Writing guide for a perfect literature review

Hearing that professor’s task is to deliver a literature review, students imagine sharing their viewpoints about favorite books and authors. You have to be aware of this huge mistake. This academic paper is a scientific account of all published materials and bibliographies on definite topics or problems written by accredited scholars. Literature review requires conducting some general survey of all publications including theoretical contributions and practical findings in this precise field. Students are not supposed to find out or carry out any unique studies to write the review.

This paper helps to elaborate a base of sources that can be used in future studies of this scientific area. Writing literature review is given as a separate task or part of any other academic papers. Students should convey to the readers what ideas have been established on a given topic, what are the advantages and weaknesses of these ideas, its contributions, similarities, and divergences. But you are not expected just to enumerate all published sources on this topic. The principal issue is to provide a thorough critical evaluation.

What should you know about the literature review?

Your critical judgment has to show your knowledge of various approaches to this topic, theories which are elaborated and arguments to provide evidence of your viewpoint. To submit a decent review, students need to keep in mind four basic steps. First of all, a relevant issue or problem evaluation has to be completed. Then the pursuit of suitable scientific literature on that topic should take place.

The next step requires from students to evaluate publications found on this topic to conduct a thorough analysis. It is necessary to decide on the scope of your work. Determine what types of publications to deal with – books, articles, journals, etc. You are supposed to compare contrasting ideas, criticize methodology, stress key scientific works, demonstrate the connection with other disciplines, previous studies and make your own personal judgments.

Every literature review has to include five main sections – a title page, an introductory part, main body, conclusions and the list of references. Your topic and general attitude to the issue as it is represented in various publications should be included in the introduction. The research of this issue in compliance with chosen principles is an essential part of your work. Prove your analysis with appropriate arguments. The last part of your paper should highlight important theoretical and practical research contributions to the chosen issue. If you are aware of any problems with researching methods and lack of consistency in the theoretical framework, do not hesitate to indicate them.

A good literature review demands proper thinking and analytical skills. You are free to use this literature review template to simplify the process of writing! Your path to academic achievements will be easy and understandable!