Purpose of this Article
The literature review is the mountain upon which many doctoral dreams die. If you speak to once dissertation writers who "stopped" pursuing their doctoral degrees, you'll rarely hear that they stopped during data collection, data analysis, or in writing their final chapters. Likewise, you'll rarely hear of a doctoral student that successfully wrote their opening chapters, including their literature review, only to lose steam when finalizing their data collection plans. Thus, the literature review is a dangerous place to get stuck – as many never get unstuck. Most likely, the challenges you face in the literature review are NOT what you think they are! This article aims to help students who are experiencing writing symptoms that necessitate a "pause" in their writing. So, if you find you are experiencing one of the following, it's time to put away the keyboard and read this article. Symptoms of impending literature review disaster include:- I'm writing the same thing over and over again;
- I'm confused about where something goes in my literature review; and
- I don't know what to write.

How should I organize my dissertation's literature review?
The prerequisite item to organize your literature review is your study's purpose statement (or "aim"). The purpose statement lays out the who, what, when, where, and how of your research. If you have not yet written one, it's time to write it! I have an informative, step-by-step video here that can help with that. The purpose statement functions as a compass pointing to the True North of your study. Any time you feel confused in your dissertation process, the purpose statement is a great place to which to return. Let's look at an example purpose statement to see what structure it offers your literature review: The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the leadership approaches of CEOs in their first five years at publicly held, top-ten Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. in 2022.

- Leadership Approaches
- Chief Executive Officers (CEOs)
- Publicly-Held, Top-Ten Fortune 500 Companies.
