PhD candidates have to create new knowledge and develop concept in a very specific arena of a particular subject. PhD dissertation as compared to other research papers is lengthier, of around 200 pages and sufficiently detailed. Originality can be with respect to: an entirely new concept, improvements and further development of past concept, solving unanswered questions, expanding on past research, identifying new applications for existing research, establishing relationships between different factors. At the PHD level the thrust is more on conceptual research rather than on application and experimental research, doctorates are expected to open up new nodes of knowledge which can further branch out, such knowledge needs to be validated by real data, ideas without real grounds cannot be called research.

A critical review of a literature is an opinion of a critic or research writer, who has evaluated and analyzed its relevance, originality, and quality. It justifies the followed research methodology. A review is more like a critical discussion of a literature, thesis, or research report. It also implicates that a researcher has followed a deep research work on a particular literature, before coming up with this review, report or thesis.

Writing a literature review is a four three step process, let us have a look at these steps in following –

Choosing the sources - The literature, you have chosen to write the review should be broad enough so that it can cover and take over all previous (but similar) works, done before.

Research – One can never write a valuable review unless without a thorough research. If you have to research on a particular literature, you need to find each and every important source; you need to pay extra attention towards the writing style and the used research methodology. 

Taking notes – You should collect and take notes of everything, which you find important. It will help you remember, even the smallest thing, while preparing your review of the literature.

Writing and Editing – After you have collected plenty of information for the review, you are about to write, it is the time to get started with writing. Once you are done with the writing, do not forget to edit and proof-read it, to make it error free.

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