A literature review will almost always be required when producing a lengthy academic study such as a journal article, thesis, or dissertation. One of the most challenging portions of your research to write is the literature review. A well-written literature review will summarize the scholarly sources you used in your research (Paul, and Criad, 2020)
It will also summarize current knowledge and scholarship on the topic you’ve chosen to explore further, including any patterns, themes, or gaps in the research. If the research you intend to perform will cover any of these gaps, include it in the literature review.
Depending on the type of writing that will be required, your literature review could be a separate chapter, or it could be part of the introduction or part of the theoretical framework. In some situations, a literature review can stand alone as a survey of scholarly knowledge on a topic. In any case, here are the five easy for how to write literature review.
5 Steps for Writing a Literature Review
Step 1—Narrow your topic
One of the first and most common mistakes in writing a literature review is choosing a too broad topic. Because the literature review will serve as the framework for your research, it must be narrowed enough to give a sound foundation.
Assume you want to research the topic of childhood obesity. Obviously, there would be hundreds of scholarly sources on that issue, so trying to summarize them all would be not only difficult but also useless for your own research.
However, you can narrow the scope of your research by breaking that topic down even further. Instead, you may investigate “childhood obesity and social development in middle-school-aged children.” With this narrowed topic, the scholarly study you uncover will include all (or nearly all) of your research’s keywords: childhood obesity, social development, and middle school. This greatly simplifies your search for pertinent, relevant research.
Step 2—Gather your sources and pick the right ones to use
Step two will be a lot easier now that you’ve narrowed down your topic. This stage involves finding recent, relevant research that includes your keywords and expands your understanding of the topic. While reading the most recent scholarly articles or books, you’ll notice that particular studies or theories are repeatedly referred to as a foundation for the writers’ own research.
This is typically a good indicator that you should include earlier studies and theories in your own literature review to give your readers an overview of the most relevant concepts surrounding that topic.
Simply put, deciding which sources to include in your literature review comes down to two things: 1) understanding how to identify important, foundational (“landmark”) research that has been undertaken, and 2) knowing how to find current, relevant studies.
Step 3—Find connections, patterns, disagreements, pivotal changes, and gaps
After you’ve decided which sources you’ll use, you may start going through them in greater depth to look for connections, patterns, conflicts, pivotal changes, and gaps in the literature. It’s essential to look for trends that emerge as you read, as well as themes that arise. You should also mention where different scholars agree and disagree, as well as why there is a difference in their knowledge or hypotheses.
You may also discover that a previous study significantly altered scholarly discourse. That is an important point to mention in your literature evaluation because it is fundamental to the entire scholarship on the topic.
Step 4—Determine how you will organize your literature review
Now that you’ve decided which sources you’ll use to build your literature review (and so inform your own research), you should order the summary of these sources to make your analysis easier to understand for your reader.
Chronological:
This is one of the most basic and common methods for organizing a literature review. It’s simple because you simply list each source in the sequence in which it was published, beginning with the earlier, landmark studies. The difficulty with this organizational structure is that it’s simple to just list your summaries one after the other, without pointing out any patterns or themes that emerge. You should concentrate on demonstrating how the scholarship has developed and evolved over time, as well as mentioning any significant turning moments that may have occurred.
Theoretical:
Because the sources you’ve been reading have all resulted in a theoretical analysis or hypothesis, you can organize your literature review thematically, demonstrating how the framework was constructed. If you favor one theoretical approach to your topic of study over another, this may be the ideal way to structure your literature review.
Thematic:
If you want to highlight different themes that have emerged during your research, the thematic arrangement of your literature review is the ideal way to go. For example, if you return to this previously mentioned topic of “childhood obesity and social development among middle-school-aged children,” you may see that several themes emerge, such as “forming friendships,” “self-confidence,” “bullying,” and “family relationships.” A thematic-organized literature review will be the best bet if you wish to study the topic within these four topics or parameters.
Methodological:
The methodology for your literature review will focus on the numerous approaches utilized in previous studies and will mention each one based on that factor. For example, you could look at quantitative research on the topic first, then qualitative ones, comparing the results of both. Alternatively, you may examine empirical approaches first, then go on to a more theoretical approach.
Step 5—Write your literature review
After you’ve completed the previous steps, this should be the easiest portion. Remember that your goal is to summarize and synthesize all relevant scholarly material on your topic, as well as to analyze any gaps, trends, inconsistencies, or themes that develop as you write.
Keep in mind that your review of literature should be as critical and objective as possible as you write. Include your analysis on that fact if you believe there were biases and have a strong case to present. Mention whether you believe particular research had stronger methodology or frameworks than others. The purpose of a literature review is to inform your reader that you have thoroughly researched your topic and have a trustworthy, strong foundation from which to continue that study or pose hypotheses related to it.
Conclusion
In the conclusion, you should summarize and highlight the significant results from the literature that you collected.
When you’ve finished writing and rewriting your literature review, make sure to thoroughly proofread it before submitting it (professionalessayservice, 2019). You can also get help from online assignment writers to proofread your work!
Reference
PES, 2019. 7 Tips To Help You Proofread Your Essay Like A Pro. Online available at https://www.professionalessayservice.co.uk/7-tips-to-help-you-proofread-your-essay-like-a-pro/ [Accessed date: 1-Aug-19] Paul, J. and Criado, A.R., 2020. The art of writing a literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know? International Business Review, 29(4), p.101717.