What is the value of a thorough literature survey?
The literature survey serves many important purposes. These include broadening your horizons, preventing yourself from “re-inventing the wheel” and establishing the “need” for your research. According to Paul Leedy1: “The more knowledgeable you are, the better you can understand your problem.” Where possible, it is always a good principle to build on the work of others. An outstanding example of this principle is the mathematical research conducted to prove “Fermat s Last Theorem”. Fermat was a 17th century French jurist, whose theorem was an extension of the theorem of Pythagoras. Thousands of the best mathematicians tried in vain, for more than 350 years, to prove this theorem. It took Andrew Wiles2 eight years to harness and unify the entire breadth of mathematics to eventually achieve this goal in 1995! Without the perfect literature review, it would never have been possible. Another interesting example is from molecular biology. Nobel Laureate Francis Crick said of the time he spe
