what is literature review

what is literature review

The Importance of Literature Review in Research

1. Introduction

An important preliminary task is seeing how NRM theorists try to get their task straight. When they are being self-conscious, they will spell out their various tasks in something that is now called meta theory. This is a good starting point for examining the meta-level textuality of what goes in and around review, but less of an easy task is tracking the translation of meta-NRM theory into its implementation in substantive research on NRM topics. At all events, the NRM research dissertation is an alternative meta level to various direct NRM interventions. For example, judgement that Level A nurses know less about preventing pressure sores than they might think they know, leading on to development and testing materials for updating their knowledge. At yet a further level, an NRM research project which is part of an academic qualification is often a strategic move for improved future employment. With all of this in mind, our global terrain is an account of a judgement made within the substantial grasp of particular NRM topics, about the value, relevance, and feasibility, of systematic review and its potential for informed future action, in terms of understanding how best to match and translate various NRM oriented research tasks into writing a systematic review on those very tasks.

Literature review is discussed from a rhetorical perspective. The emphasis is on the rhetorical moves made, the language used, the point of view adopted, and so on, by writers in the various stages of their review. This is then set alongside an account of the textuality of the world at the macro level. It covers a terrain that is influenced, in many senses, by what is known or needs to be known about the world as a causal system, and its social, economic, and political forms, and events, in the past present or future, above all the specifics of human activity in these various contexts. Pattern matched against this, we will have an examination of how much scope a review provides for matching and mapping the specificities of the inter-text upon the text it engages, where this broadly means some past cause, situation, event, outcome, or possibility. The literature review, in these dimensions, is set against various other ways in which knowledge claims about the real and the possible are advanced within research dissertations.

2. Purpose of Literature Review

Literature review has a good purpose to figure out what things that already achieved in an area of concern, collect any kind of theory, previous research that have already done in order to know mindset what the previous researcher had and also what the result and the impact of the previous research. Then, he will get some view in depth about the problems, issues, or around the researching that potentially to solve. After that, he can formulate research question, designing research framework and hypothesis. He also can figure out some variables or research design that should be to implement his research. By this progress, he already know how to continue his research and preparing some instrument that need and planning data analysis. Through literature review also can minimizing reinventing the wheel. That’s mean not necessary to do the same research if there are an available research has been done. It can help cost and time for the researcher. Through doing the same research not make any actual result and might making waste. Continue, it can gives the criticism and the suggestion for the result of previous research in a positive way. The criticism is about the weakness of the previous research and offering the solution. It is useful in building respectful research in an academic world. Last but not least, is making reference or the documentation of a research that can be new guide and inspire for the next researcher. Through literature review there are some studies that can engage to include any kind previous research and some study that make a breakthrough of the previous research in order to solve certain problem. Step by step the researcher will read in depth about any prior findings and after long consideration he decide to do the research. So, if the new researcher confused to determine a title of research he can modify from the previous research and he makes the literature review as a way to solve his confusion. This is the simple indicate to reach the purpose of literature review.

3. Steps to Conduct a Literature Review

– Write the review in a structured way and include all sources reviewed. This will make it easier for the reader to obtain the relevant information and critically assess the review.

– Review the literature in the field at different intervals to ensure the review is up-to-date and includes the most recent available.

– Review the literature with a critical approach, keep notes and a copy of all the relevant information and the sources they have been collected from. This is essential because the review should be a synthesis of what is known about the topic, and a combination of notes taken may lead to new information.

– Search for the literature from various sources of information like books, journals, newspapers, the internet, and reports.

– Consider the purpose of your literature review before you begin and what will be included. Whether it would be a general, descriptive, a critical analysis and synthesis of the sources reviewed, and what will be the time span.

The following are the key steps as outlined by Galvan (2006):

There are different views on how to conduct a literature review. However, they have common elements which can be summarized in key points. For example, a literature review should be conducted in a systematic way.

4. Benefits of Literature Review

After you get a new idea on the comparison of someone’s idea with yours, you will start to analyze what actually the differences between the two are, what are the factors leading to the difference, and so on. Automatically, you’ll be driven to a path of a high level of understanding of what you actually are doing. This will facilitate you when you need to explain your idea to others.

Then, it is a proven method for exposing your area of research to a new dimension or even to a new field. This is actually a mind challenging work although you are only comparing and contrasting others’ ideas. When you try to compare it to your idea, you don’t notice that you are actually formulating new theories around the idea you just compared. This is essential for candidates who are doing their research proposal. By doing a literature review, they can confirm that their idea has never been touched by anyone else.

On the topmost of all, a literature review can help you to avoid a repetition of what has been done before. You might feel that you don’t have sufficient ideas. You start to study what others have done. No sooner you realize that what you have done had been conducted by someone else. If you’d thoroughly gone through the papers written by those guys, you’ll keep in mind what they had done and you can compare it to what you have in hand now. As simple as that.

(4.0) Benefits of Literature Review

5. Conclusion

It is undeniable that if the researcher does not complete their literature review, it will inhibit their research in some way, from the selection of a research topic, the development of research questions, and the planning and implementation of a research method, through data collection and analysis. Even when it is time to write a research paper, a literature review is an important groundwork of research in that it highlights an area of weakness in other research, it shows that you are well informed and it gives an insight into the problem, topic or issue from the different perspectives of existing research. The actual importance of literature review to a research is such that it provides more than just reviewing what other research has said on your topic, but with it you are able to identify strengths and weaknesses of methods and results from other research but also to clarify a question to which your research is the answer. It is also important from the aspect that you move from research consumer to research producers. By this, it is meant that with an in-depth literature review, you are able to understand the topic in impressive depth and thus will put you in a better position to clarify your research aims and objectives!