ABSTRACT
The literature review is an essential stage in conducting a research project and amounts, on average, to between 20 and 25 per cent of a dissertation content, although certain dissertation subjects may require a literature review amounting to up to 50 per cent of the content. The literature review involves reading and appraising what other people have written about your subject area. It can be both descriptive and analytical. It is descriptive in that it describes the work of previous writers and it is analytical in that it critically analyses the contribution of others with a view to identifying similarities and contradictions made by previous writers.
