writing help: Dissertation Writing Problem - Help.com

the lit review is supposed to give background information - an introduction to your topic. For example, for me to understand your dissertatio, what do i need to know first? the key is not to presume too much - many of your readers may not know very much at all about your topic.

When writing, do not just insert quotes, write a story. This synthesises all of the prior research and can be chronological or grouped by topic. You need to illustrate what has already been done and whetehr there are agreements or conflicts in thsi prior research (e.g. 10 ppl say x but 2 say y). Finally, identiofy the ‘gaps’ in the knowledge - what has not been addressed at all yet, addressed but with limitations/weaknesses, or new ideas that the previous literature have opened up?

Also ensure you use a bibliograpy manager such as endnote or refworks - this will help you no end when inserting your refernces!

The Lit Review also depends on what disipline you are writing out of (hard science ones will be very different from social science ones) and what type of study you are doing (qualitative, quantitative, or humanities-based). For instance, a hard science, quantitative diss rarely speaks to biases, or anything opinion-based, etc.

Also, the discipline and type contribute to how you will write. For hard science disses, you will not be telling a story (sorry alex). Instead, it will be very list-like summaries of the major research.

But this all depends on you discipline and type of study…