Students need to write a lot of papers when they study. You may need to write courseworks, essays, or even a dissertation. But what about a literature review? When should you write it?
A literature review is a paper where you analyze a definite issue. It is the part of a research paper where you use reliable sources to prove the discussion. You should not describe the authors’ works. You should provide your own research with references to the author.
Not sure of writing a good review? You may pay someone from a literature review writing service to do a high-quality paper for you. An experienced literature review writer will help you with any topic you need. The writers know how to make the best structure and what source to choose. All the sources will be scientific and up-to-date. You may be sure that the work is free from plagiarism. The editors will make sure that there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Scientific Literature Review Structure
What parts does the literature review include? If the review is a separate work, you should distinct the following parts:
- Introduction. In this part, you should introduce the topic of your review. It is concise content of what the paper will be about. You should talk about how you have found the sources and how you reached the conclusions. The last sentence of the introduction should be a thesis sentence.
- Body. Remember that you should write about each author’s work as a complete discussion. There should be links between the information you provide. Then you should analyze the information from the sources. You need to interpret the results depending on your thoughts. Don’t forget to prove your point of view. Write about how the results are significant to the larger work. Then talk about what advantages and disadvantages each author’s viewpoint has. What is correct or false in your mind? What criticism is there about the authors’ works? This part of the body is called evaluation.
- Conclusion. In your conclusion, you should make a summary of your results. The results should come from the literature you use. Talk about how significant the sources and the findings are. Describe how the findings are related to the research you have done before.
Methods of Organizing the Sources in Literature Review
The scientific literature review should be well-organized. There are different methods of organizing the sources in your work. What are the main ones?
- Chronological pattern. You may organize your source by the year of publication. Remember that all the sources should be up-to-date. It means that the date of publication should be within the last 5 years. You may arrange the information in chronological order and cite your sources accordingly.
- Thematic pattern. You may arrange the information depending on the theme you write about. Find several small subthemes and arrange the source in these parts.
- Methodological pattern. This method implies that you arrange the source depending on the research method. You may divide the body into several parts. In each part, compare two research methods. Use the sources related to the comparison. The sources may also be divided as related to sociology, history, or culture.
- Theoretical pattern. In this method, you may divide the sources depending on the theory you analyze. Divide several theories and models and arrange the sources. You should cite the sources if you give a definition of a theory. You may write both about theories and approaches. The most important is to give your review as a whole structure.
Some Formatting Tips from Experts
In the scientific literature review, it is very important to format the paper in a relevant way. You should use too short or too long sentences and paragraphs. A perfect sentence is from 15 to 35 words. A perfect paragraph is from 65 to 160 words. You should divide the paper into paragraphs. There should be at least two paragraphs on one page.
Use the size and font your teacher asks you. Yet, if there are no detailed instructions, it is better to choose Times New Roman 12. Indent each paragraph so it is good-looking.
For a literature review, it is crucial to cite all the sources you use. You should cite them at the end of the sentence. Cite all the sentences which present the authors’ thoughts. At the end of the paper, provide a reference list. There, you should give detailed information about the sources. Write the authors’ name, name of the work, and year of publication. You should also include the place of publication or web link to the source.
There are different formatting styles for a scientific paper. Your teacher will tell you which one to use. The most widespread styles are APA, MLA, and Harvard. Each style has its own rules of formatting references, citations, and all the text. It is an important part of the literature review. Your teacher may give 1/5 points for correct formatting. You can read about the rules in formatting guides.
What if you do not understand how to format your reference list in the correct manner? You may use online services. For example, in Google Scholar, you may find the sources depending on the year of publication. Then you may find the formatted information about the source. There are different formatting styles. Choose the one you need and copy the link. Yet, some styles are a bit obsolete. So, you should check the formatting after you paste the reference to your paper.
