Things to Consider When Writing a Literature Review
Do you have to write a literature review but don’t know what to consider for it? If yes, then in this blog, we will guide you about the things to consider for writing a literature review.
Literature reviews comprehensively analyze existing sources and their relevance to a research topic. They outline and define its scope, identify gaps, and demonstrate where your work fits in with academic understanding. It aims to explore new methods of interpreting existing research or scholarly opinion.
This blog will discuss the format for writing a literature review. Also, we will explore rules to be considered while writing.
Introduction to the Literature Review
Literature reviews are widespread research reports that provide an overview and scientific evaluation of existing evidence about a specific, clearly stated research question. Such reports often serve as the foundation for further studies focusing on that same field, informing new ones. They suit many disciplines, including biology, sociology, and history.
To conduct an effective literature review, it’s necessary to collect relevant resources on your topic area and review them, then survey and skim them for the most helpful information relevant to your research problem. You should record your reactions to each source – such as page numbers, author, and year; this can later serve as a reference if creating an annotated bibliography.
Once you have collected and analyzed your sources and data, the next step in writing a literature review is deciding how best to organize them in its body. A chronological approach may be helpful when looking at studies with clear trends over time; otherwise, a thematic approach usually makes more sense.
For instance, a study on Bechdel’s graphic style could include allusions, implications, and literary styles as these factors all contributed significantly to her story’s impact on LGBT experiences in 20th-century America.
Body of Literature Review
Once you’ve compiled your sources, carefully read each and take notes. Notes help absorb information and plan how it will be presented in your literature review. This phase can often take the longest as you comb through all your references to find which pieces of knowledge will most contribute to advancing your research or writing your literature review.
As you read, identify overall trends and patterns (for instance, recurring questions or themes, debates, and conflicts); knowledge gaps where current research lacks essential information or takes an opposing position; pivotal publications/studies that have altered the field direction; as well as pivotal studies which have altered it significantly.
Taking note of such points will help you narrow your focus for writing your literature review and where it fits within a larger scholarship.
Your body of work’s organization depends on your organizational strategy; for example, chronologically is one option with subsections for crucial periods like pre-whaling, whaling during the 1700s, and whaling in 1800.
A thematic approach could group related research by commonalities like qualitative vs quantitative approaches or conclusions by authors; it could also group studies by method such as data analysis or by subject such as gender, race/ethnicity, or sociological viewpoints.
Conclusion of Literature Review
Literature reviews offer more than just an abstract of journal articles: they set the stage for your research studies and demonstrate your knowledge of the theoretical backgrounds of subjects under investigation. By highlighting gaps in current knowledge, literature reviews help researchers pinpoint future research needs while deepening their own topic knowledge and showing they can connect ideas within that field.
The first step of writing a literature review is selecting your sources. Look for high-quality sources pertinent to your topic and audience; avoid articles or books reviewed elsewhere by other writers, as these could become obsolete quickly.
Once you have chosen and read your sources, read and make detailed notes for later use in writing your essay. Further, compiling the information in an annotated bibliography format with complete citation information and brief analysis paragraphs for each source can also be beneficial.
After you have read and taken notes on all your sources, it is time to begin writing your literature review. Begin by organizing your notes into groups by theme. For instance, if several sources addressed Bechdel’s graphic style or allusions, these topics could become sections in your literature review.
References to the Literature Review
It can be helpful to keep track of everything that has been reviewed. It will make it easier to incorporate into your review when the time comes to write it up if you make notes on any pertinent material. This might aid with research or writing while reading and analyzing sources for your literature review.
Writing your review might be greatly facilitated by keeping your notes organized. For instance, you may group them according to the research techniques you employed, the themes or disagreements you covered, the chronology, or any other method that serves as the foundation for your evaluation.
Summarizing and synthesizing the material you have obtained is the next step in writing your review after gathering your sources. Your remarks can help point out any holes or potential research areas.
Additional Rules
When writing your review, include all relevant citations within the body of the paper and compile a complete bibliography at the end. When citing references, use APA, MLA, or Chicago style guidelines according to what your professor or program requires – also, be sure to reference coauthors if working together on joint projects!
Wrapping Up
Writing a literature review is much different than writing any other content. Therefore, you must follow proper writing format and rules while writing a literature review. This blog has covered all the crucial information you need to know to master writing literature reviews.
