Literature Review is a fundamental tool for researching and writing your thesis or dissertation. It provides you with a thorough overview of the topic as well as its relation to other topics in the field. Let us know about it elaborately.
A Literature Review is an essential part of any research paper or thesis, providing an overview of existing research and publications related to the topic under investigation. It is a critical analysis and synthesis of published research, theoretical and methodological approaches, and the current state of knowledge in a particular field.
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A Brief about a Literature Review
The primary purpose of a literature review is to identify gaps in the existing literature, provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, and establish the significance and relevance of the research. By examining and analyzing the literature, the researcher can develop a theoretical framework, identify research questions, and formulate hypotheses.
A literature review typically involves a systematic search of academic databases, journals, and other relevant sources to identify published works related to the research topic. Once the sources have been identified, the researcher evaluates and critically analyzes them, summarizing and synthesizing the key findings, arguments, and perspectives.
The literature review also helps the researcher to identify and address any limitations or biases in the existing research, develop a methodology and research design, and justify the significance of the study. By providing a comprehensive review of the literature, the researcher demonstrates their understanding of the topic and establishes the credibility and validity of their research.
How to Write a Literature Review for a Research Paper?
1. Identify the research questions
The first step in writing a literature review is to define the problem. Before you start on a solution, it’s essential to know the problem to plan your research accordingly. This will give you a better sense of where your paper should go and how long it should take.
Once this has been done, it’s time for setting goals!
You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this now? Well, before we get into how to write an effective literature review or any other kind of academic paper for that matter (which are covered in Part 2), let me tell ya: Don’t worry about what other people think their goals might be—they may not even know themselves! You can always make something up if necessary but remember: If someone asks whether their goal is realistic or not…that person probably doesn’t need our help anyway because they’ll figure out soon enough whether they should keep going with their current plan or change course altogether.”
2. Select the appropriate literature
Selecting the appropriate literature is one of the most important tasks in writing a literature review. This can be done by choosing the most relevant, or most relevant to your topic, or both (or neither). For example, if you are doing a research paper about the effect of media on teenagers in general and not just one specific type of media (e.g., newspapers), then it would make sense to include articles from both print and online sources in order to provide an adequate picture of what has been happening at this time regarding media use by teenagers.
In contrast however if you were writing about how parents influence their children’s choices when choosing TV programs then only using examples from television would probably be more effective because there aren’t many other factors involved here such as politics etcetera which could potentially cause confusion later down the line when talking about further implications made possible via certain types/types rather than others alone without further details added into these statements already being discussed elsewhere within this sentence itself!
3. Analyze the selected literature
The third step is to analyze the selected literature in context, so that you can get a better understanding of your topic and how it relates to other topics. You need to make sure that you understand what has been said about this topic before writing your own paper based on it, as well as understand why something was chosen for research rather than another option (if there are multiple options).
You should also analyze your own experiences when reading an article or book on a particular topic; this will help give more depth and meaning behind what has been written about in order for readers like yourself who have never experienced something similar before!
4. Relate the data to your own experiences
Relating the data to your own experiences is an important step in writing a literature review for a research paper. This can be done in one of three ways:
- In a friendly tone, which relates it to your own life experience and learning;
- In a professional tone, which relates it to other people’s experiences and knowledge; or
- In a personal tone that shows how you feel about certain topics or ideas (for example, if you have no idea what discussion questions might look like).
5. Recommend future research and action plans
The last step of your literature review is to recommend future research and action plans. This section should be careful not to get too specific, but rather make general recommendations for how you think the topic should be researched further or how it could be applied in practice by others. You also want to mention any action steps that you think would help move your argument forward or improve its quality as a whole (e.g., “I recommend that my readers visit [website] for more information about this subject”).
To best understand your topic and its relation to other topics, you must employ a literature review approach.
A literature review is an organized way for you to organize information about your topic and its relation to other topics. It allows you to clearly understand what literature has been done on this subject, who has written it, which themes have been explored by them, how they have analyzed their findings, and what conclusions have been reached.
A literature review can be used for any sort of academic research project: scientific papers or dissertations; books; articles in journals; conference papers; book chapters or other publications like reports from government agencies or nonprofit organizations.
Conclusion
A literature review is a crucial element of a research paper or thesis, providing an overview of existing research, identifying gaps in the literature, and establishing the significance and relevance of the research. It helps the researcher to develop a theoretical framework, identify research questions, formulate hypotheses and ensure that the study is grounded in a sound understanding of the existing literature. While there are many ways to conduct a literature review, our best advice is to do your homework and make sure you understand the topic well before diving into the process. You may want to ask someone else who can help you with this step if needed.
