Organizing Your Literature Review Has Never Been Easier – Potent Tips

• February 10, 2019
• By MWS
• Leave a Comment

What happens if your college assignment demands of writing a literature review? Typically, students’ perform comprehensive research to prepare the review, from scratch. If drafted efficiently, it acts as a stepping stone for future scholars, providing an overview of the current status of that field. Certainly, the task may seem like breaking the clouds, but, the table turns once you apprehend the underlying tricks and techniques. And, this blog serves the same, offering handsome ideas of authoring a literature review paper.

However, a formal introduction is always necessary before delving deeper. So, here are some basics of literature review prior to the writing tips.

Literature review vs research paper

Though both are part of academic writing, its genres are way different from each other. Even if you possess knowledge about writing a research paper, not necessarily, you will know how to draft a literature review paper.

For a research paper, the main focus is developing an argument, deciding the research methodology, and conducting empirical analysis. Whereas, a literature review is more like an inventory, offering all at a time. It entails summaries and synopsis of globally accepted ideas and arguments, on a particular discipline, devoid of new contributions.

Naturally, investigation and analysis is a big segment in composing a literature review and there’re a few more integral stages like organizing, writing, and likewise. Here starts the step-by-step guide.

Research for the literature review till you find the details

Some assignments come with very specific rubrics, but not all. If demands aren’t clear to you, clarify on the matter followed by extensive research. Take a look at the techniques –

Ask a few questions for clarification

• How many sources need to be included in the paper?
• Which of the sources (books, journals, scholarly articles, etc.) should be reviewed?
• Do you need to summarize the sources or critique them?
• Is it important to evaluate each source in your paper?
• Is it necessary to include background study, definitions, and other sub-heads?

Sit with your professor, or guide and clarify on the aforesaid concerns. After that, make a simple research paper outline and start your work. It will help your research to progress in the right direction.

Study model literature review papers

Taking ideas from a sample literature review paper is one wise step to perform. The more you exercise other’s work, the better you will gain knowledge about the writing style. It is always better if you examine an author’s work, who have the same field of interest as yours, and go through their literature reviews. Here’s what to check in others’ work –

• How the author has initiated the paper?
• Which of the sub-heads has been used?
• What is the length and strength of the paper?
• Has he/she used multiple areas of research?
• Which of the sources has been cited in the Reference?

Concise and narrow down your topic

Reading everything, which is available on your research topic, isn’t possible for any individual. Neither the professors expect so, nor does your paper demand it. Intelligence lies in opting a shrewd approach for further research. What is that?

• From the broad topic, choose a significant section for further research
• Perform detailed research and collect the most notable data
• Ascertain the information is relevant to your concise topic

Example: If your resource is a book on management studies, first check the Table of Contents. Hypothetically, you may like a chapter on “Role of team leaders” and continue with the further survey.

Assure the sources are recent and topical

With day-to-day researches, information is updating day and night. Evidently, a literature review paper, especially for science and management disciplines, must entail the latest sources. It lets readers understand the deliberate transformation in perspective and knowledge, happened over time. Moreover, the audience gets an idea of the “hot topic” in respective fields and senses what exactly the discipline expects.

Before penning the source, check the volume number, issue number, date of publication, and the date of the last edition, in order to identify the age of that analysis. Consider the source if it is within the last ten years, otherwise, pass onto the next.

Identify your approach to writing a literature review paper

For a decent literature review, your paper must follow a specific approach. Muddled up papers aren’t attractive, and often, fails to engage a maximum reader. But, the organizing style, suitable for your paper, depends on the project title. Find the relevant one from the list –

• Thematic arrangement

Thematic papers are organized around a topic or issue i.e. the paper progresses as the topic matures. Though chronology is an important factor in these papers, sometimes, the review breaks out of the trend for pointing a particular event, regarding the issue.

• Timeline of events

In some review papers, events are solely organized as per the chronology i.e. the paper progresses keeping a balance with the timeline. This approach is adopted only if the previous research portrays a path of development following a clear chronological order.

• Publication chronology

If you have decided to organize the paper according to the publication of sources, then you have to identify the dates first. Find out the names of the researchers, whose work you will be including in your review, and also, the date of conducted studies.

• Methodical projection

A methodological approach for a literature review paper indicates organizing the cited works according to the respective research methodologies. Here, you will get a scope of organizing either on the basis of document type or depending on the content.

Sections of a literature review paper: Know its structure

Now that you have a fixed organization method, it’s high time to comprehend the elements of a literature review paper. Just like you put some real effort on brainstorming a good thesis statement for your paper, this portion is also important to prove your research findings valid. Though the sub-heads are your decision, some of the sections are inherent. Have a glimpse of it –

• Current scenario

Under this section, you will give a recent overview of the main topic, along with, some of the necessary information. Let readers understand the current status of the research in that field.

• Background study

Here, you will write about the past chronological progression in this field i.e. the chronicle of the events and researches, vital for understanding the literature review.

• Methods of selection

You might have collected enough sources to write on, but first, the sources are evaluated and examined to identify the relevance, validation, etc. Once you complete all these processes, you head towards mentioning the sources with the correct referencing format. Under this subsection, you have to mention about the followed methodology.

• Organization standard

This section is for defining the approach you have selected for presenting your set of information. Make certain, the evidence, perspectives, and events are cited, as per the selected standard.

• Future research scopes

The last leg of a literature review paper devotes to future scopes. Here you will leave some questions, for the upcoming scholars, and highlight the probable dimensions, for further investigation.

That’s how you should prepare a literature review paper. With an in-depth idea about the writing style, certainly, you won’t face more That’s how you should prepare a literature review paper. With an in-depth idea about the writing style, certainly, you won’t face more challenges except for the deadline issue. If that is your problem, get help from expert academic paper writers. ManagementWritingSolutions, being in the business for so long, is always a foremost choice in such cases. Buy essay online little for world-class assistance.