2020-01-23
We shared tips on searching for and assessing papers for your literature review in our previous blog. We will now talk more about how to better organise the content and to what you need to pay attention when writing your literature review.
Before you start writing the review, you should first organise what content you are going to include.
The organisation of content will depend on:
⦁ the nature of your paper
⦁ the expectations of the field and
⦁ any stipulated word limit
There is no fixed approach. You may only be required to review the most relevant and recent papers in some fields, while in others a thorough historical overview of the topic is expected.
For a brief review:
If the common practice in your academic field only requires a brief review of current research, a single section might be enough to do the job.
For a longer review:
When writing a longer literature review, using multiple sections and using sub-headings could be a good idea.
Common ways of organising a longer review:
⦁ using a chronological approach, starting with early developments and ending with the most up-to-date studies
⦁ writing around separate themes, or different theoretical approaches or perspectives
⦁ looking at different research methods if methodology is an important theme of your research
After developing a clear concept for organising the content of your review, you are now ready to actually start writing!
Throughout your writing process, it’s important to bear in mind:
“The purpose of a review is not to list the studies, but to critically evaluate them.”
You can try following the steps below:
⦁ Start with an introduction that explains why the topic is important and sets out the structure or scope of the review.
⦁ Make constant comparisons and connections: each paragraph should be clearly linked to the overall topic and the connections between different areas should be explicit.
⦁ Highlight controversial or inconsistent findings and discuss any ongoing debates and disagreements in the field.
⦁ Be sure to cite any papers that contradict your approach/findings/hypothesis. If you don’t, a reviewer is sure to spot the omission!
Once your review is complete, the next step is to summarise the findings, identify the gaps in the literature, provide the rationale for your study and explain what it will contribute to research and practice.
联合总编及执行编辑 (社会科学)
Rachel于2001年刚在University of Exeter 取得博士学位的同时，以自由编辑的身份首次加入我们。在担任博士后研究人员数年之后，她专注于大学教授心理学，并于2010年回到AsiaEdit，并专注于学术编辑专业。她于2018年升任助理总编辑，并于2020年继而成为我们的联合主编。由于无法完全离开学术界，她还在意大利的一所英语大学教授心理学。
2020-01-23
We shared tips on searching for and assessing papers for your literature review in our previous blog. We will now talk more about how to better organise the content and to what you need to pay attention when writing your literature review.
Before you start writing the review, you should first organise what content you are going to include.
The organisation of content will depend on:
⦁ the nature of your paper
⦁ the expectations of the field and
⦁ any stipulated word limit
There is no fixed approach. You may only be required to review the most relevant and recent papers in some fields, while in others a thorough historical overview of the topic is expected.
For a brief review:
If the common practice in your academic field only requires a brief review of current research, a single section might be enough to do the job.
For a longer review:
When writing a longer literature review, using multiple sections and using sub-headings could be a good idea.
Common ways of organising a longer review:
⦁ using a chronological approach, starting with early developments and ending with the most up-to-date studies
⦁ writing around separate themes, or different theoretical approaches or perspectives
⦁ looking at different research methods if methodology is an important theme of your research
After developing a clear concept for organising the content of your review, you are now ready to actually start writing!
Throughout your writing process, it’s important to bear in mind:
“The purpose of a review is not to list the studies, but to critically evaluate them.”
You can try following the steps below:
⦁ Start with an introduction that explains why the topic is important and sets out the structure or scope of the review.
⦁ Make constant comparisons and connections: each paragraph should be clearly linked to the overall topic and the connections between different areas should be explicit.
⦁ Highlight controversial or inconsistent findings and discuss any ongoing debates and disagreements in the field.
⦁ Be sure to cite any papers that contradict your approach/findings/hypothesis. If you don’t, a reviewer is sure to spot the omission!
Once your review is complete, the next step is to summarise the findings, identify the gaps in the literature, provide the rationale for your study and explain what it will contribute to research and practice.
联合总编及执行编辑 (社会科学)
Rachel于2001年刚在University of Exeter 取得博士学位的同时，以自由编辑的身份首次加入我们。在担任博士后研究人员数年之后，她专注于大学教授心理学，并于2010年回到AsiaEdit，并专注于学术编辑专业。她于2018年升任助理总编辑，并于2020年继而成为我们的联合主编。由于无法完全离开学术界，她还在意大利的一所英语大学教授心理学。
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