Students always put the most time-consuming tasks on their waiting list. It’s not because they are lazy or don’t like studying, they just don’t have much time for everything. And time-consuming tasks like dissertation literature review, for example, is them. It’s evident that a literature review for dissertation is a really daring task and you need to spend a lot of time browsing your notes, searching online and of course, sitting in the library.
Of course, you may try to search for a literature review help online. There are a lot of samples and different templates for the basic research, and definitely, there are dissertation writing services which can assist you with that as well.
Here are some tips on how to conduct a good literature review and make a step forward in your future. You will learn what is a literature review, how to write it and what other options you have.
What is a literature review?
A literary review is a summary and explanation of the current state of knowledge in your area of study which you can find in different journal articles, publications, and other literature. Literature review can be of two kinds: a standalone assignment during the university course, usually as a part of other training or research process, or as a preparation for the massive research or prior to dissertation writing.
A literature review is focused on the hypothesis or thesis argument which help to define what kind of review you are writing. For example, literature review for research can contain the information about current findings leading to the innovation point of the future paper, methodology review defines the methods which are currently used to create a framework for the researches.
Here are the primary goals of any scientific literature review:
- It provides information on a particular topic including selected high-quality articles and studies which are relevant and important.
- It provides a starting point for the research to fill a gap in the current state of science.
- It ensures that an author or researcher won’t duplicate the scientific work which had already been done and will bring innovative ideas into the science.
- It provides clues for the future research and highlights the key findings.
- It is a starting point of analysis and choice of methodologies and approaches for the research.
Types of literature review
There are various types of literature reviews. They are usually depending on the academic disciplines, and follow different approaches of writing; a literature review types are explained below:
- An argumentative literature review is examining literature to support or debunk an argument, assumption or problem which was already established in the literature. Argumentative reviews are helping to identify the problem which can be examined or even solved during your research.
- A systematic literature review consists of an overview of existing evidence to formulate the research question. It usually focuses on a very specific empirical question. It helps to collect and identify the data.
- A critical literature review provides critics on the notion or hypotheses and underlines the need for further researches. It should contain all the studies which address or related to the topic.
- A historical review examines research throughout a chosen period of time to identify the directions of future research. Usually, this period of time starts from the first time the issue appears and includes the changes or solutions provided and why they are not efficient.
- A methodological literature review is focused on the method of analysis to provide a framework of understanding and further steps in the research. It also allows researchers to define the major methods to be used in the work, like data analysis and collection, as well as determine possible issues.
- A Theoretical literature review examines the theory or theories and relationships between them. It also may establish the lack of ground evidence in the theory and provide new explanations or further research steps.
It’s essential to note, that literature review format depends on the type of review, however, there are some basic principles you need to follow to craft the quality review for your future paper.
Dissertation literature review structure
The literature review structure is very close to the essay. And it doesn’t matter if you are writing it for your dissertation or any other paper added to your term. So, it has an introduction, body and a review for a dissertation?”.
Here is what you should include while writing a literature review into each part:
- The literature review introduction is aimed to define the topic of research and provide the context for the review of literature. It will establish or reasons or point of view. Also, it should establish the organization of your review and provide the scope.
- The literature review body organizes the literature in accordance with common themes. It provides insights into relations between the topic and the area of study. In your body, you should move from general view to the focus of your research.
- The conclusion of the literature review contains the summary of important aspects of the existing literature sources and evaluate the current state of researches. It identifies the gaps in existing knowledge and links your research to it.
Now you know how to write a literature review for a dissertation, yet, you are not sure how many words you should include into it.
How long should a literature review be
The size of your literature review should be between 2-3,000 words and it depends on the area of your study, type of review and of course the current task or aim – is it a general task or this is a dissertation literature review. Dissertation always require prior research, so it is mandatory.
When you decide to conduct a literature review, don’t forget that you are limited with words and should include only important information about the current state of the science. You can follow any literature review methodology while creating your paper, however, it’s better to pick the one which applies to your primary goal.
Before even start writing consult with your instructor or a professor to get the valuable advice which type, and structure of literature review you should choose. You can also search the online help from academic writing companies or review different samples published for free. Also will be easy with our tips writing a literature review dissertation.