what is review of literature in thesis

First, go through all the texts to get a sense of their general content and arguments. This will also help you judge which sources you mainly want to focus on in your review. During the second stage of your reading, you can then take a more critical, in-depth look at your sources. Make a lot of notes, be critical, ask questions. What is your academic opinion on the text? Do you have any comments on the methodological approach, the theoretical argument or the general hypothesis? Note these down. It will ensure that your literature review is not merely a summary of your readings, and will encourage a clear line of argument so that your work is logical and coherent.
Use ample evidence
This is extremely important and forms the very essence of a dissertation literature review. You must refer to various sources when making a point; see the sample paragraph above for an example of this. Your arguments and interpretation of a research topic must be backed by evidence. Do not make baseless claims, as a literature review is an academic piece of writing and not an opinion piece.

It is often written as part of a dissertation, thesis, research paper, or proposal.
If you are writing a stand-alone paper, give some background on the topic and its importance, discuss the scope of the literature you will review (for example, the time period of your sources), and state your objective. What new insight will you draw from the literature?

The purpose of a literature review is to provide a review of writings on the given topic in order to establish the reviewer’s own position in the existing field of scholarship on that topic. A literature review provides a reader with a comprehensive look at previous discussions prior to the one the reviewer will be making in his/her own research paper, thesis, or dissertation. In short, a literature review shows readers where the reviewer is entering the academic conversation on a particular topic in the context of existing scholarship.
An annotated bibliography is a list of your references with a summary of the content and the publication’s relationship to your research question. A literature review is an overview of the topic, an explanation of how publications differ from one another, and an examination of how each publication contributes to the discussion and understanding of the topic.

The purpose of the literature review is to provide a critical written account of the current state of research on a selected topic:
Further information on the literature review process may be found below:

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.
A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

References:

http://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/literature-review/
http://writingcenter.ashford.edu/writing-literature-review
http://library.concordia.ca/help/writing/literature-review.php
http://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/
http://www.oxbridgeessays.com/blog/write-dissertation-literature-review-depth-guide/