MEd. in Learning and Instructional Design (MEd. LID)

This definition of the Literature Review is excerpted from your textbook (bolding added):

"Once the researcher identifies a topic that can and should be studied, the search can begin for related literature on the topic. The literature review accomplishes several purposes. It shares with the reader the results of other studies that are closely related to the one being undertaken. It relates a study to the larger, ongoing dialogue in the literature, filling in gaps and extending prior studies (Cooper, 2010; Marshall & Rossman, 2011). It provides a framework for establishing the importance of the study as well as a benchmark for comparing the results with other findings. All or some of these reasons may be the foundation for writing the scholarly literature into a study (see Boote & Beile, 2005, for a more extensive discussion of purposes for compiling a literature review in research). Studies need to add to the body of literature on a topic, and literature sections in proposals are generally shaped from the larger problem to the narrower issue that leads directly into the methods of a study."

Here are links to several websites and videos that provide useful information on writing a Literature Review.

• Learn How to Write a Review of Literature
  From the University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Literature Reviews
  From the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

• Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students
  Video from North Carolina State University Libraries
   
• Writing a Literature Review Paper
  Video from San Jose State University Libraries