How to Choose To Your Literary Review

How to Choose To Your Literary Review

Literature review is a part of your final dissertation in which you are expected to acknowledge all the previous academic writing done in your field by prominent academia. You gather all the published work in your field of research and come up with a collection of published articles discussing your topic, preferably aligning with your stance in the research topic.

  1. Outline; the first thing to do here is to clearly outline your field of study and research. Afterwards, you go through all the major academic research portals both online and offline. i.e., JSTOR among many others. Also your university library both online and offline will be there to help you out. Gather all the articles that you have come by that discuss your topic but keep your field of research narrow and specific. Otherwise you will find yourself with a bibliography spreading up to two-feet long.
  2. Reviewing the papers; a simple way to gather your research is to start with the conclusion before you go through the introduction and main body. Conclusion is where the author makes his argument. That’s where one can find whether they are reviewing the right article. Starting with introduction only confuses and intimidates the reader.
  3. Planning; Plan out your literature review on a piece of paper. Make a numbered list of which article will be mentioned one after another. This way you will feel compelled to work on your writing methodically and the finesse will show in your work.
  4. Writing the literary review; now you will start writing your literature review on black and white. Follow on the points thoroughly and don’t get lost in the process. While writing your first draft, consider jotting down points that you come up with while writing, so that you can consider them later for inclusion in the second draft.
  5. Second draft planning; now you will begin your second draft. Put the paper with the points you collected in the first draft in front of you and start writing a new outline. Keep all the points that you worked in the first draft and then look into incorporating your points gathered in the first draft; for inclusion in the second draft. You can take out portions and paragraphs that were included in the first draft and are not useful for the second draft.
  6. Second Draft writing; now write your second draft according to your writing plan and yet again, keep a piece of paper with you to write down points that come up while you are writing your draft. These are to be included in the third and final draft.
  7. Third Draft planning; now in your third draft you will finalize your work. Take out your new points and add them at strategic places but your focus should mainly be on the conclusion. Finesse is your target, so be careful in referencing. Keep your assigned referencing style in mind and put in the references. Clean up your language and focus in trimming your argument to create a better flow.

So here we are, literary reviews are simple when they are planned ahead. The more you plan and write your points down before executing, the more organized and polished your writing will be.

We wish you the best of luck with your papers and if you need help then visit us at Dissertation Pros.