Complete Guide for Writing a Dissertation Literature Review

If you are a book lover, there will be so much joy in your eyes after hearing about the term "literature," but non-book lovers might just lose that glitter the instant they hear about the same. The world of literature holds the key to so much wisdom that one is oblivious to. It can assist one in determining what to expect in the future, what to learn from the past, and, most importantly, how to live in the present. The power that any piece of literature carries within it is exhibited finely in the following quote:

“A library card is a powerful weapon to change lives. With it, we learn how to value what we have, to mourn what we have lost and to dream of what we might become.”

– Val McDermid

There are unlimited possibilities when it comes to the world of books and their capacity to enlighten. That is precisely why writing a literature review is so very important in the process of producing the final draft. This blog is the key to knowing how to write a literature review dissertation that will depict the amount of time and hard work put into it.

What Is a Literature Review And Why Is it Important?

Whenever an academic document is written, there is a fair amount of research done prior to writing it so that the contents and the data are perfectly written as well as free from any intellectual errors. This becomes even more crucial to do in the case of writing a dissertation literature review. But before we explain why that is so, let us first look into the definition and understand what is literature review in dissertation?

For most students, it simply means reading course material or related books, but that is not it. A literature review is a critical assessment of scholarly documents on any chosen topic to provide an overview of the following things:

• Learn about current knowledge available on the topic
• Identify theories related to the field of study
• Get to know specific methods used in the field of study
• Discover gaps in the existing research on the subject

And writing a dissertation literature review is important for the purpose of demonstrating familiarity with the topic and making sure that you found a gap in the research and are going to fill it with the help of your chosen dissertation theme.

Learn Writing a Dissertation Literature Review with Ease

There is so much pressure and false perceptions attached to the process of conducting a literature review. This terrorizes the student, and they tend to avoid doing one until and unless it is absolutely necessary to do one. And at times, this leads to hasty and poorly formulated academic documents. To avoid this, our experts have answered the easiest possible way to relive the students' question: how to write a literature review dissertation.

Side note: this process starts after you have reached an initial settlement on what your research topic or theme will be.

Step 1: Identify Authentic Sources

The first step in creating any document would be looking for credible sources to gather information. For this purpose, look at the list of references provided by your professor (if any) or gather your own. For review, only use reputable and trusted sources. Make sure to use all types of documents and do not just focus on one type of source. Here is a list of sources:

• Books
• Google Scholar
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
• Academic journals
• EconLit (economics)
• Library catalog of your university
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)

If you face difficulty in finding these sources and their hard copies, try searching for them in JSTOR or EBSCO.

Step 2: Evaluate and Select

Do not use all the materials that are at your disposal. Scan through it all to identify and select the ones that are the most relevant and close to your research topic. To do this, read the index list of the documents that you have and see what areas and subjects they cover. This is important because a literature review is not done to boost the reading you have done but to narrow down the research area and specify the problem areas.

Step 3: Read the Literature

Start reading your chosen literature one by one. While you are doing so, make notes of the important information alongside. Because it will guide you to better formulate your literature review. Mark your own comments and thoughts so that it is easier to critically analyse the texts that you have chosen to review.

Step 4:Identify Research Gaps

This is crucial to complete any literature review. Research should add some value or try to find answers to any questions. And this could be achieved by finding gaps in the existing literature. If there is nothing to be found or answered on a chosen topic, students should change their themes. And opt for a new one that gives a constructive edge.

Step 5: Create an Outline

Do not rush the process of compiling all of the information you have gathered while reading the literature. Every finding and discovery made during this time period is important and should be acknowledged in a definitive way. And that could only be achieved with the help of an outline. Without it, your dissertation literature review would be meaningless. In this case, you can take any approach you want. For example:

• Theoretical
• Methodological
• Thematic
• Chronological

Step 6: Start Writing the Literature Review

Remember that you are writing just the first draft and not the final one. There is so much scope and time for changing any part of it if that doesn’t seem appropriate or necessary. Start writing, keeping in mind the following pointers:

1. Opt for summarizing and synthesizing the findings instead of elaborating on them.
2. Always analyse and interpret the author’s point of view.
3. Make sure to critically evaluate the references.
4. Write in well-structured paragraphs to make the maximum impact.

Also Check: An Essential Guide to Creating the Perfect Dissertation Contents Page

You can also Check Step by Step Video Guide on Literature Review

Dissertation Writing Services to the Rescue

Creating and building anything from scratch is not an easy process. It takes time and a lot of effort to just get through the initial stages of construction. The same is the case with creating a literature review dissertation. There is so much preparation to do before drafting it, like searching for literary sources, identifying what resonates with your theme, reading them to find out research gaps, etc. They take time, but the results are so much better and more helpful in the process of writing the dissertation. If all of this is making your head go round and round, do not worry; the experts from the best dissertation writing services in Canada are here to your rescue. They will make it all such an easy and informative process that you won’t feel out of place.

From selecting a dissertation topic to writing a fully functional one, our experts can walk you through the entire process with ease. Here is how they do it:

Follow Proper Structure

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