How to Write a Good Literature Review
Do you have the assignment to write a literature review? It can be a challenging task for those who deal with this type of paper for the first time. For someone, there is need to clarify what a literature review is. But there is always a way to learn.
This article helps students to learn how to write a literature review. We will walk you through all stages of creating a decent paper and share helpful tips. So, let us start!
What Is a Literature Review: Definition & Importance
First, let us define what a literature review is. It is a document that discusses academic sources on a specific topic to identify existing theories, concepts, similarities, controversial points and more
Sometimes people need clarification on the name of this type of paper and assume that it is only useful for reviewing literary pieces like novels and poems. But that is a wrong assumption. Students can write literature reviews on any topic in any field of study, and its level of thoroughness is critical.
The primary purpose of writing a literature review is to research current scholarly sources on a particular topic, evaluate them, and discover agreed opinions, contradictions, and opportunities for future research. Thus, creating literature reviews is essential for gaining knowledge of current positions and views on specific topics and finding ways for future development in different fields of study.
Steps of Writing a Literature Review
There are stages in preparing a literature review, and writing is the final one. But it is only possible to do a decent literature review by knowing about all stages. That is why we want to tell you a little about the entire process before providing more detailed guidelines on writing.
There are five steps you need to do before writing a literature review:
- Research current articles and other academic sources on a chosen topic
- Read and evaluate them
- Identify trending ideas, theories, controversies, gaps
- Organize your findings and create an outline for your review
- Write a literature review.
It is critical to take time for each of these steps. First, you must conduct in-depth research to find enough credible academic sources. The second step will take more time, as you need to thoroughly review all the references, evaluate them, and note key ideas, concepts, and theories described in each source to compare them later and find patterns, contradictions and more
The next step, creating an outline, is essential for making the writing process much more manageable. That is why we want to give you more information about an appropriate structure for a literature review.
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