What Goes Into Writing A Quality History Dissertation Literature Review?

Writing a history literature review incorporates many things such as having knowledge of history and what it is about, as well as knowing how to write a literature review. It is of utmost importance to understand the important of the dissertation on the field, and whether or not it is groundbreaking research. This article will discuss the main things associated in writing a successful history literature review.

Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are very important since they dissect a piece of literature to see the meaning behind it, as well as the significance of the text. There are is a standard way to write a literature review, and your dissertation should follow such guidelines. The main purpose of a literature review is to show that you have grasped the content it contains. Many make the mistake of simply summarizing of what is written in the piece of literature, but this is not what a critical literature review is. A literature reviews is analyzing the information contained within the text, forming an opinion on it and backing it up using the text.

According to general consensus, literature reviews should include some or all of the following:

• Analysing the authors views with others in the field
• Being critical of the methodology used within the literature
• Applauding aspects that you think are done well in the literature.
• Forming your own opinion and whether or not you agree with the basis of the text.
• Show how this literature impacts the field
• A conclusion summarizing your main thoughts on the literature.

History

History is based on sources from the past, and the conclusions historians base on such sources. Many things can constitute as sources, such as archeological findings or written accounts from the people of the past. A history dissertation will be concerned with using these sources to advocate the viewpoint that they do. So it will be very important that in the literature review you analyse the sources that the author uses, and give a reason as to why it is, for example, a strong source or a weak one. Research other historian’s opinions on the topic of the dissertation as this will give you context on whether or not it is a popular view advocated by other academics or not.

If you need more help on this topic, then it can be found on the web at, which is very informative site on how to construct literature reviews.