10 Common Problems with Literature Reviews

by Carter Toni

Are you writing a literature review for a dissertation or are you planning to write one?  You have collected all the sources and you have picked up your laptop and you are all set to write it. Students think like this then STOP writing all of a sudden! Don’t start writing your literature review without knowing ten common problems that destroy the effectiveness of your Literature Review.

First of all, let’s have a quick review about the definition of Literature Review

Literature Review contains all the background information about the thesis. It is written after collecting, analyzing, and evaluating previous researches that are relevant to the thesis. It proves the credibility of the thesis.

The most important factor to determine whether a dissertation is well written is its credibility and any problem in Literature Review will affect the credibility of the research.

Following are 10 common problems in most literature Reviews:

1. Adding Personal Judgment:

One of the most common problems with some literature reviews is that dissertation writers turn the literature review chapter into a comment section where they start giving personal opinions on the research. The purpose of writing a literature review is to prove the credibility of your dissertation by giving references to researches relevant to your dissertation that were conducted in the past.

Literature Review should be free from any personal judgment or opinion at all costs. Adding personal opinion and judgments in the literature review and that throws the credibility of the English Literature Review in the drain.

2. Using Irrational Words:

Some dissertation writers turn their literature review section into a drama theatre where they use emotional words to create an impact on the reader. The only kind of impact this practice of adding emotional words in your literature makes is that it brings in the quality of the literature review.

Literature reviews are always written with rational and logical words. The research should be enough to convince the reader.

3. Irrelevant Content:

The most problem in most literature reviews is that they are filled with irrelevant content. Since the length of the literature review should be 10 to 20% of your thesis, dissertation writers think that adding every source even the one that has no too little relevance will make their literature review seem solid.

A literature review is not a mere collection of all the sources that resonate with your thesis. The process of writing a literature review includes finding many sources, picking the most credible and relevant ones, critically analyzing and evaluating them.

4. Using Non-Credible Data:

Not every kind of data is appropriate enough to be added to the literature review. There should be a set standard for picking the type of data that will be used in the literature review.

If a dissertation writer uses non-credible data in his research, the reader will doubt the credible sources along with non-credible resources that affect the reputation of the thesis.

5. Wrong In-Text Citation:

Most dissertation has this problem in which in-text citation is done in a wrong manner because of which their dissertation get the label of having plagiarized content in it. As you know, plagiarism puts the credibility of your research in the bin.

The first and last names of the researcher should never be used in the in-text citation. Just cite the last name of the researcher along with the year in which he has published the research to avoid plagiarism.

6. Pasting URL in Body:

This problem is present in most literature reviews irrespective of the fact that they are written on different degree levels. Most dissertation writers copy paste URL in between the body of the literature review and this mistakes also results in plagiarism.

The correct way of in-text citation of URL is to use the last name and year of the research in the body and putting the URL in the reference section.

7. Covering Only One Side of Research:

A coin has two sides and research also has two aspects, some people approve and some people disapprove of it. No research is accepted by all people, there are always sources that contradict it.

Most dissertation has this problem in which only the sources that are in favor of the research are mentioned while sources that disapprove of the research are not mentioned at all. If a dissertation only has sources that are in favor of it then it will be never considered credible in the eyes of the reader.

8. Lacks Connection With Research:

Sometimes the literature review lacks connection with the thesis. The dissertation is about one topic while the literature review covers more than one argument and this kind of literature review confuses the reader instead of convincing him.

The literature review should have a direct and solid connection with the research and should revolve around only one research problem.

9. Using Non-Academic Sources:

Some literature reviews also cover nonacademic sources like magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc. These types of sources are not academic and should not be added to the literature reviews.

The literature review should only have the most credible sources that are written in a period of the last three years.

10. Lengthy:

Another common problem with most literature reviews is that dissertation writers often turn literature reviews intothe essay and make them extremely length and descriptive. The literature review should be to the point and should not have any extra information apart from that.

Last Words:

The problem mentioned above should be avoided at any cost as they ruin the credibility of your research to another level.

Still writing a literature review is not a piece of cake and there is nothing wrong with taking help from someone. You can ask your teachers and friends and you can search for the Best dissertation writing service in UK and can ask their team of the writer to help you out.

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