A natural first step in planning your literature review is consulting other dissertations from your doctoral program to understand the "norm" of what is expected. However, don't let the browsing of a few dissertations set your mind rigidly toward a single viewpoint. Most literature reviews in doctoral dissertations are a hybrid approach of both chronology and thematics. On the one hand, each main topic of the literature review is discussed in chronological, historical order, but, on the other hand, often by theme at the same time. For example, when talking about leadership theory, a dissertation writer is often welcomed to discuss the different leadership theories in order of historical appearance. When it comes to talking about each individual leadership theory, the writer will often switch to a thematic approach, discussing the views of multiple authors at the same time. In outline form, you could see this approach as follows:

• Leadership Approaches
  • Early Leadership Theories
    • Theme A
    • Theme B
  • Leadership Theories in the 20th Century
    • Theme A
    • Theme B
  • Contemporary Approaches to Leadership Theory and Research
    • Theme A
    • Theme B
    • Theme C

Using the outline above, notice that the leadership theories are discussed in chronological order. However, within each of the periods of history, themes during that time period are discussed. The above is a potent hybrid approach to literature review writing.

I get it! Why, then, am I still stuck?

"Conducting" a literature review is not the same thing as "writing" a literature review. The writing phase of a literature review is the final 10% of the work! Thus, the written report you call a "literature review" is the FINAL ACT in a long line of "literature reviewing" steps. Before writing the literature review, you have to conduct it. This means you'll spend the vast majority of your time gathering articles, reading and annotating them, capturing worthwhile quotes, and outlining what will, eventually, become your literature review writing. When you attempt to skip these steps, you are robbing yourself of the exact materials you need to finish this project. Without doing these steps, you have almost no hope of finishing your literature review. Even if you could create a literature review without doing the actual work of a literature reviewer (as described above), you most likely will be met with revision round after hellish revision round with your advisor and committee. Save yourself from the neverending nightmare of revision rounds by doing the necessary work to complete the literature review.

Parting Words

Most doctoral students that come to my doorstep seeking help on their literature review think they have a "writing problem." A vast majority of the time, they have, in fact, a "reading problem" that cannot be solved solely through strategizing around their writing. They have to sit down and do the work required to have the "materials" that will be used to build the literature review. I hope that you will not short-change yourself in the chance to finish.