A masters dissertation literature review is not an easy task to cope with. This writing assignment requires your study of publications on a certain topic. Apply your skills and knowledge to see if relevant research is complete or there are still shortcomings.
Writing such an assignment requires the search of multiple sources and publications. Your task will be to examine them and inform the reader about your findings.
Complete a couple of tasks and you will do it easily:
- Looking for related publications
- Research and assessment of sources
- Determination of discussions, themes, and shortcomings
- Planning the paper
- Writing itself
Summing up the publications is not sufficient. It is crucial to research and depict the true situation with that subject to your audience. Quite often, students struggle with finding the existing gaps in scholarship or study or analyzing some theory. This instruction will help you figure out how to facilitate the literature paper writing.
A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review: Let’s Make It Efficient
Many people get stuck when it comes to working on a proposal literature review. It’s no wonder because not everyone can even understand the purpose of a literature review in a dissertation. It is true, sometimes, this writing is not necessary, however, it is very desirable.
The primary reason is to build the idea of your research. You must see what knowledge there exists in this field and on that theme and which one lacks. You should show people how to understand the topic. Of course, you cannot afford to spend too much time doing it. Don’t worry because you should not.
The information provided below should help you master the required skills quite quickly. Just follow the tips and you will see how easily everything can be done.
What is the Purpose of a Dissertation Literature Review?
Our writing service admits that not all students can fully realize why they need to craft this complicated work. However, every writing assignment has its purposes and this one is not an exception.
Here are the leading reasons for writing this type of work:
- Learn the existing situation with the topic under discussion
- Not waste your time on something done by others
- Think about your own theories and methods
- See what kind of topic-related problems are not solved yet
- Determine the main results on the topic
The literature review structure is also quite specific and should be strictly kept.
Writing a Good Dissertation Literature Review Bit By Bit
Any writer can buy literature review at any time, however, you can simply sit and try to do it yourself. The further steps are not complicated and easy to stick to. Just spend some time to complete each of them.
Find Related Literature
Do not start working on methodology for literature review dissertation at once. Find publications related to your theme. They must be credible enough.
If your literature review is not linked to a dissertation, pick a key question to guide the search. The answer to it has to be obvious. The audience should answer it based on your review.
For instance: How does social media affect the self-image of teens?
After the question is formed, create a list of words that refer to it. For example:
- Teens, teenagers, youth
- Self-image, self-esteem
- Social media, TikTok, Instagram
Now, you can see all relevant sources. Do not fail to read the abstracts to understand whether it is really somehow related to your question.
Assess and Seize Publications
The analysis and research of the sources is a must. Since you do not afford to read all of them, it is necessary to understand which of those refer to your question to the biggest extent. Ask yourself about:
- the problem addressed
- the main visions
- the core theories and approaches
- the approach used
- the results of the study
- the connection of the publication to other ones in that field
- whether the literature helps understand the subject
- key points and insights
- the pros and cons of the study
Include only the most significant publications based on your research. Cite them according to the chosen citation style.
Determine Discussions and Gaps
Now, see whether the publications are connected with one another. See if these approaches lose their value with years or not, on which points those sources disagree. See if any sources or theories have changed the field, what weaknesses should be addressed, etc.
A Dissertation Literature Review Structure
The structure of a literature review dissertation is not much different from the rest of the academic writing types. It consists of an introduction, main body, and summary.
Introduction
This paragraph of your critical literature review dissertation must be brief and precise. The introduction tells about the topic you are covering. If you are looking to write a worthy paper, then you must provide arguments. However, simply providing arguments is not sufficient. It is crucial to submit the reasons that support them.
Main Paragraphs
In that part, the person who does the research discusses all academic sources chosen for his paper. The publishing can be enlisted in different ways:
- Chronological
- Thematic
- Methodological
- Theoretical
The chronological approach is the most popular among students because it is the simplest. You should not just summarize your sources though. It will be necessary to research patterns, core discussions, and main points, as well as give your vision.
In case there are recurring central topics, you can use a thematic approach. Just build your review around different aspects of the topic.
The methodological approach is suitable when your publications come from different fields or subjects. Compare results of quantitative and qualitative research, divide the sources into cultural, historical, sociological, etc.
In a theoretical approach, you can highlight different theories, concepts, models, etc. Discuss different theories for your research or argue about their relevance.
In these paragraphs, all arguments have to be provided clearly and linked to the publication. If any of the scholars agree with your viewpoint, let the audience know about it. Show your knowledge of how much the field was researched before. Do not fail to mention the viewpoints that disagree with your opinion. Otherwise, your study will not be reliable.
Quotations also deserve special attention. Do not use direct quotations all the time. It is not recommended by tutors. You should demonstrate your ability to work with a piece of text. While using direct quotations, you can hardly prove that. It is recommended to rewrite quotations. Only if a direct quotation can depict your argument, you can keep it.
Conclusion
In the conclusion to your review, you should sum up all of your findings. If there is a wider research proposal, mention the shortcomings in the literature and let the audience know how exactly your contribution can improve them. Recommend further research. It will give you extra points and show your analytical skills.
A guide to creating the dissertation literature review gives you a much better insight into working with these types of assignments. However, you should not forget to be extremely attentive to the structure of the main body. The body is the most essential part of your work. It has to be well-organized. Remember that it can be arranged in several ways mentioned above. Stick to one of the methods. If you mix them, your work will look messy and not professional.
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