Title: Step By Step Process Of Writing A Literature Review

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the step-by-step process of writing a literature review.
Crafting a literature review can be a daunting task for many students and researchers alike. It requires
a thorough understanding of the topic, extensive research, critical analysis, and proficient writing
skills. In this guide, we will break down the process into manageable steps to help you navigate
through the complexities of literature review writing.

Step 1: Define Your Topic and Purpose

Before diving into the literature, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of your research topic and
the purpose of your literature review. Define the scope and objectives of your review to ensure focus
and coherence throughout the process.

Step 2: Conduct Comprehensive Research

Gather relevant scholarly sources such as academic journals, books, conference proceedings, and
other credible publications related to your topic. Utilize online databases, library catalogs, and
academic search engines to explore the existing literature comprehensively.

Step 3: Evaluate and Analyze Sources

Critically evaluate the credibility, reliability, and relevance of each source. Pay attention to the
methodology, key findings, arguments, and theoretical frameworks presented in the literature.
Compare and contrast different perspectives to identify gaps, contradictions, and patterns in the
existing research.

Step 4: Organize Your Literature

Organize the selected literature thematically, chronologically, or methodologically based on your
research objectives. Create an outline to structure your literature review logically and coherently.
Group similar studies and concepts together to facilitate the synthesis of information.

Step 5: Synthesize and Interpret Findings

Synthesize the key findings, arguments, and themes identified from the literature. Analyze the
relationships between different studies and theories, and interpret their implications for your
research. Highlight the gaps in knowledge and areas for further investigation.

Step 6: Write Your Literature Review

Start writing your literature review by providing an introduction that outlines the scope, purpose, and
organization of your review. Present the synthesized findings and critical analysis in a clear and
concise manner. Use transitional phrases to connect ideas and maintain coherence.

Step 7: Revise and Edit

Review your literature review thoroughly to ensure clarity, coherence, and adherence to academic
conventions. Edit for grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors. Seek feedback from peers,
mentors, or professional editors to enhance the quality of your writing.
Step 8: Citations and References
Accurately cite all the sources referenced in your literature review following the appropriate citation
style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). Create a bibliography or reference list to provide readers with the
necessary information to locate the cited sources.

Conclusion
Writing a literature review requires careful planning, diligent research, critical analysis, and effective
writing skills. By following the step-by-step process outlined in this guide, you can navigate through
the complexities of literature review writing with confidence and clarity. For personalized assistance
and expert guidance, consider seeking professional help from ⇒ StudyHub.vip ⇔.

Begin your literature review journey today and unlock new insights and perspectives in your research
field.

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In a literature review it is best to build a case with selected sources by grouping them thematically so
that you can analyze, compare and contrast the theories, and that policies and practices in the field
you are studying or conveyed in an organized way. A dissertation literature review is a critical
assessment of the sources used in your writing. Before starting research for your thesis or
dissertation, you need to write a review to form the context of your research within the existing
knowledge. If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate 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. To reduce the review bias, a data extraction
form must be defined and evaluated in the protocol review phase. Therefore, there are some steps
that you must follow as you write a literature review. It gives an overview of the topic’s theoretical
background and can be used to identify gaps in the existing facts about the subject at that time.
Branching out your sources helps you to break them down to create a focus. Refine your second
draft and get a layman’s perspective on it. Ensure that your ideas flow logically, and use clear
language to communicate complex concepts. Promotes Theory Development: Evaluates and
combines existing theories, possibly leading to new ones. You can also incorporate many other
chronological differences or similarities that help to group your sources deeper. Source:
peachyessay.com Like other forms of academic writing, your literature review should take this
format: Source: essaysservice.com The literature of a literature review refers to any collection of
materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. It critically analyzes,
synthesizes, and evaluates the sources to give your reader a clear picture that you are conversant
with the subject. Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing
scholarly research on a specific topic or subject. Literature reviews are most commonly found in
theses and dissertations. Because books take longer to publish than journal articles, they are typically
out of date. Revising Your Work Does your instructor require APA formatting. Better Analysis:
Since your framework will determine the methods that you need to adopt to measure the variables of
your research, you will end up analysing better. The main output of this phase is the review protocol.
As you summarize, give priority to the significant points in the study leave the unwanted talks in the
literature. Four Steps to Narrow Your Research Topic (Video) This 3-minute video provides
instructions on how to narrow the focus of your research topic. However, most people end up merely
listing and summarizing their sources in chronological order. Give your interpretation of how and
why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your
discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure). That is, you can have the main points
from each relevant source, and then combine them to form a paragraph. For both stand-alone and
embedded Literature Reviews, you will need to select the most effective way to organize your
material. Depending on why you are writing your literature review, you may be given a topic area, or
may choose a topic that particularly interests you or is related to a research project that you wish to
undertake. Although you may write a stand-alone Literature Review as a course assignment to
enhance your own knowledge as a student, scholars often write stand-alone Literature Review to
benefit the research community and discipline. To maintain track of the scholarly articles and
sources, use a bibliography or reference management software like EndNote or Zotero. A narrative
literature review also offers conclusions on the subject and sheds light on any existing gaps or
inconsistencies in the subject field.
Simply indicating what an author claims or has found is not sufficient. This helps to really narrow
down the focus of your dissertation and make more sense of it. Make sure you understand the 4 core
functions of the process. Determine the gaps based on appropriate debate and argumentative
approaches. This will help you understand and make an informed analysis of whether the source is
relevant for your dissertation topic focus or not. Example: If reviewing literature on climate change,
themes could include the impact on ecosystems, societal responses, and mitigation strategies. As for
how to draft one, you can follow the same fundamental idea when preparing an abstract for a
literature review. Is the research incomplete, imprecise, biased, or inconsistent. For instance, you
might have a thematic structure discussed chronologically. You can also incorporate many other
chronological differences or similarities that help to group your sources deeper. Cite this Scribbr
article If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this
Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator. It will help
steer your path from any threats of plagiarism and also make it easier to curate an annotated
bibliography or reference section. 4. Discover connections At this stage, you must start deciding on
the argument and structure of your literature review. It will also evaluate the strength of the evidence
on that topic. Variables: Explain in detail about the variables and the relationship between them.
Definition: Literature review A literature review is an academic piece describing a particular research
topic that has already been published. Come up with a method to organize these codes sensibly and
write down the conceptual schema you intend to use. Final tips on how to write a literature review A
massive chunk of time and effort is required to write a good literature review. Therefore, all our
works will be submitted with a FREE Turnitin plagiarism report. Your literature review should be
guided by your central research question. You can also add suggestions and recommendations on any
future research that can be conducted to fill the gaps you have identified. Ensure you understand the
research topic inside out, or else seek. You've learned what a literature review is all about. Identify
any key debates which have contributed to shaping the direction of the research. However, according
to research by Ruth Culham, a leading authority on writing instruction, there are six assessable traits
we can use to measure the quality and effectiveness of writing. Social media, Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health Generation Z,
teenagers, adolescents, youth Search for relevant sources Use your keywords to begin searching for
sources. There's just so much out there, and it's easy to feel lost. Finally, don’t forget to tie your
previous work to the academic knowledge that is currently available. As you write, make sure to
follow these tips: Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and
combine them into a coherent whole. Initially this table can start to be filled out when gathering
literature, and then further filled out when surveying and critiquing your literature. Thematic
Organization Group related studies by themes rather than chronology.
I have an amazing supervisor but one also knows they are super busy. Now, let's jump to other
important aspects of this process. Thank you Coach, you have greatly enriched and improved my
knowledge Great piece, so enriching and it is going to help me a great lot in my project and thesis,
thanks so much This is THE BEST site for ANYONE doing a masters or doctorate. Your assignment
will likely specify what kinds of formats you should use for citations within the text. Because of
differences in how we extract data from sources and what information is relevant, the analysis
within and structure of our Literature Reviews will vary. Where might the discussion proceed if
someone else picked it up where you left off. For example, some scholars have examined the social
aspects of a topic while others have explored its economic aspects. It is generally helpful to draw a
conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Sandborn WJ, Rutgeerts P,
Enns R, Hanauer SB, et al. How do they want your name, headings, and subheadings. This is, after
all, one of the main purposes of the literature review process (i.e. to familiarise yourself with the
current state of research in your field). They are on a variety of topics and at all academic levels. A
literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. Note that when writing
the review as an assignment, you don’t need to collect any original data. Thus, you can cite
numerous references in the same paragraph in a typical Lit Review, and you can mention the same
reference in more than one paragraph if the source discusses more than one of the Lit Review’s
subtopics. What are its most exciting and promising areas of innovation. Therefore, when you have
students who have been identified as poor readers, it is important to provide them with interventions
for writing as well as reading. Importance: It is necessary to write about the significance of your
topic and the contribution it will make to the concerned field. The dissertation literature review must
also provide an objective stance of each source as well. Organisation: Organise all your sources in
some order. A current literature study I’m working on, for example, investigates impediments to
higher education for undocumented students. You can also consider the disciplines and routes for
future research here and blind spots and missing elements in existing knowledge. The text should be
written in a clear academic style, using formal language. In the case of our research question above,
some of the keywords we may use include: Digital marketing, social media, Facebook ads, YouTube
ads, marketing videos, e-commerce, SEO, email marketing, online shopping, etc. Are they ignoring
any data to make their points seem stronger. Long story short, this chapter is a pretty big deal, which
is why you want to make sure you get it right. Literature reviews can be presented in multiple ways:
a section of an article, the whole research paper itself, or a chapter of your thesis. Conclusion:
Summarize what you discovered, highlight any important contributions, and suggest areas for future
research. For literature review writing, make a list of keywords that might be useful in writing
psychology literature. Reading it out loud could help you identify sentences that don’t make sense.
This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website. However if your research
question is specified too narrowly or defined concisely, you may miss out more general information
ii)Scope of the Literature Review You have to determine the precise scope of the literature review.
Once you’re satisfied that you have digested and distilled all the relevant literature in your mind, it’s
time to put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard). The topic must at least be: interesting to you
(ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call
for a critical summary), an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the
review and there will be enough material to write it), and a well-defined issue (otherwise you could
potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).
Additionally, literature review writing attempts to spot research areas that might interest researchers
in the future. It’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism. Once
you find a useful article, check out the reference list. Does it confirm, add more knowledge or
challenge the pre-existing knowledge. Therefore, when you have students who have been identified
as poor readers, it is important to provide them with interventions for writing as well as reading. It is
instrumental. It encouraged me to write a dissertation now. An annotated bibliography is a list of
source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources.
Constant scrutiny: Concepts or theories that repeatedly went under examination. Try to get as
detailed as possible, so that you know exactly what you’ll cover where, how each section will
connect to the next, and how your entire argument will develop throughout the chapter. Describe
Approaches: You have to describe the methods or approaches you are going to adopt to prove your
case. The relationship between ideas and information is carried out through the indentation. It is often
written as part of a dissertation, thesis, research paper, or proposal. Should this happen, try to go over
them again, and check whether you need to add a new category. Check to make sure that you have
not plagiarized either by failing to cite a source of information, or by using words quoted directly
from a source. (Usually if you take three or more words directly from another source, you should put
those words within quotation marks, and cite the. And among many options, you can choose a
favorite writer. When reading, take note of any assumptions, methodologies, experts, and popularity
of the theories. It is important that while comparing the varied point of views, you offer necessary
justifications. As mentioned above, writing your literature review is a process, which I’ll break
down into three steps: Finding the most suitable literature Understanding, distilling and organising
the literature Planning and writing up your literature review chapter Importantly, you must complete
steps one and two before you start writing up your chapter. Alternatively, if you’re a fan of physical
note-taking, investing in a large whiteboard might work for you. Like any other academic text, your
literature review should have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. 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. This structure will enable you to compare the finding, research methods,
and results obtained from different approaches. Incoherent: Writing a review that’s absolutely
incoherent and lack of flow in your arguments. What has the literature revealed? (not what do you
seek to discuss). The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature
review. In the review article by Bain et al. (2014) used as an example in this chapter, the reference
list contains 106 items, so you can imagine how much help referencing software would be.
It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper. By examining past research, you can
identify gaps and inconsistencies and use them to address your work. Writing literature reviews can
be quite challenging. And, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included (scope).
For each publication, ask yourself: What question or problem is the author addressing.
Acknowledging Limitations: It helps you in acknowledging the limitations of your study and
shaping it accordingly. While this is useful for demonstrating how theories evolve, make sure to
include your own interpretation of trends, turning points, or disagreements, demonstrating how they
contributed shape where the subject is headed. Example: If reviewing the development of
technology in the last decade, you might organize your sections based on each year or significant
milestones. You may have grown an entirely new vocabulary during this endeavor, but your
professor has not. When the most up-to-date knowledge reaches such audiences, it is more likely that
this information will find its way to the general public. As with most other tips, ask yourself in the
end, is this study relevant. It should also include: The research topic and your motivation behind
selecting it A one-sentence thesis statement An explanation of the kinds of literature featured in the
review Summary of what you've learned Conclusions you drew from the literature you reviewed
Potential implications and future scope for research Here's an example of the abstract of a literature
review Is a literature review written in the past tense. This step is very important as this protocol will
determine how all research will be conducted. The exceptions are when you have statements
describing events that happened earlier than the literature you are reviewing or events that are
currently occurring; then, you can use the past perfect or present perfect tenses. The “experiential”
part of the rubric does not mean that you must bring in your experience and voice throughout the
work, but rather provide context to the topic, mainly in the introduction. Plan a structure. Write the
review. In this section, we review each step of the process of creating a literature review. It is not a
good idea to aim to cover everything pertaining to a single topic. One common way to approach a
literature review is to start out broad and then become more specific. It's not long, and gives some
tips to fill in what you just learned from the video. The analysis will explore relationships, major
themes, and any critical gaps in the research expressed in the work. As you are writing the literature
review, mention the author names and the year of publication, but you will still need to compile a list
to complete citations for each entry at the end of your review. This implies that literature reviewers
would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months
before these appear in scientific databases. Conduct a literature review Step 3: Critically analyze the
literature. There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. Then, summarize and
comment on them in that order. Fullscreen Sharing Deliver a distraction-free reading experience with
a simple link. A literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize briefly
each article that you have reviewed. Conducting the Literature Review The conduct of the review
must strictly follow the protocol that was developed. Why conduct a literature review, stages of a
literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these books. They determine what
information will be extracted from the articles that will be analyzed, which we call primary studies.
This helps create a coherent narrative and highlights the connections between different works. Rule
9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective In many cases, reviewers of the literature
will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. If writing the review as part of a
thesis or dissertation, you can research literature related to the critical research questions and
objectives. Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in
your search. Since the purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that the writer is familiar with
the important professional literature on the chosen subject, check to make certain that you have
covered all of the important, up-to-date, and pertinent texts. This saves time when you want to redo,
or modify, the searches. On the other hand, inductive logic means, you ought to apply facts to arrive
at a theory based on observations. It is mandatory to check whether the selected source contributes
to give a more profound understanding of the subject. Review of literature or literature review, in
educational research, has great significance for scientists and writers. If you are noticing patterns in
your sources, arranging them by the trends they suggest may be the most obvious structure. The 6
Traits as Layers of a Cake You have to begin with a strong foundation. A narrative literature review
also offers conclusions on the subject and sheds light on any existing gaps or inconsistencies in the
subject field. Place your order today and let us handle your review for you. Now streamline your
literature review process with the help of SciSpace Copilot. The only difference is that in scoping
reviews, there is no restriction on the material being outsourced. Don't worry! This blog is your guide
for writing a literature review. Does it confirm, add more knowledge or challenge the pre-existing
knowledge. This will bring a kind of synchronisation in the research approach. This step is ideal
before you start your research for sources and after you have found them so you can write a coherent
and comprehensive review. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage,
so as to avoid misattributions. In these journals you may find commentaries on research articles.
Make certain that all of the citations and references are correct and that you are referencing in the
appropriate style for your discipline. By examining past research, you can identify gaps and
inconsistencies and use them to address your work. Therefore, it aims to find all the relevant
publications. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be
synthesizing them (not always, but often Read more about synthesis here. Evaluate and synthesize
the studies' ?ndings and conclusions. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of
any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. Do not start every paragraph by using the
name of the researcher or author. A literature review is important because it: Explains the background
of research on a topic. For example, groups of scholars disagree about the best way to measure a
physiological event, and as a result, use different instruments and methodologies.
State-of-the-Art Review The State-of-the-Art review is conducted periodically, focusing on the most
recent research. Importance: It is necessary to write about the significance of your topic and the
contribution it will make to the concerned field. Have you included and addressed the question that
this literature review tries to answer. Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing
practices. For example, how do lower cholesterol numbers or improved scores in spelling impact the
target population. You can use lines and symbols to build and link the related ideas. It should be a
synthesis and analysis of the relevant published work, linked at all times to your objective and
rationale of your study. Following the structure of using theme will also help to put each research
into perspective and help draw up a virtual skeleton map of the topic. Privacy Policy Terms of Use
About Us Copyright Privacy Settings CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE CLOSE. The same questions can use
as you research, and then you come across having researched the sources so you can get rid of the
unnecessary content. A good tip is to enlist professional proofreading to ensure your work is
grammatically correct and cohesive. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is
particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and
impact on further research and society. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized
and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be
possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. To write a strong stand-alone
Literature Review, you should approach the research using a step-by-step process. This handout will
focus on defining what a literature review is, how to organize and synthesize information, and what
the different parts of a literature review are. Literature reviews can be presented in multiple ways: a
section of an article, the whole research paper itself, or a chapter of your thesis. You should prioritize
analysis and not the description. The journal also allows for development of vocabulary, phrasing
and style. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly
dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any)
to a field when reviewing it. These themes should be generated from your research aim, purpose,
and objectives. Also, keep a note of the: authors' names page numbers Keeping track of the
bibliographic information for each source will save you time when you’re ready to create citations. In
this article, a detailed understanding of writing a Literature Review has been provided to make your
research work worth the publication. Skim reading allows you to quickly grasp what the article is
about, and its value. Scaffolding follows the research-based Gradual Release Model. Print Friendly
The Sheridan Libraries Write a Literature Review Sheridan Libraries Find This link opens in a new
window Evaluate This link opens in a new window What Will You Do Differently. This will highly
impact the quality of your paper and overall performance. Due to this variety of formats, make sure
you are clear on what kind of Literature Review your professor is expecting. Take notes and cite
your sources As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Perform information synthesis
Once the data has been extracted, it must be synthesized in a way that answers the research
questions. Faculty research interests areas vary widely, so do some research on their past publications.