings
with the following ideas in mind:
·
Theoretical background – you could dedicate new
subheadings to the two or three most prominent theories you will rely on for
your study
·
Themes in the readings (each theme gets a
subheading). You can plan these themes beforehand, and also add extra
subheadings as you discover new themes while reading.
·
Gaps in knowledge/ research
·
Similar studies to yours, with critiques of
these studies in a few sentences as well
If you can clearly identify the subheadings, it is much
easier to add relevant information in a word processor as you do your readings.
Each day, you can incorporate the new articles and the information you’ve
gathered into well-written paragraphs. You’ll be able to complete your
literature review in no time.
There’s a full, detailed discussion of all of these ideas in
the guide on writing literature reviews on the Academic Coaching
website, so if you need extra help, you can head over there to pick up that
guide as well. For now, let’s move on to the next chapter where you explain the
research process of your study.
Review Your Learning:
·
A literature review should cover the readings
that relate to your theoretical background, the main themes of your study and
any previous studies that are similar to yours
·
A literature review should be comprehensive and
well-organized under clear subheadings
·
All of the readings that you review should be
logically linked to your study, and should ultimately add to the motivation of
why your study is important
·
Your review must demonstrate that you are knowledgeable
and have a good understanding of your field
·
Aim for 10-25 pages in length