Introduction

The literature review is a key part of any academic paper, as it provides the reader with an overview of what has been done in the field. It’s also an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you have done some research on your topic and show how it relates to other authors’ work.

Writing a good literature review can be challenging, especially if you aren’t used to academic writing. That’s why we’ve prepared this guide full of tips and tricks for helping you write effective papers: from making sense of all those journal articles, books and websites out there; through developing clear conclusions about what works well – or not so well – when it comes to researching topics; all the way through drafting paragraphs which will make readers want more!

Prepare to do a literature review.

Now that you have decided to write a literature review, it is important to prepare yourself for this task. A literature review is a summary of the existing research on a topic. You are required to summarize and analyze the existing evidence in order to show how your study compares with other studies on similar topics.

To perform this function successfully, you need:

• The ability to cite sources accurately;
• An ability to write clearly; and
• A good understanding of what constitutes strong reasoning so as not to fall into common mistakes made by inexperienced writers.

Get some help with your paper.

There are a number of resources available to help you with your paper. If you’re having trouble writing it yourself, consider asking someone else to help you—a friend or colleague or teacher; an online tutor; a professional writer; and so on. You could also find someone who has experience in the topic area and ask them if they would be willing to review your draft for free (or at least for less than $100).

If all else fails, there may be an opportunity for one-on-one tutoring through your school’s librarian or library staff member.

Define the purpose of your paper.

The first step in writing a literature review is defining your purpose for doing so. What is it that you want to prove? What are you trying to learn? What are you trying to do, or understand, with this paper? In other words: what problem does this paper aim to solve for its reader?

This question should be answered clearly and concisely at the beginning of your draft—before going on with any research. It will help guide how much time and energy goes into researching and writing about each element—and also help keep us focused on our goal when we get stuck along the way!

How to write an effective literature review.

• Use a friendly tone.
• Use a conversational style.
• Use active voice for all sentences, especially those that state facts or make direct statements about what you’ve observed or experienced in your research.
• Use a question and answer format. This will help to keep readers engaged while they read through your paper and ask questions along the way (and this is good because it shows them how much effort you put into writing).
• Organize everything into tables of contents: In order to find information quickly later on, people need an easy way to navigate through long documents like literature reviews; however, organizing these tables of contents can be difficult if there aren’t any guidelines for doing so!

Don’t just summarize; analyze.

A literature review is not just a summary of what you read. It’s an analysis of the topic and why it’s important to your own research project, so that readers can understand why you chose them to include in your work!

For example, if we were writing a paper about how organizations use social media for marketing purposes, then our literature review would include many articles about how companies use Facebook and Twitter as part of their marketing strategies. However if we were writing about whether or not social media has positive effects on consumer behavior (i.e., whether people who post on Facebook more often buy more products), then our literature review would focus on those kinds of studies instead!

Keep it simple, but carefully selected citations should be included.

The first step in writing an effective literature review is to think about what you want to say. Then, use your research to find information that supports your argument.

Don’t include too many citations in your paper; otherwise, it becomes overwhelming for the reader and hard to follow. Instead of having an entire section dedicated solely to citing sources, use it as a way of illustrating how those sources support your arguments and findings (and don’t forget about footnotes!).

It’s also important that you choose credible sources—those that are relevant and accurate—and only including them will help readers understand where they came from so they can trust them when reading further on in the paper or reviewing other papers based upon yours

Don’t just write a summary of what you read, but also analyze your topics and justify why they are important to your own research project, so that readers can understand why you chose them to include in your work!

Once you’ve read through your sources and selected those that are relevant to your research, it’s time to start writing. This is where the fun begins!

Don’t just summarize what you read, but analyze it as well. You’ll want to justify why these topics are important in terms of what they add or contribute towards your own research project, so that readers can understand why they were chosen over other options or topics.

Conclusion

The key takeaway is that writing an effective literature review requires you to be well-read, organized, and critical. You need to know what sources are relevant to your paper topic and why they are relevant. You also need to be able to explain how they support your arguments so that someone else who hasn’t read everything on this topic can understand where you’re coming from when making these claims!