How to write a Good literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide?

Literature review writing demand is rocketing with the stupendous rise in publishing scientific papers. With mountains of articles to read for literature review, it is sure a daunting task. Some Universities are now offering literature review courses for their students.

Literature is used as the foundation and support for new insights contributed by the researcher in the research paper. A literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without any contributions from the author. Its purpose should be instructional if the audience knows less than the author. If the audience knows more than the author, its purpose should be to demonstrate familiarity, expertise, and intelligence of the topic.

Two types of literature reviews:

Depending on the submission of literature review along with the research paper, they fall under:

Standalone research literature reviews:

If the literature review is written as a standalone paper, it can discuss the overall implications of the literature. From the gaps identified it can suggest for future researches also.

Research literature review:

If the literature is placed as part of the research paper, it should focus mainly on how the research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge. It can also address how the utilized existing theories and methods to build a framework for the research.

Step by step guide to writing a literature review:

Clarify and narrow the topic:

Clarify with the instructor about the details of relevant sources, including checking if they are up to date. Next narrow down the topic of the research. Also identify only the relevant books to refer out of the hundreds of books in each area of study.

2. Select & Evaluate literature:

Select from various online sources by reading their abstract and checking for their citations to get credible and relevant information related to the research question and answer. Take notes and cite them in the research paper to avoid plagiarism and also to make an annotated bibliography.

3. Plan your literature review structure by connecting themes & patterns:

Finding connections between the trends, themes, patterns, and others from the sources will help in planning the literature review structure. The structure can be chosen from various approaches. Depending on the length of the review, it can be a combination of different strategies, which include:

Chronological
Thematic
Methodological
Theoretical

4. Write the literature review:

A good literature review consists of

Introduction:

It should briefly establish the focus the essence of literature review

Body:

Depending on the length of the literature review, it should have subsections for the following procedures during a literature review written in well-structured paragraphs.