Literature Review: Cognition of Author’s Ideas and Intensions

There are no exact rules for writing a literature review. In that regard, a book is the primary source you could rely on. It should be stressed that each educational establishment may determine their own requirements for the review; still, there are some common peculiarities for this type of writing.

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a brief summary of the book under consideration where a student should include the analysis of main themes and ideas of the work. A literature review also contains scholars’ acknowledgements and their own evaluation of the quality of work.

In a literature review, the writer must take into consideration the strengths and the weaknesses of the given book or article; it is not just a mere description of facts but also the representation of the most interesting and disputable arguments put forward by the author.

The main points of a literature review:

1. To identify the exact and the most successful points of the book. The task of a literature review is to single out the facts covering the whole idea of the work.
2. To define the main thesis of work and to assess its appropriateness to the whole topic. In a literature review, it is also important to distinguish between your own vision of the problem and the actual problem raised in the work under analysis.
3. On reading the literary piece, you should make the necessary conclusions thus referring to additional sources for a good literature review.
4. After a thorough consideration, make up the list of questions for your literature review. For instance:

• What are the authors’ intentions?
• How does the author highlight the topic
• What approaches are used in depiction of the author’s main idea?
• What are the most disputable topics for discussion?
• What are the grounds for the research?

In case you follow these guidelines, you will succeed in delivering a high quality literature review.