How to Write a Literature Review: Lesson Two

Once the student and their professional writer have completed the first stages of the literature review, the task of in-depth analysis begins. For college and university students to fully develop a literature review, academic writing companies offer custom essays to assist with the process. In order to fulfill the class curriculum requirements in upper level college courses and pass the committee reviews for Master’s Degrees and Doctorate Degrees, the format must adhere to standard practices. Working with a professional writer provided by a reputable academic writing company will assure that these requirements are met.

The next consideration in this process is to look carefully and closely at the chosen sources. The first question requires analyzing the publication’s author. This aspect, provenance, is simply the author’s credentials. For example, a written work by a lay person, no matter how well crafted, does not carry the provenance of one written by another person with an advanced educational degree or years of study in the subject matter being considered. An integral part of evaluating the provenance is deciding whether the conclusions in the publications are supported by evidence. If they are, is the evidence recent, scientifically formulated, conducted using scientific methods, verified by statistical data, and so forth?

Once the student who orders a literature review has examined these facts, the next step is to evaluate the author’s objectivity. The professional writer with an academic writing company, along with the student, will comb the publications for the presence or absence of conflicting data, an academically fair assessment of the findings, and the possibility of missing or misleading information. All of these issues should be addressed in scholarly publications. If they are not, the student may choose not to include certain publications previously chosen for the literature review.

The next two phases in writing a literature review involve more subjective assessments of the chosen scholarly publications. At the college and university levels, professors expect students to be able to actually think about what they are reading and writing. While this may seem like an obvious point, many students who order a custom literature review do not know that they must invest the time to reflect a deeper level of understanding. The next question is whether or not the publication is persuasive. Does the author convince the reader of their conclusions? Following directly behind this question is whether the findings contribute to the body of knowledge that already exists on the subject.

Next, the student is ready to summarize their findings. Whether the literature review is a solitary assignment for an upper level college or university class or a chapter component in a thesis or dissertation, this section is important for representing the overall analysis. This conclusion section in the format of how to write a literature review should be brief and to the point. Depending on the class requirements, a bulleted list may be all that is needed. The number of conclusions depends on the scope of the issue and the former analyses of the publications. Following this conclusion, students who will want to succinctly state what issues demand further research. There may be gaps in prior knowledge or contradictions in findings that will spark an idea for future research. These are the questions that belong in this section of the literature review. The final draft will also include a reference section that is presented in the citation format required by the professor, college or university.