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At school or college, students need to write literature reviews. However, this becomes a real challenge for many inexperienced students. Poor literature review writing is a result of the ineffective integration of arguments. If you have problems with writing a decent literature review, this article will be helpful. In this article, we reviewed the most widespread mistakes of students while writing a literary review.
What is a literature review
A literature review is a piece of academic writing that shows the knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a specific topic. A review gives an overview of a certain topic and allows you to learn about the current theories, methods, and gaps in the existing sources. As a rule, it is a part of more extensive scientific research like a dissertation, project-based research, or a long essay.
Too many words
There is no universal standard regarding the volume of literature review. However, the optimal volume is 25-30 pages. If it’s not stated in the guidelines, consult your supervisor to choose an optimal volume that fits your topic. The common requirement is at least 10 sources per 1,000 words. But it doesn’t mean that you need to compromise their quality. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, and textbooks are considered irrelevant for this type of paper. The foundation for your research should be scientific articles, research reports, and theoretical books. Such short sources will prevent you from diving too deep into the topic.
It’s also important not to try to bite more than you can chew. It refers to the number of pieces you use in your literature review. Be selective and choose the sources that contain most of the relevant information. It’s better to analyze fewer pieces in more detail than to do superficial research on many of them.
Too much criticism
It’s difficult to be objective while analyzing academic pieces. Often students focus on criticizing the pieces instead of an overview from all points of view. Lack of proper research is the most frequent reason why students fail with their essays and research papers. Most writing assignments aim to answer a certain question and the literature review is not an exception. Focusing on the downsides won’t let you answer the required question and achieve high results with your essay. You shouldn’t simply wrap up the ideas and present them as arguments. You need to make up your own line of arguments that support a certain idea.
Too long sentences
Writing any paper isn’t a piece of cake. Except for the flow of your ideas, you need to take care of the basic writing rules. Lengthy sentences are one of the most frequent problems while completing scientific papers. They harm readability and discourage readers from getting acquainted with your work. You may not notice them while writing, but they become apparent while you are proofreading your piece.
To correct them effectively, check how you can separate different ideas. The sentence should include one idea at a time. Unless you compare or contrast anything, you need to be careful with the word count in a sentence. Try to work on your unique writing style that engages the readers. Such a style is vital for introductions and conclusions. Besides, this will be helpful in writing other kinds of pieces. If you face challenges and don’t feel confident enough to complete a paper yourself, you can always find college essay help with writing, editing, or rewriting at special online services.
Spoilers to the plot
The lack of arguments may lead to simply exposing the plot of the literature pieces. For sure, this is not a good way to complete this type of paper. Remember that you are using arguments from pieces only to support your key ideas. Besides, you need to choose pieces for an overview wisely. They should correspond to the content of work and consider the issues fully and deeply.
You need to include both the pieces of landmark and modern literature. Landmark literature relates to articles that have already presented an important or influential idea. Current literature demonstrates the evolution of the topic. Keep in mind to state the differences and similarities between the old and the new pieces used.
Make sure you paid attention to all the critical questions. Check your steps with a supervisor so that he can guide you in this process. Ask your supervisor for clear requirements so that you can complete the most effective piece possible.
Being too emotional
Although this is only a part of more elaborate research, a literature review is a piece of scientific writing. Hence, it needs to be written in a scientific style. You shouldn’t use any colloquial words or phrases. direct quotes and paraphrases are also not desired to complete such a paper.
Wrapping up with the literature review writing
The main rule in literature review writing is to be careful while formulating your own arguments. Male sure to select only credible sources to back them up. Hopefully, our suggestions from this article will help you come up with an outstanding literature review.
