Writing a literature review for a thesis or dissertation

"The review chapter for a thesis or dissertation is the most complex of the literature review types covered in this book because you will be expected to prepare the initial literature review as part of your research proposal, well before you begin your actual research. Conducting a literature review is one of the steps you will follow in the process of defining the research questions for your study, so you will probably have to redefine your topic and revise your research questions several times along the way." (Galvan, 2013, p. 13)

I  quoted this in full because for the first time I felt someone identified how I felt! When I applied to do this Masters, I had simply wanted to do a Masters. I had not previously examined the literature, nor was I familiar with the field... How was I suppose to from scratch write a research proposal with a literature review for my application?

I did it anyway.

So my first topic for my application to this programme was about how the East and West differed in their approach to critical thinking. I was guided by my interest in critical thinking, coupled with the data I knew I had. I was using secondary quantitative data and hence knew what was available.

But along the way, that got shelved as I got busy with modules and work... Then I took a module on writing a literature review. Aha! This was my chance to write the literature review properly I thought, remembering the quick job I did for my application. However, this time round I struggled even more to locate a topic. Again, I did not know how to find a topic that matched my interest and also the gaps and literature and for me, I was using some already collected data, so it had to also match the data already collected!

I just wrote it anyway. It was extremely general: Perceptions and Practices of Teachers in Citizenship Education.

And then my supervisor who was a quantitative research specialist left, so now I had a new supervisor who was skilled in qualitative methods. She asked me to write her a research proposal...

But this time round, I looked through what I have written for that module and I extract a section from it and modified it from there. It was difficult for me. For some, perhaps reading more would reveal their interest, for me, it muddled my interest even more. I actually didn't know what I wanted to research anymore by this time...

However, praise to God, from whatever I had written, my supervisor discerned my interest in the clash between patriotism and critical thinking. And she zoomed in on that. And told me to rewrite my literature review to focus more on patriotism.

So... this was the third time I wrote a literature review. And thankfully, it has remained here and this is where I have heavily reanalysed, redrafted and decided to sink my heels in.

I wrote this personal experience to illustrate the dilemmas I felt writing my research proposals and literature reviews. I had tried 3 times to identify something important to me and possibly worthwhile to the field. The process was not straightforward to me, but it did give me a better survey of the field. It was a messy process. :) But on hindsight, there appears to be some patterns. Hope this might encourage some of you who are thinking that you should have gotten it right the first time. I didn't. :) In fact, it made it all the more miraculous when I finally got it.

References
Galvan, J. L. (2013) Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences. 5th edition. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing