How to Write Chapter Two of a Thesis: A Comprehensive Guide

Chapter Two of a thesis, often referred to as the “Literature Review” chapter, plays a critical role in shaping the structure of your research project. It is where you synthesize the existing research, theories, and concepts related to your research topic. In this chapter, you will provide an overview of what has already been studied, identify gaps in the literature, and establish the theoretical framework for your own research. Writing Chapter Two can feel daunting, but with a clear strategy, it becomes a manageable and essential part of the thesis-writing process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you write Chapter Two of your thesis.

1. Understand the Purpose of Chapter Two

Before diving into the writing process, it’s crucial to understand what Chapter Two of your thesis is meant to achieve. This chapter serves several purposes:

• Contextualizing your research: It places your research within the context of what has already been studied in your field.
• Establishing a theoretical framework: It presents the key theories, models, or conceptual frameworks that guide your study.
• Identifying research gaps: It highlights areas where previous studies are lacking or insufficient, thus justifying the need for your research.
• Supporting your hypothesis or research questions: It provides evidence that helps to shape or validate your research questions or hypotheses.

Chapter Two is more than a summary of previous studies. It is a critical evaluation of the literature that helps readers understand the relevance and importance of your research within the broader academic discourse.

2. Organize Your Literature Review

The next step is to organize your literature review in a way that clearly addresses your research questions. Typically, you can approach the organization of Chapter Two in one of the following ways:

• Chronological Organization: This approach organizes the literature by the timeline in which studies were published. It’s useful when you need to show the evolution of a specific theory or research area over time.

• Thematic Organization: In this structure, you group studies by themes, theories, or key concepts. This approach works well if your research questions span multiple areas and require a cross-cutting exploration of various topics.

• Methodological Organization: Here, you categorize studies based on the methods they employed. This is particularly useful when comparing how different research designs have been used to study similar phenomena.

• Theoretical Organization: This method categorizes studies based on the theoretical frameworks they use. This is ideal if your research is grounded in a particular theory or conceptual model.

When choosing an organization style, consider what best fits your research and will allow for a clear comparison and synthesis of the literature.

3. Review and Select Relevant Literature

Once you’ve decided how to organize your chapter, it’s time to start reviewing and selecting relevant literature. A strong literature review is comprehensive and relevant. Here’s how you can go about this process:

• Conduct a Thorough Literature Search: Use academic databases such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, PubMed, or your university’s library portal to find scholarly articles, books, and theses related to your research topic. Don’t just focus on recent publications; including seminal works or foundational studies is crucial.

• Focus on Relevance: Be selective about what you include in your review. The literature should be directly relevant to your research question. Avoid the temptation to include too many unrelated or tangential studies.

• Look for Gaps and Contradictions: As you review the literature, look for areas where findings are inconsistent, gaps in research, or under-researched areas. This will help you frame your research as a response to these gaps.

• Be Critical: Don’t simply summarize each study. Instead, engage with the material critically by highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and the context in which each study was conducted. Critically evaluating the literature will demonstrate your analytical skills.

4. Write the Literature Review

Once you’ve gathered and organized the literature, it’s time to start writing. Here’s a general outline to follow for writing Chapter Two:

Introduction

Begin the chapter with an introduction that sets the stage for your review. Briefly explain the structure of the chapter and outline the key themes or topics you will discuss. The introduction should clearly convey the scope and relevance of the literature to your research.

Thematic or Conceptual Grouping

Each section of the body of Chapter Two should cover a particular theme, topic, or concept related to your research question. For each theme or topic, follow this structure:

1. Summary of Key Studies: Present the key findings from the most relevant studies. Mention the authors, year of publication, and the main conclusions. If applicable, note the research methodologies and sample sizes used in these studies.

2. Critical Analysis: Evaluate the studies critically. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses, and identify any inconsistencies, contradictions, or gaps in the research. This will show that you understand the broader academic conversation surrounding your topic.

3. Synthesis: Link the studies together and highlight patterns, trends, or disagreements in the literature. You can also begin to indicate how these findings relate to your research questions or hypothesis. For instance, if multiple studies support a particular theory, you can highlight this consensus and note where your research might diverge.

4. Theoretical Framework: If your study is grounded in a specific theoretical framework, discuss the key theories or models that will guide your research. Explain how these theories relate to the literature you’ve reviewed and how they help to shape your research.

Conclusion

Conclude Chapter Two by summarizing the major themes that have emerged from your literature review. Highlight the key research gaps or areas of uncertainty that your research aims to address. You should end with a statement about how the literature review informs your own research design, theoretical framework, or methodology.

5. Revise and Refine Your Chapter

Once you’ve drafted Chapter Two, take the time to revise and refine it. Here are a few things to consider during the revision process:

• Clarity and Coherence: Ensure that your chapter flows logically from one theme to the next. Transitions between sections should be smooth, and the overall structure should be clear.

• Consistency: Make sure that your citations are consistent and properly formatted according to the citation style required by your institution (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

• Avoid Overloading with Quotes: While it’s important to reference other scholars, be careful not to rely too heavily on direct quotations. Instead, paraphrase or summarize the findings in your own words.

• Check for Gaps: Double-check that you’ve covered all relevant literature and that no important studies have been omitted.

• Proofread: Thoroughly proofread the chapter for grammar, spelling, and typographical errors.

6. Conclusion

Writing Chapter Two of your thesis is an essential task that requires a methodical and systematic approach. By reviewing and synthesizing the literature in your field, you establish a strong foundation for your research. Remember that Chapter Two is not merely a summary of existing studies; it’s an opportunity for you to engage critically with the literature and position your research within the broader academic context.

Approach the task step by step, and don’t be afraid to revisit and refine your work. By following a structured process, you can craft a well-organized and compelling literature review that sets the stage for the rest of your thesis.

 

 

In “how to write chapter one; the introduction of thesis” post, the way of writing the Introduction and its components were discussed.

In chapter 2 of a thesis or dissertation – a literature review or a review of the literature – generally, you need to write a background on the subject and make the conclusion that there is a gap in previous studies and you are going to fill it in your research.

In addition to the gap, the research questions and hypotheses as well as the theories that support your study should be discussed. You have to cover the purpose of your study, too.

How to start a literature review chapter?

This chapter is a component of the whole thesis, so it needs to be related to the previous and next chapters.

Start with stating the most important theories supporting your study. You may write them in Chronological order. Use the theories to emphasize the gap.

How to write subtitles of chapter two?

Your writing in chapter two and other chapters need some headings to organize your writing which are to be H3.

You can organize your thesis’s literature review based on each of these two factors:

Chronological order

It is your choice. You can organize your writing in chronological order, meaning, the timeline in which the theories were proposed. You may also choose to arrange it based on different subjects or variables.

Subjective arrangement

In this kind of arrangement, subtitles are chosen based on different subjects related to the title of your thesis. The content of each will be the theories and discussions on that specific subject.

In this case, the theories discussing in headings can be stated chronologically too.

Tips on writing the literature review chapter

Criticize the theories

A literature review is not just a collection of previous studies or writing a brief history of them. You need to critic the theories and states made by other researchers. You can also use them in a way that shows the gap.

Support the gap

In conclusion chapter (chapter 5), some researchers propose some topics as further researches needed. Look for the gap of your study in this part and if there is one do not forget to mention it.

Emphasize the importance of the study

Everything you write in chapter two of the thesis (dissertation), should emphasize the existence of the gap as well as the importance of your study. Try to raise the research questions in the readers’ minds so that your research questions become theirs.

Write about everything

Do not forget to write on every component of your research especially the variables. Read the papers which are related to your thesis and write other researchers ideas about them. Then write your own idea (you can criticize them as it was said).

When is writing the literature review chapter done?

It is done when you have written on every topic which is discussed in your thesis. Do not leave a question in the readers’ minds.

While you are searching of some topics, it is possible that some new ideas and subtopics related to your dissertation title come up. In these cases, start a new search, read the related papers, and write about them in chapter two of your thesis too.