On the focus of the Literature Review

Disclaimer: I am writing this from bed before i go to sleep and i do not remember the authors or the articles i am talking about - remember, this was meant to be a journal. I am debating if i will come back to and fix the authors, but that would take away from the integrity - although, this is supposed to be a journal and i should keep the information accurate... Decisions... Decisions...

Today i read two articles that presented general views on what a Literature Review should be. While i could say that they both had a general consensus - one focused on the Lit. Review being a comprehensive document, while the other focused on relevance. 

One could argue that relevance is an important factor and that both articles discussed it - but the reality is that the article that focused on relevance was more interested on how did the Lit. Review inform the work, rather than the community. This article presented the idea that there should be an emphasis, when developing the Lit. Review, that focused on preparation for the study and to "gain ideas" on what to do. Additionally, in contrast with the perspective of serving as foundation in which the work is started from and grown, it proposed that it really is a foundation as a guide. 

While i have not written a dissertation, i believe Lit. Reviews are essential components of any work. A properly written review, serves as both foundation in which other studies are built upon and as a source of ideas. How will you know what not to do, if you don't know what was done? As i told my students once, you can always be overdressed and fix it, but you cannot fix underdressed. You can edit information out of the Lit. Review if it does not support the hypothesis or the idea being presented. But it is imperative that the work that serves as scaffolding for future research, should be addressed. 

Maybe is my natural science background kicking in... But to me, reviews both in the literature as articles and as part of dissertations, gather what is know and place the reader (and the author is the first reader), in the right frame of mind to understand where the arguments will go and why are they being done in the first place.