A literature review is an organized look at how different people have discussed or analyzed a topic or argument. They are usually written in academic essays or reports, where you assess the quality of other studies’ analyses and conclusions.
In this context, “quality” refers to whether their ideas make sense and are supported by logical reasoning. It also means that they are credible and believable; the author wrote about these arguments convincingly.
A good review uses concepts and examples clearly and consistently, and it presents solid reasons as to why the mentioned theory or idea is better than others.
Using literature reviews effectively requires practicing basic writing skills such as using appropriate word and sentence structure, establishing flow of thoughts, emphasizing important points, and incorporating supporting evidence. When done well, they add value to your work and help get past peer reviewer comments!
Importance of literature reviews {#the-importance-of-literature-reviews.
Make a list of topics and sub-topics
Now, it is time to start writing your literature review! The first thing you will need to do is make a list of all the topic and sub-topic ideas that you have.
Once you have this done, you can begin organizing them into different groups or categories. For example, under the topic of “Why reading is important”, you could put in a sub-topic like “Improves literacy skills”. Or under the main topic of “Something about the effects of reading”, you could include reasons such as “It helps develop comprehension”.
Now that these are organized, you can refer back to the original list and see if there is any relation between the two. If so, you can add what was mentioned earlier to create a new sub-topic or main topic.
Create an outline for the paper
Now that you have chosen your topic and type of literature review, it is time to create an outline or structure for the paper. This will help organize the material into sections and features different levels of detail.
Your overall organization should be like a stream with rising water levels. When writing, aim to flow naturally without too much thinking about what comes next.
When the content has been written, check out your list of points and see if they make sense together. If so, great! You are ready to compile the information.
If not, consider revising or reordering them to achieve this.
Now, take some time to look over the whole thing and see whether it makes sense. Check out our article on how to edit a page full of your own text to gain more insights.
Write the paper
Writing a literature review is not like writing an article or a paragraph based on someone’s personal experience. When doing so, make sure to include appropriate references that back up your ideas.
A literary review is one of the most common types of research papers because it looks at how well studies match in a specific topic or area. For example, if you were studying psychology, a literature review could look into whether there are benefits to reading before age six.
It also goes without saying that when looking through past work, making a conclusion based solely on what the author’s intention was will not be valid. You must evaluate their claims by the numbers!
When doing so, make sure to use sound logic and examples to prove your points. This will help ensure the quality of the paper and strengthen the overall body of evidence.
General tips: when conducting a literature review, remember to organize and structure your thoughts. Make sure to connect each idea with another and make logical connections between them.
Make sure to outline and diagram concepts as needed. Use good spelling, grammar, and punctuation to create a nice flow.
Be careful about using too many quotes as they may distract readers. Try instead to give more context around the quoted material to emphasize its importance.
Reference properly
A good reference does more than just prove that someone else has written about or researched something, it also confirms that what you are reading is accurate! Before referring to another writer’s work, make sure your own understanding of the material is clear by comparing with your notes or looking up any definitions or details elsewhere.
If there’s one thing we can be certain of in life, it’s that everyone who ever lived will take credit for the works of others. Therefore, before quoting someone else’s words, check that they are indeed famous for their use of well-defined terms, and see if their definition matches yours. If it doesn’t, then either look up the word yourself or choose an alternative spelling or expression instead.
Get feedback
After completing your literature review, you will want to check it against what others have written. You can do this by reading other scholarly essays or research papers that use similar concepts to make their points.
By comparing your paper with those of others, you will get some ideas about how to improve yours. You can also find out if there are any gaps in the topic which could be filled with new information.
Reading through reviews is an excellent way to gain insights into how well your paper makes its point and how clearly you are writing.
You should actively seek out such reviews, however, so that you don’t have to spend hours searching for them.
Learn and get better at writing
Writing is a skill that takes practice, and there are many ways to improve your writing skills. There are many strategies and tools you can use to learn how to write effectively.
Writing academic essays like this one will help you develop your writing skills. The trick is to understand what kind of essay it is and how to apply your general writing knowledge to create an effective literature review.
You should know that most professors assign several rounds of reviews per paper. This means that even though you may only have to do it once, you must be very careful with how long you take to compile and organize your ideas.
Timing is important too! A common mistake writers make in their studies is to prepare enough material and then try to fit everything into a short period time.
This does not work when preparing a scientific research paper. You need to gather as much information as possible before compiling and organizing. This way, you will spend less time reviewing and more time studying.
