Tips for Writing Literature Review

Do you ever wonder what a Literature Review is? The essence of Literature review offers deep analysis and an overview of major writing most especially scholarly writing. It provides explanations on specific topic base on what is chosen and this may include scholarly journal, articles, reports, books, website and other related things.

However, writing a literature review requires some important tips to follow which will enable you to write it well.

Don’t be constricted in mind

Before you start a literature review, it is very important that research so much well so that you will not have a limited resource on your desk by the time you begin writing. You can make research on related topics instead of constricting yourself to the specific topic you are dealing with.

Make the overview simple

The best way you can each your reader’s mind is by penetrating through a simple form of structural arranged text. You are writing a review and to write the best of it, you should write in a way that your review will navigate to the literature. Remember you are doing an overview, and the best way is to make it simple for the readers.

Rightly use your keywords

Your overview is a review of a work, therefore the best way you can explain it better is by using the right keywords. This will give your work a detailed outlook and good impression on your readers and being rest assured that you know what you are writing about.

Engage your readers

When writing your literature review, the best way to have the attention of your readers is to have a strong arrangement which your work will take. You can introduce to them a situation then backs it up to your theoretical explanation. In addition, you can also include a visual engagement like graphs, charts or others so as to be able to engage your readers well in your work.

Explore the citations of the articles you find

Navigating the citations in the articles you find will give you direct access to the root of the work thence, this will give you a broader concept on the topics you are writing on. However, there are two ways of following citations; forward and backward. Forward citation leads you from an article you have seen before to the one you are dealing with while backward citation leads you from the one you are dealing with to a past one. Following citations will give you more knowledge about what you are reviewing.

Be Aimful

Let the aim of your work be specific. When you are writing, have it in mind that you are writing to either state if the literature is well understood or yet unknown and this can only be portrayed if your work is aimful.

Practically, before and when writing your literature review, make use of multiple database search engine so that you can find everything possible for your research. Also, you should use referencing software when you begin.

In your introduction, do not write ambiguously about the topic. Let your introduction contain good keywords with the definition. In your body, be concise but detailed, highlight the key areas of your research and any other further keywords. Then check your grammatical usages, read and set it aside for sometimes, then read again.

Was this post helpful?