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A critical review of the literature is necessary to help you to develop a thorough understanding of ,and insight into,previous research that relates to your research questions and objectives. Your review will set your research in context by critically discussing and referencing work that has already been undertaken,drawing out key points and presenting them in a logically argued way ,and highlighting those areas where you will provide fresh insights. It will lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report.

There is no correct structure for a critical review, although it is helpful to think of it as a funnel in which you start at a more general level prior to narrowing down to your specific research question(s) and objectives.

Literature sources can be divided into three categories:primary ,secondary and tertiary.In reality, these categories often overlap. Your use of these resources will depend on your research question(s) and objectives. Some may use only secondary and tertiary literature. For others,you may need to locate primary literature as well.

When planning your literature research you need to:

• Have clearly defined research question(s) and objectives;
• Define the parameters of your search ;
• Generate keywords and search terms;
• Discuss your ideas as widely as possible

Techniques to help you in this include brainstorming and relevance trees .

• Your literature search is likely to be undertaken using a variety of approaches in tandem. These will include
  • Searching using tertiary sources and internet ;
  • Following up reference in articles you have already read;
  • Scanning and browsing secondary literature in your library.
• Once obtained, the literature must evaluated for its relevance to your research questions and objectives using clearly defined criteria .This must include a consideration of each item’s currency. Each item must be read and noted. Bibliographic details,a brief description of the content and supplementary information should also be recorded.
• Care should be taken when writing your literature review not to plagiarise the work of others.

1. In a qualitative study, use the literature sparring in the beginning in order to convey an inductive design unless the design type requires a substantial literature orientation at the outset.
2. Consider the most appropriate place for the literature in a qualitative study, and base the decision on the audience on the project. Keep in mind the options: placing it at the beginning to frame the problem, placing it in a separate section, and using it at the end to compare and contrast with the findings.
3. Use the literature in a quantitative study deductively-as a basis for advancing research questions or hypotheses.
4. In a quantitative study plan, use the literature to introduce the study,describe related literature in a separate section, and compare findings.
5. In a mixed methods study, use the literature in a way that is consistent with the major type of strategy and the qualitative or quantitative approach most prevalent in the design.
6. Regardless of the type of the study, consider the type of literature review to conduct, such as an integrative, critical, building bridges among topics or the identification of central issues.

Writing a Literature Review is by far the most daunting part of writing the thesis. The available content is huge and if the writer does not follow a systematic approach in creating the Literature Review, it can become an extremely herculean job to complete. You must work towards creating the Literature Review in the following sequence:

1) Narrow down your research area: The internet and libraries are flooded with content and so much material can actually boggle you down and leave you all perplexed. The way out is to know exactly what to look for. Before searching for literature, you must know the specific area you are going to look for. This will help you to find more focused material and not get loaded with the plethora of content available online.

2) Collect all the relevant content: Once you are sure of your research area, you must conduct a comprehensive search and save or print all relevant articles and abstracts that fall in your zone of study. In this time window, you must only strive towards compiling the content at one place. Skimming and extraction should be taken care of in the subsequent stages.

3) Skim the content for excerpts: Read thoroughly the content of each article/paper or book that you have put aside as relevant matter. You must necessarily find out the follows details from each article:
Objectives of the study
Literature gaps
Methodology of research
Conclusions and findings of the research

You must extract out this information for each article and book that you have put aside for the Literature Review.

4) Create a structure of your Literature Review: Sequence the different excerpts that you have created in the way that the entire Literature Review is developed in a flow and the ideas that you put down, go forward with each other. Make sure that you don’t put two contradicting ideas together. Leave the connectivity and paraphrasing as the last stage.

5) Paraphrase and connect: Never use the language that is already used by the original author. You must paraphrase the content in your own language to avoid plagiarism. Further on, use connectors to develop the logical flow and link within the content so that the reader can feel that he is graduating in understanding the concept and ideas in a flow and in the process the gaps are getting surfaced out in a way that the objectives of your own research have their base ready by this time.

According to Cresswell (2008) , “A literature review is a written summary of journal articles, books, and other documents  that describe the past and current state of information; organizes the literature into topics; and documents a need for a proposed study”.

Reviewing the literature involves locating, analyzing, synthesizing, organizing previous research and documents (periodicals, books, abstracts, etc.)  related to your study area. The goal is to obtain a detailed, cutting-edge knowledge of your particular topic. To do this, you must immerse yourself in your subject by reading extensively and voraciously. A solid and comprehensive review of the literature accomplishes several important purposes. It helps you to do the following:

1. Focus the purpose of your study more precisely.
2. Develop a conceptual or theoretical framework that might be used to guide your research.
3. Identify key variables for study and suggest relationship among them if you are completing a quantitative study; if you are conducting a qualitative study, identify and concepts or topics  you plan to study
4. Provide a historical background for your study 
5. Uncover previous research similar to your own that can be meaningfully extended                                     
6. Determine the relationship of your topic relative to current and past studies
7. Identify scholars and theorists in your area of study
8. From a basis for determining the significance of your study
9. Uncover questionnaires or tests previously validated
10. Link your findings to previous studies (Do your findings support or contradict them?)