Somewhere in your dissertation proposal, you will be required to provide a lengthy, detailed discussion of what other researchers have written on your topic. Usually, that discussion is the Literature Review, which constitutes the entirety of Chapter 2 in your dissertation proposal.
I’m guessing you are tediously familiar with the process of writing research papers. That’s what the literature review is, essentially—a long and gruesomely detailed research paper. (If you don’t like doing research and writing, I’m sorry. Maybe now is the time to rethink your decision to enter graduate school. Oh dear, too late!)
I’ve seen my share of literature reviews. Some are good, others, not so much. Some reviews seem to be a fruit-basket-upset of everything ever published on a topic, no matter who wrote it (can you say Wikipedia?). Some dissertators seem to use no structure or outline, meandering through the extant literature like a drunkard in a field of daisies. Not only is this approach boring and confusing for the reader, but it also fails to fulfill the purpose of the literature review, which is to convince readers of the viability of your research problem.
What is a literature review?
The literature review is an in-depth synthesis of strategically chosen discussions presented by previous researchers about a topic, objectively examined from all sides with the aim of convincing your reviewers that there is a need for your study. Let’s unpack that bit by bit.
A literature review is a synthesis…
First, what is a synthesis? The word might remind you of the word synthetic, which has come to mean manufactured, artificial, or fake, like synthetic fur or motor oil. That is not how we are interpreting synthesis. You know how a tapestry weaves together threads of different textures and colors? That is a synthesis of thread. You know how when you make chocolate chip cookies, you mix some flour, some sugar, a couple eggs, some chocolate …? That is a synthesis of ingredients to create something yummy. A synthesis is simply a combining of elements—in our case, ideas.
A literature review is a strategic synthesis…
Even if it is “exhaustive,” your literature review is not just a random mishmash of everything under the sun. Instead, you should strategically choose what to include and exclude. I can hear you say, strategically? What is that all about, Dr. Carol?
Take a step back for a minute. What is your ultimate goal? To earn your Ph.D.? Okay. What do you need to do to get there? Finish your proposal and get it approved so you can start collecting data, right? What do you need to do before you do that? Convince your reviewers that you have a proposal that deserves to be approved!
Strategic means all your choices are designed to move you closer to the goal of getting approval. Any element of your literature review (or any other part of your proposal, for that matter) that doesn’t support that goal should be ruthlessly cut away. Your literature review is a strategic discussion of your topic.
Strategic also relates to the fact that you will be required to revisit the research you write about in Chapter 2 when you discuss your findings in Chapter 5. After data collection and analysis, as you write your report, you must place your findings in the context of past research: In other words, did your findings confirm or disconfirm what other researchers have found? How does your study’s findings relate to what has come before?
To answer these questions, you need to find the direct line between the research you discussed in Chapter 2 and your own study’s problem, purpose, theory, methodology, and methods. Thus, your literature review is the foundation of your study—its raison d’être, as it were—and it breathes life into your data when you get to Chapter 5. Without the context of your literature review, how will we know if your findings are meaningful?
A literature review is a strategic synthesis that shows the need for your study…
The ultimate purpose of the literature review is to show the need for your study. In fact, your entire proposal is a sales pitch for your study. The literature review gives the reader the background and rationale leading up to the problem you identified. It’s your body of evidence, your proof that the problem is worth studying.
Imagine you are at a dinner party with your family and your annoying cousin asks, “Hey, what is your dissertation about?” And you say, “I think teachers need to do a better job.” Your cousin says, “Whoa, cool, and then asks you that important question: “How do you know there is a problem?”
A literature review is a strategic synthesis that shows the need for your study from other researchers’ points of view…
The literature review answers the question, How do you know there’s a problem? You can’t just follow your instinct to yell at your cousin: “Trust me, I just know!” You might know a lot, but what you know is irrelevant for your literature review. Chapter 2 isn’t about what you know. It’s about what other people know. I’m referring to all those researchers whose shoulders you and I are standing on—yeah, those guys. Safety in numbers, people. Cite all those giants, big and small, because they provide the rationale for your study. If Famous Authors A and B claimed that teachers need to do a better job, then readers will be more inclined to take their claim seriously—more inclined than if you, Unknown Doctoral Candidate, made the claim.
A literature review is a strategic synthesis that shows the need for your study from other researchers’ points of view, not yours
I often see dissertators stating their opinions and offering recommendations and solutions to the so-called problem, right there in the literature review. The literature review is not the place to spout your opinions! If you already know the solution to the problem, then why bother doing your study? What’s there to learn?
The review should be about other researchers’ opinions, findings, and conclusions. You’ll get your turn in Chapter 5. For now, in Chapter 2, you are the emcee, not the performer. Your job is to combine all the voices you have gleaned from the mountains of research you’ve read and synthesize those voices into the story of your proposed study. Be a detective. Be a scribe. Stay off the soapbox.
However, keep in mind, the literature review is not an annotated bibliography, although the literature reviews in many proposals and dissertations seem to be organized that way (and I have to presume that many of these dissertators eventually obtain approvals). Some dissertators diligently discuss a study, followed by another study, followed by another, and another, and rarely bother to tie the discussions together in any meaningful way. What is the reader supposed to glean from this piecemeal listing of studies?
Sadly, many dissertators expect a lot from their readers, sometimes even including the chore of discerning the point of the entire literature review. Your average reader might put up with such a muddled approach, but most reviewers won’t, I guarantee you. If you don’t lead them through your literature review and point out the conclusions you want them to make along the way, then don’t expect them to do that work for you.
8 tips for your literature review success
1. Use a logical structure
Most successful dissertators start Chapter 2 with an introduction, explain how they searched for sources, and then present their review, organized by topic in some logical fashion. I’ve seen many variations, but this structure seems to work the best. When I say best, I mean the one that most effectively lays out the background, leads the reader through the discussion, and persuades the reader of the need for the study. The literature review should be carefully constructed to convince the reader, point by point, that there is a problem that needs studying.
2. Write from an outline
I know you probably dislike writing from an outline, but I encourage you to do it! Your entire proposal writing process will flow more smoothly if you have your roadmap (your outline) clearly before you. Boring? Hey, a dissertation is not a creative writing project! Stay in the herd until you get your degree—then you can blaze your own trail, literarily speaking. Remember, writing your literature review is an iterative process. Keep working at your outline until it makes sense. Tie your citations to your outline.
3. Define your variables and key terms
Some variables are difficult to define, but you need to present your reader with working definitions of all variables. Are you studying academic quality? Identify how others have defined it, and cite the sources. Are you using acronyms or abbreviations to stand for more complex concepts? Identify them and define them briefly in the introduction, even if they are defined in a list of key terms elsewhere in your paper.
4. Use terms consistently
Dissertators often fail to use terms consistently throughout the proposal. It’s so common, I even made an autotext snippet that I can insert into my editor’s notes, so I don’t have to keep typing the same cautions and recommendations over and over. It’s such a simple thing, but I understand why it happens. It’s easy to forget what terms you used when many weeks or months may pass between writing and submitting your chapters.
In addition, writers get bored with their own words—after you’ve read the same pages a billion times, you don’t even see the words anymore, you recall them from memory. Your eyes skip right past the things an editor would catch, like, for example, how in Chapter 1, you called your survey “Teachers Attitude Performance Questionnaire” (TAPQ), and in Chapter 3, you called it “Teachers Performance Attitude Survey” (TPAS). Readers are easily confused by changes in terms. Especially if you introduced the instrument in Chapter 2 and wrote that the originators of the survey called it the “Academic Satisfaction, Attitude, and Performance Test”! What is your poor reader to think?
5. Cite your sources
Many dissertators seem to start typing at the top of the chapter and pound away until they get to the end, inserting few if any citations along the way to support their statements. All the facts, claims, assertions, statistics, opinions … If you read it or heard it somewhere, you must cite the source. Most literature reviews have too few citations. Sometimes, though, a dissertator will pile on the citations to support a noncontroversial statement, like 10,000 children attended kindergarten last year, followed by five sources packed into one bulging set of parentheses. Really? Who is going to argue? Save your big guns (multiple citations) for the controversial statements that other researchers may feel compelled to debate. If you are confused about where and when to cite, see REASON 22 in my book.
See my previous rant on plagiarism.
6. Be objective
Your literature review should be an objectively presented view of all sides of the research problem. Strategically choosing sources means you may choose to include some sources but not others. This is okay. You want to include the sources that support the need for your study. However, you will run into trouble if you only include the research that supports your position and ignore the research that detracts from your position. Show that you understand all facets of the topic by presenting an objective and thorough literature review.
7. Look for the tension
Most likely, you will need to introduce and discuss one or more theories. Presenting an objective 360° view of the research means presenting arguments for and against each theory. Debate over theory among academics can be tense. Have you ever read articles by disgruntled academics defending their precious survey instruments? Back and forth, from one journal article to the next, they rave about obscure statistical procedures that prove their points, just barely refraining from calling each other incompetent boobs. They can really set fire to the publishing airwaves. This is good; seek out this tension and explain the controversies for your readers.
8. Update your literature review before you submit your proposal.
I had to make sure at least 85% of my sources were from peer-reviewed sources published within the previous five years. Because my entire Ph.D. program took me eight years to complete, some of my sources were getting a bit ripe toward the end of my program. I’ve seen dissertators in the education field only cite sources older than ten years—talk about ripe! Time moves on, events happen, new laws are enacted. Don’t rant about the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 without addressing recent changes to the law. I know it’s a pain to update Chapter 2 after you’ve got it precariously nailed together, but I encourage you to be a good scholar and update your sources periodically. Maybe if you are an art historian, citing only hundred-year-old sources is de rigueur, but in the social sciences, you destroy the credibility of your study if you don’t cite current facts.
The literature review: You gotta have it
You might dread the literature review as the swampy quagmire of your dissertation proposal, something to be slogged through once, in hip-high waders, and left behind. Unfortunately, you must have a literature review, in one shape or another, so you might as well do your best to help it fulfill its purpose, which is to persuade your reviewers to approve your dissertation proposal.
If you need help with other things, like managing your sources, citing your sources, or using Microsoft Word to format your paper, check out my book 28 ½ Reasons Why You Can’t Get Your Dissertation Proposal Approved. Maybe I can help.
Print book
Kindle book
I’ve written the book I wished I had had when I was sweating over my proposal, watching the clock ticking and thinking, hmmmm, failure is apparently an option after all. I wanted simple, practical advice from someone who had been in my shoes, someone who didn’t throw more academic jargon at me, but shared real stories to give me insight into the obstacles that were holding me back. I wrote the book I didn’t have when I could have really used the help.
