How to Write a Literature Review in 4 Simple Steps

Literature review is an in depth analysis of the previous research accredited by scholars and researchers which is usually the part of an introduction to an essay, report or thesis.When conducting literature review ,you are required to do a review on the work established by the scholars while also highlighting its strength and weaknesses.

Conducting Literature Review:

1.How To Do Literature Research:

Conduct a brief research on what has been written on the subject. For this purpose, you can use as many bibliographical sources as possible to find the pertinent titles, like, references and bibliographies in relevant textbook and journal articles, if you are still confused ask your instructor about it. Go for the abstracting journals, such as, library and information sciences abstracts. You can also go through all the relevant electronic reference library, expanded academic etc.

2.Write Down The Bibliographical Details:

Noting all the important bibliographical details of articles and books as soon as you find the references will save your time a lot. But note down the ones which you will be utilizing in your literature review otherwise, it will be much difficult for you to find the bibliographies later on.

3.Going Through The Material:

Now, that you have all the pertinent material in your hands, you should read it thoroughly and understand what it is saying in order to effectively utilize it in your review. You should read them with a very keen eye to outline the positive and negative aspects of each and take the notes as you move along the text. Ask yourself the following questions to get yourself a literature review help .

Is it general or deals with a particular issue?
Is it following a particular school of thought?
What is theoretical basis of the literature?
What type of definitions that have been employed in the literature?
How is the work backing up its argument?
What is the conclusion of the overall work?
What is the methodical approach used?

4.Start Writing A Literature Review.

Just like the other types of academic writing, writing a literature review also has an introduction, body and conclusion. Now, let's check out what are the connotations for each.

Your introduction should include:

The topic of your discussion that is your thesis statement.
The topic parameters, that is, what should a reader expect in the coming body paragraphs.
Why have you selected the topic?

Your Body paragraphs should include:

Historical background about the topic.
Comparison between alternative viewpoints and the current one.
Different approaches to the subject, like, historical, empirical, philosophical etc.
Definitions.
Research studies.
Methodologies employed.
General perception about the topic.
Discoveries about the topic.

You conclusion should include:

Short summary of all the arguments and counter arguments in the review.
Short summary of the general conclusion in the review.
And a short summary of your thesis statement and it is stance in the review.