Literature review

[Tiredoldhag]

Can someone please explain to me in layman's terms what I need to do. I just can't get started and it's getting me down.

Please tell us that you have read your course synopsis / information document / essay rubric / essay guideline - otherwise, you risk a firm RTFM reply.

If you happen to be in one of these so very rare unis where no instructions are provided to students : a literature review depends on a clear topic / research question to be identified - for example, "the relationship between antibiotic prescription and usage in veterinary practice and the rise of antibiotic resistance". Then, you need to go and use academic databases such as pubmed, scopus, etc to look for relevant articles (and not just reviews) using search terms that need to be carefully defined. Ideally, your literature review should build on a search which is systematic, without cherry picking evidence that fits your narrative.
You should be able to present the evidence available, synthesise it, and highlight gaps in the state of the art as well as innovative sub-areas. Your review should be critical in term of appraisal, rather than simply list what others have done.

It depends a bit what you want the literature review for- for an undergrad project, for a PhD (in which case, it might be huge), for a paper?

It's not at all clear what the brief is, and as Marasme says, you need to meet the brief given to you, not what us randomers think on the internet.

I have ways of helping my UG students think of a dissertation, but until I'm sure what it is you are needing from this, it's probably not worth going through at this stage- so feel free to come back and tell us what was requested/what the review is for.

It's for a master's dissertation. I feel totally overwhelmed. I have the lit I wish to review but have not nailed my final question/idea. They are all similar and seemingly viable. However, I have no one to ask tutor wise.

if the ideas are all similar & viable, just pick one. it doesn't matter which.

and start reading the literature, that will give you an idea of what questions the relevant researchers are interested in.

what area are you in? humanities or science?

So, there's a few things you can do to get started- first, trick yourself into starting by saying 'this is not my literature review, I'll just start writing some of this out' and then starting. Don't aim for a perfect lit review first time, this won't happen, it's a work in progress and it's fine to start in a very minor way and build it up over time, which is what you have to do.

I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of question if they are all similar, as most of the same ground will be covered.

I tell my students that literature reviews are like a funnel, you want to start with the general overview of the relevant field, mention the big theories there, and then move down towards more specific work which is similar to your own, review the work that is very close to your own in much more critical detail explaining why your own work is going to fill a gap in this literature. You don't do it all at the same critical depth, the wide ranging look at the field doesn't allow for the analysis of every single paper, that's what you do when you get towards the few papers that are very similar or your work stems out of them.

Some people like headings, you can always start with headings to make sure you are covering the major topics, and leave them out later, it may help you structure.

Finally- you do need a supervisor to make sure you are meeting the requirements of your specific course dissertation as well as to steer you academically- if you don't have one, speak to the module leader/Head of Department and urgently request one, if they are rubbish, just get started on the review and email them for a meeting/send them work as you go along.