Dr. Dena Taylor in the Health Sciences Writing Centre at the University of Toronto wrote "The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It" (PDF), which is helpful for you to understand what a literature review is. The text below is the first half of the original text with my notes, which will be useful for the assignment (emphasis added).
What is a review of the literature?
A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. [...] it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries
Besides enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two areas
- information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and books
- critical appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies.
A literature review must do these things
- be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
- synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
- identify areas of controversy in the literature
- formulate questions that need further research
Ask yourself questions like these:
- What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define?
- What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies of loneliness among migrant workers)?
- What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., nursing psychology, sociology, medicine)? ➤ ➤ ➤ In your case, "public health" and "women & gender studies" is the discipline that you are working in.
- How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I’ve found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources I’ve used appropriate for the length of my paper? ➤ ➤ ➤ Think how you can utilize library resources.
- Library electronic databases provide resources for conducting literature reviews: e.g., Pubmed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SSCI, AgeInfo, CareData, Social Services Abstracts, Popline, EMBASE. Visit Find Articles on this page.
- Have I critically analysed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?
- Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?
- Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?