The literature review forms the basis for your research, hence, it must be planned and written with skill. The steps below should help you come up with high quality and effective literature review for your research paper. 1) Formulating the problem What is your research question and what are the important aspects of the research questions? Be careful not to give too much information that it becomes irrelevant or give too little information that it fails to satisfy the problem. In line with this, understand the scope of your study and the nature of your study. 2) Search for literature Find authoritative and relevant materials for your research. Do not restrict yourself to books. Utilize reports, periodicals, articles written by other researchers, journals, interviews, etc. Note, before you use other sources apart from books, verify that they are peer-reviewed for credibility purposes. In addition, remember that quantity does not always translate to quality, get reliable sources that will give you the desired results as opposed to so many sources that will help with writing essays or will not help you achieve your target. 3) Evaluating data Find the sources that will make a significant contribution to your study. To know how significant a source is to your research read the abstract, the table of content or the introduction. Although your topic could be mentioned in any of the above or commentary, it might lack necessary depth for your research assignment. 4) Analyzing and interpreting Your literature survey should be characteristic of evaluation. What conclusions can you draw from the literature surveyed and how relevant is it to your study. Analyzing and interpreting is not one of the easiest tasks to undertake. As such, when it proves difficult, do not hesitate to seek assistance from your instructors or professionals.
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