Links

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Structure Of A Literature Review

If you don’t know how to write a literature review then you can’t demonstrate that you have read and understood the work published on a particular topic. Not knowing how to write a literature review also shows that you have not done enough research and, therefore, are unable to produce it. In order to find out how to write a literature review, you need to understand what it should contain.

You don’t write your literature review simply to describe the publications of others or summarize what others have written. Instead, it is a critical discussion that shows your understanding of different arguments, approaches and theories. Follow these important points in order to stop wondering how to write a literature review:

    * You need to provide an overview of your literature review. Also, state the objectives of the literature   review.

    * When you write a literature review, you should present how similar or different the work of previous authors was.

    * You need to define areas in which different authors either agreed or disagreed with each other.

    * Your literature review should demonstrate gaps in research. It should define where further research is required.

    * You need to demonstrate how your research is related to previous studies in your field.


When you don’t know how to write a literature review, it is crucial to remember the points mentioned above. Make sure you know the difference between an annotated bibliography and a literature review in order to write it correctly. All you need to do now is to carry out an in-depth research and write your literature review successfully.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Writing a Literature Review Tips

Writing a literature review can be easy and fun if you know what it includes, how to organize it and where to collect information from. Unless you know how exactly you can start writing a literature review, you will continue to procrastinate. I am going to give you three tips now that will enable you to understand the process and allow you to start writing a literature review successfully.

1. Writing a Literature Review – Find out what it includes:

When you start writing a literature review, you need to find out what it contains and how it’s written. For example, your introduction states what you will write about in your literature review. Also, Support your argument and explain why others are wrong. Discuss how similar or different the work of different authors was, in your area of study. Talk about gaps in previous research and suggest where further research is required. When you write your conclusion discuss your main argument and how your points support it. So, you need to discuss this with you advisor that what your literature review should contain.

2. Writing a Literature Review – Find out how it’s organized:

Once you know what your literature review should contain, you then need to find out how it is organized. You need to know how all the material you write should be combined. Discuss this with your adviser as well.

3. Writing a Literature Review – Find out Where to collect relevant matter from:

In order to collect relevant matter for your literature review, you need to go through articles, journals, books, etc. You may go through prewritten literature review samples as well to find more sources for your own literature review. Check your library or search for prewritten literature review samples online.

Writing a literature review is not an easy task. You must prepare yourself for a lot of reading. As your literature review shows how broad your research was, you have no choice but to do a thorough research and collect as much relevant matter as you can to facilitate your writing process.