Literature Review
To write a thesis statement and consequently write a research paper that will give you the desired results, you must conduct a comprehensive thesis statement. One of the misconceptions that students have about writing a literature review is that the more your sources the better. This is not necessarily true, you could have many sources that do not add value to your research paper, consequently, you write a thesis statement that is not up to standard and a research paper of the same quality.
What factors should you consider then, to conduct and write a high-quality literature review for the research paper?
- Number of sources
Different levels of study have different demands, find out from your supervisor how many sources you should use in case it is not specified.
- Types of resources
While some researchers or supervisors would require that you use books or a specific book, some may demand that you integrate books with journals, magazines, websites, reports, etc. It is always important to ascertain that the sources used are credible, reliable, and authoritative.
- The type of literature review to conduct
Different assignments have different requirements. as such, you could choose to take the systematic literature review, theoretical literature review, methodological literature review, argumentative literature review, etc.
- Organizing the literature review
Note that while some require you to write continuous prose, some may require you to provide subheadings and background information as you proceed with your review.
- The scope of your study
Write a thesis statement that will guide your literature review, and on the other hand, you can choose to let the researchers determine the thesis statement you write.
- How current are your sources
You will definitely do yourself a disservice if you write a thesis statement or research paper basing your arguments on outdated sources.