What are the steps in writing a review of related literature?

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What are the steps in writing a review of related literature?

A research paper or dissertation is a reader centered version of the literature, which means that you get to be the narrator! As lengthy as it may seem, the most important part of writing a paper remains to be its literature review. Now if you don’t enjoy writing as much and are stuck on the literature review, just know that we’ve all been there.

Literature review can indeed be the lengthiest part of the paper and surely the most time taking one. If you’re running short of time and have a deadline to meet, you’re at the right place. These steps may help you in effectively finding related literature without having to hire British dissertation editors. Since you already are short of time, let’s get started!

Narrow Your Research

In simpler terms; know what you’re looking for. Take your time to clear your head before beginning so you have a clear direction of what you want to work with. Choose a topic carefully and try sorting related topics which might help you to substantiate your research. This way you’ll stick to one route instead of wasting time trying to switch topics.

Additionally, this might also help you in finding relevant articles to quote, once you know exactly what you are looking for. Consequently, you’ll save a ton of time trying to skim through different articles. As soon as you find relevant research papers, stick by them because now there’s no going back. Going back will only cost you more time and you’ll have to start the research all over again. Therefore, it is important to work on the topic you’re truly confident with.

Read Carefully

Once you have skimmed the article and found it fit for your literature review, you need to scan it. Scanning includes an in depth analysis, so you move from general to specific. In other words, now you have to look for material that you can add in your dissertation.  Look for statements which may help you prove your own research and mark them.

These lines will not only substantiate your research, they will also provide you with more ideas. You can use these ideas for further researching to broaden your horizons and add more to your original work. This way you’ll have more room to extend your research. The more the merrier!

Draft Your Literature Review

Now that you have the all the ingredients, let’s get cooking! –err, writing! Start by jotting down all that you have in your mind in the form of points. This way you will have a mind map which helps you sort the best ideas and the ones you want to add in your work. Once you have made bullets, add the relevant quotations in it (ones you extracted from relevant research papers in the previous step). Make sure that every idea of your own has a supporting statement from a published research to ensure authenticity.

You can also try to explain the quoted statements in the following lines to ensure that the reader is able to understand your point. But this explanation should be directly related to the original idea. This might also help you to add your own uniqueness to the pre-existing ideas. Moreover, this will enable you to add volume to your work –remember you also have a word limit to achieve!

Avoid Plagiarism

This step will ensure that your paper has a survival chance in the research world. Plagiarism is said to be an academic theft and if you think you can get away with it, get to know Mr. Technology. Thanks to technology, we have a number of applications, accessible to all, which can easily detect plagiarism.  Therefore, make sure to always give credit to the originator of an idea or a statement otherwise your whole research will go to waste.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is by generating authenticity in your work. Even if you are taking a few lines from someone else’s work, make sure to give them credit. It is important to always write the extracted statements in quotation marks without adding or subtracting from it. In addition to this, always make sure to mention the article and authors name in the bibliography as well as in-text citation. You can do so by following your recommended style (APA, MLA, Chicago etc.)

Bind The Whole Text

Once you’re done with everything mentioned above, it is time to bind everything together. Convert those bullet points into paragraphs to match the structure of your paper. Divide every idea into a separate paragraph, this way you will have more control over how much to write. At this point, you can also declutter your work by avoiding or removing unimportant/irrelevant data. Furthermore, this will help you to make sure every idea is authentic and unique.

Make sure to bind the whole text using cohesive devices, use connecting words to avoid dispersion of text and ideas. Once you are done with editing, give it a read again to look for errors. This would allow you to evaluate your own work and make the necessary changes. Once you are content with the whole work and it’s structuring, you are good to go. If you are satisfied with your final product, turn it in already! What are you waiting for?

In conclusion, we do understand that dealing with literature review may seem very daunting and overwhelming. It takes a lot of practice, patience and research to draft a well-structured, scholarly and authentic literature review. However, if you follow these five steps in writing a review of related literature, you will never have to hire British dissertation editors. This will help you in saving a hefty amount of money, along with the hassle of proofreading. In addition, these steps will also save your time if you are looking forward to write your dissertation independently. Not only would this guide you, but will also create a path which you can follow leading to your success. We hope this helps, Good Luck!

By | 2022-11-28T09:24:10+00:00 March 16th, 2022|Academic|0 Comments

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