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Guide To Writing A Literature Review

Dissertation
Writing a literature review dissertation is a crucial component of academic research, yet it is often
perceived as a daunting task by many students. This comprehensive guide aims to demystify the
process and provide invaluable insights into crafting a well-structured and insightful literature review.

Understanding the Purpose


A literature review serves as a critical evaluation of existing scholarly literature related to your
research topic. It not only demonstrates your understanding of the subject matter but also highlights
gaps in knowledge and areas for further research. Moreover, a well-written literature review provides
a theoretical framework for your study and establishes its significance within the broader academic
context.

Steps to Writing a Literature Review Dissertation


1. Define Your Research Question
Before delving into the literature, it's essential to have a clear research question or objective that will
guide your review. This will help narrow down your search and focus on relevant literature.

2. Conduct Comprehensive Literature Search


Utilize academic databases, journals, books, and other scholarly sources to gather relevant literature.
Be thorough in your search and consider both seminal works and recent publications to provide a
comprehensive overview of the topic.

3. Critically Analyze the Literature


As you review the literature, critically analyze each source's methodology, findings, and conclusions.
Identify key themes, debates, and gaps in the existing research that your dissertation aims to address.

4. Organize Your Literature Review


Structure your literature review in a coherent manner, organizing it thematically, chronologically, or
methodologically based on your research objectives. Ensure a logical flow of ideas and transitions
between different sections.

5. Synthesize and Interpret Findings


Synthesize the information gathered from various sources and provide a cohesive narrative that ties
together different perspectives on the topic. Interpret the findings in relation to your research
question and highlight their implications for your study.

6. Provide Critical Insights


Offer your critical analysis of the literature, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of
existing research. Discuss any conflicting findings and propose potential avenues for future research
to address these discrepancies.

The Challenge of Writing a Literature Review Dissertation


Writing a literature review dissertation requires extensive research, critical thinking, and analytical
skills. It demands meticulous attention to detail and the ability to synthesize complex information
from diverse sources into a coherent narrative. Moreover, meeting academic standards and adhering
to citation guidelines can add further complexity to the task.

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Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. Writing a literature review is
like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. For each source, consider the following: What's the Author
Trying to Do. Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings. You can also
review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your
research. While this can be time consuming, it is the proper way to undertake a literature review. This
demonstrates to your reader that you know what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.
We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below. If you are in doubt about how to
approach a literature review, always follow up with your rubric, syllabus, professor or teaching
assistant. Galvan, J. L. (2009). Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and
Behavioral Sciences. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a
certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Do not use extensive quotes as a
substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. What is an expository essay
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image.slidesharecdn.com A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you
summarize briefly each article that you have reviewed. Free online publication of research papersFree
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For example, if you are writing for academics or researchers who are familiar with the existing body
of work on your topic, you may only need to provide a traditional literature review that sums up
what has been previously published. The action you just performed triggered the security solution.
Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing.
You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter
most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). Make sure you
don't just stick to one type of source. A literature review I am currently working on, for example,
explores. The researcher found the article an interesting and useful work of the author in providing
guidelines about writing literature reviews. It is suitable when your topic has a clear historical
development or when you want to showcase the evolution of ideas over time. Guide for formatting
references in APA standards (updated for 7th edition) Theoretical Foundation: how to do it right
Literature Review: What is and How to do it. If the goal is to critically analyze the research methods.
To this end, the authors resorted to using narrative analysis and synthesis to describe the
effectiveness of handheld computers on accessing information for clinical knowledge, adherence to
safety and clinical quality guidelines, and diagnostic decision-making. Within the latter cases
particularly, review is going to be led from your research objective or through the issue or thesis
you’re quarrelling and can supply the framework for the further work. It’s incredibly beneficial when
preparing to write a thesis or dissertation. The authors identified six main ways which represent
“educated guesses” to be tested against the data in the evaluation studies. There are some subject
areas, in which the classic texts do not lose in their reliability even after the centuries, while others
require only cutting edge sources, not obsolete ones. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes
you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review.
And don’t forget to tap into your professor’s (or other professors’) knowledge in the field. In the
data evaluation stage the reviewer begins to. The type of information you choose to mention should
relate directly to the review’s focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. You
have not worked on papers of such kinds before; thus, it is not clear for you how you should plan
your work and how to make your assigned literature review successful from the perspective of your
professor. Source: image.slidesharecdn.com Writing your literature review should be an iterative
process. Additionally, the author asserts that (8) writing for dissertation is an apprenticeship
experience that prepares one for writing for publication. Source: mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net Like
other forms of academic writing, your literature review should take this format: In a review of the
literature, the writer provides an overview of the most important research and scholarship on a
specific topic, problem, or question. When hiring writers one must possess a university degree as the
minimum requirement before an extensive training program geared towards attaining the highest
quality results. Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings,
methodologies, and debates found in. State how you will actually do the methods (i.e. coding
interview text, running regression analysis, etc.). Anticipate and acknowledge any potential barriers
you may encounter when undertaking your research and describe how you will address these
barriers. Moreover, you should opt only for authoritative books and articles written by professional
researches in the relevant spheres. When a body of literature is primarily qualitative, or. Avoid
wasting precious hours and days by having direct aims and specific questions to raise. Larger
research projects or theses can use a paragraph or two describing the layout of the introduction and
literature review. I am confident that you will continue to keep in the future. Examining previous
literature reviews, meta-analyses, or. Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes
during the research process. Take some time to understand the studies and arguments contained in
the published literature. Step 4: Create An Outline In this crucial step, determine the organizational
structure of your review, which will serve as the foundation for your written work. For example, if
you were reviewing the literature on obesity in children you might say something like: There are a
large number of studies of obesity trends in the general population. Be confident that your
assignment will hit the mark. The literature review acknowledges the work of previous researchers,
and in so doing, assures the reader that your work has been well conceived. In any case, when you
try to decide whether you can include a certain source into your paper, ask yourself: is this book
(article) suitable, relevant to the topic, and indispensable for the content. The subsections might
include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors
misunderstood. Privacy Overview Have a language expert improve your writing Run a free
plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free. Have you indicated the
relevance of each reference to your research. It goes beyond documentation and reflects decisions
related to the selection of the sources, the search terms used, the period of time covered, the articles
selected in the search, and the application of backward and forward searches ( vom Brocke et al.,
2009 ). In short, the rigour of any review article is reflected by the explicitness of its methods (i.e.,
transparency) and the soundness of the approach used. If the literature review is part of your thesis
or dissertation show how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge or discuss
how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. For
example, the work in your dissertation might expand on what’s been done in one subsection of the
works you’re reviewing. However, if you are writing for practitioners or policy-makers who are less
familiar with the existing research on your topic, then you will need to provide more background
information and include more detailed summaries of each source in your literature review.
If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for
literature related to your research objectives and questions. These studies were identified through a
formal and systematic search in four databases between 2003 and 2013. By the end, you’ll have all
the tools you need to start writing your own literature review. Quality assessment is widely used in
healthcare reviews. Source: miro.medium.com What is a literature review. The lessons are: (1) Read,
read, read; (2) Consult the experts; (3) Adhere to university regulations; (4) Pay attention to rigor and
trustworthiness; (5) Give details of the methodology; (6) Don't be afraid to include numerical data;
and (7) Prepare to publish. Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area. For the Internet
in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural
differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites.
In other words, a research gap emerges whenever there’s still some uncertainty regarding a certain
topic or question. In the paragraphs that follow, each of these literature. As you write, be sure to
maintain your own writing voice by trying to think of it as a conversation between yourself and the
sources. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight
that you contribute. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines;
almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research
literature. A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources that provides an overview of statement
or the studys goals or purpose. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 17th European Conference
on Information Systems ( ecis 2009); Verona, Italy. 2009. Webster J., Watson R.T. Analyzing the past
to prepare for the future: Writing a literature review. When printing this page, you must include the
entire legal notice. Selection Methods: Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in
your literature review. Sample literature review this is a literature review i wrote for psychology 109
research methods i. A guide for students of the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Start by looking for the
most recent publications in the field you're working on. While the study focuses on one topic, the
Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it would still be organized chronologically
reflecting technological developments in media. With dissertations, especially theses, it will likely be
more lower to you in deciding. The literature review provides a description, summary and evaluation
of each source. Chapter 9?Methods for Literature Reviews - Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An
Evidence-based Approach Your browsing activity is empty. Literature reviews should involve several
pieces of information like the reason for writing a review, a brief discussion of the topic, an
organized list of all academic sources used, in addition to a comprehensive evaluation of each one.
You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. As with any
scholarly research paper, you must cite the sources you used in composing your research proposal.
Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly
formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and
critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are
included in the review. The basic research question — what works? — which is usually associated
with systematic reviews changes to: what is it about this intervention that works, for whom, in what
circumstances, in what respects and why. Finally, at the data analysis and interpretation stage, the. A
second screen of full-text articles, again by two independent members of the research team, ensured
that the studies described phr s.
This means that you should focus on critical writing, rather than simply providing a summary of
what others have written. If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise your
literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. Umbrella reviews
generally adhere to the same principles and rigorous methodological guidelines used in systematic
reviews. If you are asked to provide an abstract, you should include 5-7 key words that are of most
relevance to your study. After this first filter, the full text of each article must be considered. Keep
careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process. What might
your study mean for future practitioners working in the field. This work may be in any format,
including online sources. An interesting approach for when we have a large amount of primary
studies is to have a researcher to extract data and another to check the data that has already been
extracted. Source: mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net Like other forms of academic writing, your literature
review should take this format: In a review of the literature, the writer provides an overview of the
most important research and scholarship on a specific topic, problem, or question. Take notes that
you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review. Your literature review should be
guided by your central research question. It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a
set of summaries. The authors conducted a comprehensive search on multiple databases to identify
eligible reviews and subsequently used a validated instrument to conduct an in-depth quality
appraisal. A thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or
issue. In this way, critical reviews attempt to constructively inform other scholars about the
weaknesses of prior research and strengthen knowledge development by giving focus and direction
to studies for further improvement ( Kirkevold, 1997 ). A description of the research design or
general approach used to guide the reading and analysis of the literature (this may be organized
chronologically, by subjects, by theoretical framework, etc.). A summary of the main themes or
arguments emerging from your critical review of the literature. These authors reviewed the existing
literature on personal health record ( phr ) systems including design, functionality, implementation,
applications, outcomes, and benefits. There are a number of different situations where you might
write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have
field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. Specify the time frame, key
themes, and relevant studies to focus your research. In the sciences, for instance, treatments for
medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Literature Reviews,” by H.
M. Cooper, 1988, Knowledge in Society. The following provides a brief description of the content
of each: Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central
theme or organizational pattern. Sampling methods Simple random sampling Stratified sampling
Cluster sampling Likert scales Reproducibility Statistics Null hypothesis Statistical power Probability
distribution Effect size Poisson distribution Research bias Optimism bias Cognitive bias Implicit
bias Hawthorne effect Anchoring bias Explicit bias A literature review is a survey of scholarly
sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question.
Creative Library Assessment Library, what's Library. The literature review gives you a chance to:
Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context Develop a theoretical
framework and methodology for your research Position your work in relation to other researchers and
theorists Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate Evaluate the current
state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic. Based
on your reading and notes, you can look for: Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do
certain approaches become more or less popular over time. A service of the National Library of
Medicine, National Institutes of Health. With dissertations, and particularly theses, it will be more
down to you to decide. Focus on the questions you want to raise and analyze whether the part of a
review is too general or insufficiently wide.
Still, you have a lot of questions to ask before you start actual writing. Poorly conceptualized, Some
coherent structure Well developed. You have not worked on papers of such kinds before; thus, it is
not clear for you how you should plan your work and how to make your assigned literature review
successful from the perspective of your professor. Step 4. Giving meaning. After identifying
meaningful. Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as
publications. Provide clear definitions of key concepts and terms. As key concepts and terms often
have numerous definitions, make sure you state which definition you will be utilizing in your
research. The rubric is presented in Table 3, below. Boote and. Check out Scribbr’s professional
proofreading services. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. It is important
to simulate the protocol execution, which will help to find possible errors in each of the steps.
Should you ignore opposing viewpoints, your argument would really be less strong. There are so
many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and
reading the literature just pondering what to review. Use the present tense for general opinions and
theories, or the past when referring to specific research or experiments. For example, when
discussing empirical research, you might mention that most studies have focused on a certain context,
yet very few (or none) have focused on another context, and there’s reason to believe that findings
may differ. However, despite their frequent use, narrative reviews. It may therefore be advantageous
to also investigate the effects of co-witness information using Natural Discussion Groups as this
methodology has high ecological validity. The following sections present these components in a
suggested template for you to follow in the preparation of your research proposal. If you begin to see
the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have
been generated to address the research problem. What you must not do is just describe what one
writer says, and then go on to give a general overview of another writer, and then another, and so on.
Now, let's jump to other important aspects of this process. A literature review is a survey of credible
sources on a topic, often used in dissertations, theses, and research papers. For instance, you might
explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals. Don’t be afraid to do
more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. Try sorting through some other current
bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. Offers
Methodological Guidance: Helps choose appropriate research methods for quality outcomes.
Australian dissertation examiners, Mullins and Kiley. Steps in Conducting a Literature Review A
literature review is an integrated analysis-- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other
relevant evidence related directly to your research question. Give your interpretation of how and
why certain developments occurred. See Full PDF Download PDF See Full PDF Download PDF
Related Papers A peer-reviewed electronic journal. Make sure you check with your instructor to see
which of the two you are expected to produce.
For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field.
Keep the writing obvious and concise, staying away from colloquialisms and private language. How
do you pick the important stuff from a bunch of studies and tell a clear story that makes a difference.
Look at sources the authors cite to in their work. And, when necessary, state why certain literature is
or is not included (scope). Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
What you mustn’t do is simply describe what one author states, after which will continue to provide
a general summary of another author, after which another, and so forth. Within all these sections,
you would discuss exactly what the different literature argues, remembering to link this for your
own purpose. To conclude, our main objective in this chapter was to demystify the various types of
literature reviews that are central to the continuous development of the eHealth field. While you do
not need to include all knowledge you have learned about your topic in this section, it is important
to ensure that you include the most relevant material that will help to explain the goals of your
research. Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are
trying to accomplish with the review. Here is how to write a good literature review: Step 1: Search
Relevant Literature Start by searching for scholarly sources that you will cite in your paper that are
closely related to your research topic. How well do they present the material and do they portray it
according to an appropriate theory. Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing
evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and
standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and
analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. One of the most important benefits of
writing a literature review is that it can help you to identify gaps in the existing research. Thinking
interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas,
theories, or concepts to an old problem. It’s important to keep track of your sources with references
to avoid plagiarism. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept
(e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis).
The article concludes with a discussion of common mistakes and a framework for the self-evaluation
of a literature review. In the present context, the notion of rigour refers to the reliability and validity
of the review process described in section 9.2. For one thing, reliability is related to the
reproducibility of the review process and steps, which is facilitated by a comprehensive
documentation of the literature search process, extraction, coding and analysis performed in the
review. Participation, and Intervals of Off-Task Behavior,” by. A description of the research design
or general approach used to guide the reading and analysis of the literature (this may be organized
chronologically, by subjects, by theoretical framework, etc.). A summary of the main themes or
arguments emerging from your critical review of the literature. The steps must be well defined and
followed to the letter to reduce the possibility of errors in the execution of the review. Identify Gaps
Highlight areas where existing research falls short. More and more cultural studies scholars are
accepting popular media as a subject worthy of academic consideration. When writing a literature
review, be sure to use your own words and cite all of your sources properly to avoid plagiarism How
to get started with writing a literature review. Once you know your topic and the guidelines for
review, you must start collecting relevant literature. We work both with traditional (MLA, APA,
Chicago, etc.) and custom ones as well. The Wow-effect can be achieved only if you focus all your
efforts on this task or if you contact professional writers and request for assistance. While most of
the lessons may be applicable to any kind of research, the writer focuses on the special challenges of
employing a qualitative methodology.

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