literature-review.info

The literature review is a part of the paper (such as research paper, or dissertation, or the like), in which the student present the results of his or her background study of the problem. This part is very significant. It is a one of the two most significant parts of the paper (the other one is a methodology, but we are not going to discuss it within this article). This is a part allowing the readers understand the studied problem deeper, to see its origins, to get to know what aspects were being studied before, and the like. In a word, the literature review allows you to introduce the central issue of your academic paper to the readers of your paper.

The literature review also allows you to study the problem deeper. And the deeper you study the problem, the easier it becomes for you to find the solution for it.

The literature review writing presupposes reviewing several different literature sources. Sometimes it is allowed to use the online sources as well as the printed sources for composing your literature review. However, the academic printed sources are more recognized, so you had better give the preference to them.

The literature review is the first part of the paper to be performed. When you conduct the background study and fix its results within your paper, you understand the problem better, and you are able to solve it, because you get more knowledge. So, we recommend you to start writing your paper with the literature review.

Very often students get confused of the large amount of the literature sources they have to read and analyze to write their dissertations, research papers or thesis. They do not know what to start with when writing their literature reviews and what authors to include into their literature reviews. So, a good piece of advice can help them a lot.

If you have to write your literature review but do not know what to start with, I suggest that you should start with looking through a thematic catalogue in your university library. They usually provide a good list of authors that can be useful to you.

If the information kept in your university library is not enough, you may go to the public library or use the internet online libraries. The internet has nearly everything that students may have a need in. Although, sometimes it happens that even the internet cannot help. In such cases you may apply to the dissertation Fellowships. They will help you by providing the financial help to realize the trip to another country and find the sources you need.

What are the main criteria of choosing the dissertation authors?

• The dissertation or thesis authors should be suggested by your supervisor. Your supervisor is an expert in the area you are investigating. That is why you would better follow his/her advice;
• The dissertation authors should be the ones who’s approaches and theories are easy to understand to you;
• The dissertation authors should be the ones who’s works are related to your topic. Let their works be not that much related, still, the ones that will help you anyhow disclose your thesis statement.

According to all rules, literature review is a part of writing work, which presents a kind of review of the sources, which were used by a student, while writing a project. With the help of literature review the student ma demonstrates his\her awareness of the chosen subject. Also, it is necessary, because it is the first part of work, which tells about skills and abilities of the student. When a professor read your literature review, his\her first opinion about your work appears.

As any writing type of work, a literature review has its beginning, main part and concluding part. It should not too long. So, try to be brief and informative at the same time.

I want to point out several items, which characterize any literature review; it may be helpful for you, when you start writing your personal literature review:

• Literature review is a logically structured text, which describes your ideas (pay attention to the chapters in your work and do not forget about the function of each of them).
• Literature review is a simple summary of the sources (so, usage of some citations will make your literature review better).
• Literature review is one more proof, that you know the subject, and can clever express your ideas.

Your literature review may be presented separately from your project, or may be a part of it. If you decide to do it as a part of your work, then you should make it logically connected to the other parts of your work.

Well, try to do your best and organize everything according to the rules.

When you write your work, you should know that each component of your work performs its functions. If you want to understand the essence of each part in your work, you should study its functions and its predestination.

So, this time I want to tell you about the function of any literature review, which you should write, when you are writing a dissertation or a thesis, or other important for you work.

So, any literature review should correspond to its functions, and you should take this information into consideration, when you start writing your literature review.

FUNCTIONS OF A LITERATURE REVIEW

• To give good reasons for your ideas, which will be presented in your work;
• To prove the importance of the work, you are going to demonstrate;
• To explain your readers, that you are aware about the subject and you may present interesting information;
• To present to your readers the information about the sources, which helped you in your writing process;
• To demonstrate your abilities in comparing the works of different authors and expressing your personal standpoint;
• To show that your work is based on the studies of famous authors.

So, as you can see all functions of the literature review are connected to the author. Your literature review will help you to prove that you know something and you are ready to prove it. So, do it as good as possible.

Also, your literature review may give a chance to your work to be noticed and to leave a sign in the history. With the help of the literature review your work may be used by other students in their work, so do not loose such chance!

When you want to write a good literature review, you should choose a structure, according to which you will present the information. The main function of any literature review is to demonstrate the connection between your project and the field of study, which was chosen by you.

In order to make this part at high level, you should follow a structure. But what you should do, if you do not anything about literature review structure. I have the answer – read this article and choose more attractive for you type of structure.

There are two main ways, which you should know: chronologically and thematically.

When you present your literature review chronologically, you should divide all the sources into groups and discuss them according to their appearance. With time our science offers more and more modern methods of study. So, you should trace its development. Make everything logically, try to keep the order. Well, be chronologically correct.

If you decide to use another way of writing your literature review, I mean the thematic one, you should follow some other rules. It is necessary to discuss the sources according to the themes, which they cover. When you make such kind of division, you present the themes, which were significant during your research. When you need to present a thorough investigation of the subject, it is necessary to touch upon different fields of study. So, in this case, you should better to choose a thematic way of your literature review.

Frankly speaking, you may choose any structure you want. All you need to remember is that you should prove the importance of your project and its reliability. If you manage to do it in your own way of writing, you are welcome! Just try to point all necessary for this chapter information!