To start us off our teacher showed us a clip on YouTube which gave some key information about what a literature review is and how to start one. The clip contained 3 main pieces of information; What a literature review is not, what it is and how to approach a literature review.
What it is not
A literature review is not an essay, it is part of your research. This means that it does state or prove any of your points, it simply shows what research has been done around your chosen subject.
What it is
The review is to improve your own understanding of the literature and its content. Furthermore this means that it will demonstrate your knowledge of the subject you are studying, in addition to bringing your reader up to date on the subject matter.
The approach
The process for a literature review begins with collecting your sources. To begin with I should have more sources than I plan to use, these can then be skim read and narrowed down. Next is to analyse the sources, arrange and summarise. There are many way of which I can organise my literature review; the most simple way is chronologically from the first published to the most recently published. Another way of organising, which may end up similar to the publish date is the advancements described in the piece of literature. For example if my project was on technology I would put sources about lightbulbs before computers. It is also possible to order the literature review geographically for example how Greek Architecture has been interpreted in Europe or America. Finally there is the option to structure my literature review through questions. I would clearly state each of the questions first before going through each and what the sources have to say on each question.
I think that writing a literature review will be hard as I have never done it before and I may end up doing several drafts or versions before I am happy with it as the final literature review to give in with my project.