What is a lit review? This is an element of a dissertation that is often misunderstood.
For some, the literature review is interpreted to be a short summary of articles the student has read or a synopsis of readings in the field. While this might be a part of the process, it is not a complete literature review. A well-written literature review is pivotal to the writing of a solid dissertation. It should provide a comprehensive, coherent overview of significant literature on a specific scholarly topic. This entails the review of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, books, abstracts, reviews, dissertations, websites and any other available resources to formulate a critical analysis of the information compiled.
In other words, a summary of literature in the field is not sufficient by itself. A scholarly analysis is one of the most important elements of a literature review. Included in this analysis is a brief historical description of a topic, isolation of a theory/conceptual framework and a well-written critical evaluation of the work. Reviewing the literature brings the general idea for future research into focus, thereby making the gap in scholarly literature more clear.