The Importance of Literature Review in Research Writing
Doing a thorough literature review is crucial when you write about research at any level. It is basic homework that should be done vigilantly, and a given fact in all research papers. By providing one - usually stated in your introduction ahead of your thesis statement - you are telling your reader that you have not overlooked the basics of research. It does not only survey what research has been done in the past on your topic, but it also evaluates, summarizes, compares, and correlates numerous books, research articles, and other relevant sources that are directly related to your current research.
The literature review consequently helps you create a sense of rapport with your audience or readers so they can trust that you have done your homework. As a result, they can give you credit for your due diligence: you have done your fact-finding mission, one of the initial steps of any research writing. Literature reviews also help you avoid incidental plagiarism; during the compilation of your review, you could then identify if someone else has done similar research on your topic. By knowing this fact, you can tweak your own research in such a way that it is not a sheer review of someone else’s original or old idea.
As you assemble secondary sources, you will condense, evaluate, synthesize, and paraphrase the sense of those sources in your own words. Through this inspection process, you will be able to place the relevance of your research in the larger context of what other researchers have already previously done on your topic. Thus, helping you rationalize why you need to do this particular research; you may be using a new or different research method which has not been available before, allowing you to collect the data more accurately thanks to many innovations of modern technology. Therefore, it is essential in helping you shape and guide your research in a direction you may not have thought of, by offering fresh insights and different perspectives on the research topic.
