Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. 
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A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem.
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The analytical features of a literature review might:
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1. Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
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2.Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,

3. Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
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4. Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.
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The purpose of a literature review is to:
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1. Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
2. Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
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3. Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
4. Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
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5. Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
6. Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
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7. Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
8. Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].