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Crafting a literature review can be an arduous task for many individuals, requiring extensive

research, critical analysis, and adept writing skills. The process involves reviewing and synthesizing
existing literature on a particular topic to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject
matter.

One of the primary challenges in writing a literature review is navigating through vast amounts of
scholarly articles, books, and other sources to identify relevant information. Additionally,
synthesizing this information in a coherent manner while critically evaluating the sources' credibility
and relevance poses another hurdle.

Furthermore, structuring a literature review requires careful planning and organization to ensure that
the content flows logically and effectively communicates the research findings and insights. A well-
structured literature review typically consists of an introduction, literature search methodology,
discussion of findings, and conclusion.

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Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point.
Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge within a
particular field. Types of reviews 1. Define your research question 2. Literature reviews are in reality
a type of research Should conform to the anatomy of a typical scholarly article. In order to minimize
the risk of omitting eligible studies not captured by the original search, they supplemented all
electronic searches with manual screening of trial registers and references contained in the included
studies. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the
state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the
author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic
reviewed. It’s nothing more than an academic writing project that summarizes the information on a
specific topic taken from primary and secondary sources. Well, think of the best speeches you’ve
heard, they are generally powerful yet subtle at the same time, they are packed with knowledge and
brevity, which makes them powerful, but gentle in the fact they are digestible to those listening. For
guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. Doing Your
Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques. Analysis: Involves critically evaluating
and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature. They
originated from criticisms of positivist systematic reviews which centre on their “simplistic”
underlying assumptions ( Oates, 2011 ). You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical
approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research. As the
literature review is information dense, it is essential that this section be intelligently structured to
enable your reader to grasp the key arguments underpinning your study. We are a strong believer in
academic integrity and have a “zero tolerance policy” on plagiarism. Generally, when you start to see
repetition in the conclusions or recommendations, you can have confidence that you have covered all
of the significant conceptual categories in your literature review. Consider organization You’ve got a
focus, and you’ve stated it clearly and directly. It should be accompanied by references listing your
sources. If the sources are from different disciplines, you could divide them, for instance, into
cultural sources, sociological sources, etc. Analyze Provide a critical analysis of each source,
including information on the argument, methodology, and concluding statement. ?? Evaluate
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of your sources. A thematic literature review groups the
literature based on the key themes or key concepts that emerge from the literature. Knowledge does
not exist in a vacuum, and your work only has value in relation to other people’s. As you sort them,
try to find out the main theme of the text, and place these excerpts according to the themes.
Download this template, and use it to organize your thoughts and ideas based on the research done.
Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the
progression of time. Alternatively, you may try expanding the scope of your research by including
some of the areas you may have excluded. Begin composing Once you’ve settled on a general pattern
of organization, you’re ready to write each section. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current
Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. Contextual literature
sets the background for your study. The clearer and narrower your focus, the deeper you can dive
into the topic (which is typically where the magic lies).
You can dedicate a separate subsection of your literature review for each of them. The MeSH term
analysis also suggested a strong interdisciplinary trend. The Value and Purpose of the Traditional
Qualitative Literature Review This section of the literature review examines factors influencing
whether or not a person is likely to conform that are (1) in the situation, and (2) within the
individual.” 8. Relevance to thesis is made clear. Therefore, this means that the books or journals that
were published earlier can only be used to make references. Consider Whether Your Sources are
Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. Selecting
studies, extracting data, and assessing risk of bias in a duplicate manner using two independent
reviewers to avoid random or systematic errors in the process. Provide, in a brief and concise way,
the context of the study. This note-taking process helps you identify main themes, make connections
among sources and construct your critical evaluation You can use an Excel spreadsheet, a Word
document or any software that you are familiar with. You have some chance to do this in your
introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to
establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. It’s a critical evaluation
of a text, publicaton, object or phenomenon. This helps you remember what you read and saves time
later in the process. A critical, analytical summary and synthesis of the current knowledge of a topic.
You will also need to record what you searched for and where, number of results and any limiters
you used. For each publication, ask yourself: What question or problem is the author addressing.
Through the review of literature of any research process, you can understand the overview of the
topic in present, relevant theories, loopholes in the research, and how it can be made better. Usually
you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. 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. As you begin writing your
research proposal it is helpful to think of the introduction as a narrative of what it is you want to do,
written in one to three paragraphs. In addition to this, you can also include examples here depending
upon the nature of the dissertation. Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key
findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature. These are just random examples,
but as you can see, research gaps can emerge from many different places. London: SAGE
Publications; 2006. Pawson R., Greenhalgh T., Harvey G., Walshe K. Realist review—a new method
of systematic review designed for complex policy interventions. The difference between theoretical
and methodological literature might be slim. My question is that do I put all the variables into a single
conceptual framework or each hypothesis will have it own conceptual framework. You will need to
explain why you chose that particular type of review- which will be dependent on your research area,
problem, and method. You wouldn’t want your paper discredited or getting expelled. Scribbr slides
are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes. Different areas of your study may
be divided into subsections that focus on specific aspects of your topic. For instance, the sperm
whale review could focus on the development of the harpoon for whale hunting. Inclusion and
exclusion criteria must be established to help researchers eliminate studies that are not aligned with
the research questions.
This structure will enable you to compare the finding, research methods, and results obtained from
different approaches. Literature Review Topics Looking for literature review topic ideas and picking
the best one is not the step you can skip. Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services. The
main body needs to include the discussion of the sources you selected following the organizational
strategy you chose. In other words, you’re first explaining what the problem is (some sort of gap)
and then proposing how you’ll solve it. Work through these materials to build your skills. Take notes
while reading Decide whether you should use a thematic or chronological approach, based on the
amount and type of material you have. You might as well talk about the gaps in research there. Note:
It is not always straightforward to distinguish between contextual and related literature as what has
been found in previous studies helps set the context of the research. There are many resources that
offer step-by-step guidance for writing a literature review, and you can find some of them under
Other Resources in the menu to the left. Writing a literature review can be a daunting task, but with
a little guidance, it doesn’t have to be. 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. They are on a variety of topics and at all academic levels. You can
dedicate a separate subsection of your literature review for each of them. That is, it represents a
synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a
association between the evidence and your research question. This will allow you to open windows
in order to frame your kind of research. All the pieces should be pulled and tied together to provide
direction to the dissertation. Writing good literature requires good research for literature and the right
organisation of paper and evidence. This involves: comprehending analysing interpreting evaluating.
You could use the 'filter’ function in Excel to categorise the work. This is not easy, and many people
struggle with this assignment because they find it hard to follow the protocol. The conclusion should:
summarise the important aspects of the existing body of literature; evaluate the current state of the
literature reviewed; identify significant flaws or gaps in existing knowledge; outline areas for future
study; link your research to existing knowledge. Systematic reviews that involve the rigorous
application of scientific strategies aimed at limiting subjectivity and bias (i.e., systematic and random
errors) can respond to this challenge. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of
research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic. Literature reviews
give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as
well as gaps in existing research. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic,
and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Having said that, we
realize that the methodological rigour of any review — be it qualitative, quantitative or mixed — is
a critical aspect that should be considered seriously by prospective authors. A literature review can
be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines
both summary and synthesis. Custom-Writing.org blog is a go-to place for any student, and it
doesn’t matter if it’s their first or last year of studying. It can be the qualitative method, quantitative
method, or mixed-method.
Literature Review Topics Looking for literature review topic ideas and picking the best one is not
the step you can skip. For instance, look into the differences between the results of qualitative and
quantitative research. ?? Literature Review Structure It’s essential that you don’t mix your literature
review structure and include the correct information in each part. Check out these articles for
information on how to provide citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard styles. It may seem
like your readers should understand your main arguments by the end, so there is no need for it. After
the introduction, it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical
framework or methodology. You need to be careful about the literature review paragraph structure.
The literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other scholarly sources relevant to a
particular area of research. This means that the introduction section should provide your readers with
a prologue of the dissertation. In that case, you noticed that they all use distinct research methods. It
it crucial as a part of your qualifying exams and the accompanying literature reviews that you
elaborate on the context of the studies being cited. The first one can only analyze each source
depending on its relevance to your topic, and it’s relatively brief. Find the enveloped and figure out
which order you will start with. Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services. However,
with the chronological approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over
time, as opposed to how all the literature links together (which we’ll discuss next ). Help readers
understand your approach, describe the criteria used to select the sources or the way in which you
have presented information. Have you included and addressed the question that this literature review
tries to answer. You may know that an essay has three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.
Dr Cheryl Lange. Integral aspects of academic work. For example, certain countries, cities, cultures,
etc. Then, even if you come across great books on other topics, make sure you only get articles and
books in those fields. We are a strong believer in academic integrity and have a “zero tolerance
policy” on plagiarism. A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article,
usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. Searching for eligible
studies using multiple databases and information sources, including grey literature sources, without
any language restrictions. Try brainstorming some ideas and pick at least three strong ones. The
literature review is one of the first and most crucial tasks in producing an academic paper. The critical
evaluation of each work should consider: Provenance -- what are the author's credentials. Custom-
Writing.org blog is a go-to place for any student, and it doesn’t matter if it’s their first or last year of
studying. Therefore, as you review your work, it is important to ensure you have covered all the
relevant information. Connections should be made linking those sources to one another. Often times,
you will ask yourself these questions.
But to complete this assignment, you should simply follow these essential steps. It should be a fair
representation of the perspectives and voices of a range of scholars across the field. Summarize and
Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as
well as throughout the review. Hoboken, nj: Wiley-Blackwell; 2008. Jesson J., Matheson L., Lacey
F.M. Doing your literature review: traditional and systematic techniques. Once you have done this,
you can begin to analyze and synthesize the information you have found. Or you might highlight
how there’s a fair deal of mixed findings and disagreement regarding a certain matter. Learning
outcomes. By the end of this chapter you should: Understand the importance and purpose of the
critical literature review to your research project; To be able to adopt a critical perspective in your
reading. Knowledge does not exist in a vacuum, and your work only has value in relation to other
people’s. All in all, 130 articles met the criteria and their data were extracted manually into a
database. Structuring your literature review thematically would mean structuring your literature
review’s body section to discuss each of these themes, one section at a time. It identifies what is
currently known, sets the context of your research, identifies any gaps or areas for further
development and situates you in the chain of research. The conclusion part holds the key findings of
the review. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from
multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new
perspective. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below. Selection Methods:
Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. Account of what
is written on a particular subject by scholars and researchers Purpose: convey current knowledge and
ideas as well as their strength and weaknesses. Students can find guides on how to improve their
writing and academic performance in general, get useful tips on making their study process more
efficient, or learn how to deal with particular issues. In some cases, the professor may fail to provide
you with a topic, which tasks you with the responsibility of coming up with one. And among many
options, you can choose a favorite writer. In other words, the hypothesis, rationale, methods of data
collection are first prepared before the review is conducted so as to minimize any incident of bias.
Besides, you can gain even more knowledge on the topic while going through all the previous
studies. Information seeking Critical Reading Synthesis and structure Reflections on your literature
review. It is important to have an idea of the structure you should use before you write. So, if you are
trying to show how a certain thing has unfolded over time, this is the best way to mention it. It is not
just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries. You can also consider the
disciplines and routes for future research here and blind spots and missing elements in existing
knowledge. However, there are several aspects that prove the importance of a conclusion section in.
Next, validity characterizes the degree to which the review process was conducted appropriately.
You should never cite a source that you haven’t read. A literature review in this sense is just like any
other academic research paper.

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