A literature review is a summary of journals, academic papers, articles, or any other research source that focuses on a specific issue. Literature reviews do not report the paper instead they describe what the investigation was all about. The reviews are written by scholarly institutions including graduates and postgraduate students and commercial companies. However, many people do not know the steps of writing a literature review as it has a formal procedure which is usually 15 to 30 pages long.
The typical steps are finding a topic in the specific area, review the literature, focus on the subject carefully and select research materials accordingly. Then read your chosen articles and evaluate them intensely, look for patterns in the articles and create subtopics, develop a working thesis, organize your findings, write the body and then lastly go through the paper focusing on analysis.
1. Find a Topic
Before writing a literature review, you need to find an area of study that you are interested in then choose a topic. Find a broad question that has many articles relating to it because you do not want to select a narrow topic that does not have enough information for the reader. You can choose three questions within a similar scope that you are curious about and then consult friends and a professor to pick one topic that has enough information for a literature review.
2. Review the Literature
After finding a topic for the literature review, select computer databases using keywords with at least two databases that relate to the area of study. Using the selected databases, search for researching sources using Furl and Google Scholar among others. Redefine your topic to a broader one for an intense search. For example, if your topic is the cultural, social and religious relations of the Maori people, redefine it to the Maori people. Cite the sources you choose and then import the references into a RefWorks account to find a guide on how to use them on different databases.
3. Focus on the Topic and Select Research Materials
Narrow on your topic carefully for example; find the various cultural practices of the Maori people, how their society runs and their different religious beliefs. Then select research materials accordingly using their sources you found on the previous steps. Moreover, on how to write a literature review, you need to discover what interests others and the period it would take to research for the literature review because you want to summarize essential concepts for the readers.
4. Read the Chosen Articles and Evaluate Them Intensely
An essential step on how to write a literature review is reading the selected article to find the keywords and the main ideas. Concentrate on the constant assumptions that the authors are making and the methodologies they used in their research. Then, evaluate the articles by checking the introduction and the conclusion statements. Also, you cannot discuss how to write a literature review and not assess the various laboratories used, the researchers, conflicting and recurring theories, methodologies and outcomes which majorly help in the literature review.
5. Look for Patterns in the Articles and Create Subtopics
Patterns include the common findings, important trends and essential theories in the selected articles. Therefore, check on the changing theories and the period of changing and the trends that recur in the articles. Then categories the articles by creating subtopics chronologically to find keywords, important quotes, statistics, weaknesses, strengths, gaps and the relationships between the articles. After understanding the research, evaluate the references you chose in step three to ensure they are up to date commonly within the last five years to have an updated literature review.
6. Develop a Working Thesis
A working thesis is an integral part of how to write a literature review because it designates your conclusion. The working thesis is written in one or two sentences stating the significant trends and developments in the research that you have agreed with. The focus of a thesis is the main points you are supporting the research. The thesis explains what you are going to write about in the literature review.
7. Organize your Literature Review Findings
The findings in step four and five are a lot, thus, you should organize them to make work easier when writing the literature review. Create headings and subheadings according to the findings narrowing them to understandable facts. It is advisable to create a tabular formula if the literature review is extensive including information such as definitions of key terms, summarizing results and discussing research methods. If you decide to include tables in the literature review, make sure you include an analysis that interprets and synthesizes the information in the table.
8. Write the Body
With the above information, you are ready to write a literature review. This step on how to write a literature review also has essential fragments. Indicate an introduction to the topic for example if is about the Maori, write an introduction about who they are and where they are from. Then indicate why the topic is important and discuss other literature reviews that relate to your topic. This step is vital as you write a summary of the research topic without forgetting any crucial information. Avoid long nonspecific references, but cite all relevant source used.
9. Go through the Literature Review Focusing on Analysis
A literature review is crucial and thus requires a double check. Go through your topic sentences to check if they present a clear interest in your literature review. Check if your literature review is narrowly describing the literature or if it is a more analytical and evaluative approach to the research topic. If you follow all these steps on how to write a literature review to the latter, then your literature review will be a clear one and informative.
A literature review is used by professors to evaluate how the students can analyze a journal or a research paper. The literature review shows what is known and unknown about the research paper, identifies a gap of knowledge that the research is to fill and gives a framework for the research being done. How to write a literature review is a subject that has received different responses with the same ideology over the years.
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