Ever felt intimidated by the thought of writing a literature review? Sounds silly, but trust us—it can be intimidating. The fear of being found lacking in academic prowess or not meeting your client’s expectations often prevents most medical writers from even attempting to write a review. But, don’t let this deter you! Learning how to write a literature review is one of the most things you can do as a medical writer.
Literature reviews are one of the easiest jobs you can give yourself as a writer. They also serve as one of the most important ones. Why? Well, because they act as gatekeepers for any scholarly work that you will produce in your vocation and throughout your medical writing career.
That said, it’s not always easy to know where to start when faced with such an intimidating task. And while there are many different types of literature reviews, they all have certain common features that make them easier to write than others
What is a literature review?
A literature review summarises the most important literature related to a particular topic. It is a synthesis of particular studies, articles, and other sources on the subject, and it serves as the basic source material for any research you will do on the same subject.
In other words, a literature review forms the basis for further research that you will do on a certain subject. A literature review is not an original work. Rather, it is a summary of other sources that you have found on your topic. As such, it’s not something you need to “write for yourself” but something that others have already written.
How to write a literature review
Now that you understand what a literature review is, let’s take a closer look at how to write one. There are a few important things to keep in mind when you’re writing your literature review.
- Select relevant sources: It is important to select relevant sources for your literature review. When you read through journals, books, and articles in search of relevance for your review, you are selecting sources that will inform the topic of your review and provide the readers of your review with relevant information.
- Find relevant context: It is important to find the relevant context that relates to your sources. What were they researching? What was the context of their research? This context will help your review readers understand more fully the information your sources provide.
- Synthesize information: Last but not least, you need to synthesize information from your sources. This includes summarizing, analysing, and weaving information from your sources to present a broader topic picture.
Things you will need for your review
- A PC: To research and write your literature review. For an online review, this may be all you need.
If you are doing a manual review of printed materials, you’ll need the following:
- Paper: If you are writing a literature review on a certain book, paper, or journal, you will need paper to write on. You can use scrap paper as well as lined paper.
- Pens: You will need a pen to set your pen down as well as a pen that is not too thick or too thin.
- Calculator: You may also need to use a calculator to perform certain calculations in your review.
Why do you need it?
A literature review is a very important step in the research process. Without a good literature review, you can go down many wrong paths and make incorrect conclusions.
In fact, most modern research has to start with a good literature review and then be refined into a more precise research design. This is because the research design should be the next step after selecting relevant sources for your review. When you have gathered all the relevant information on your topic, you can refine your research design and end up with a research project worth publishing.
A literature review is also essential for publishing in scholarly journals. The editors of journals have a lot of leeway when deciding whether or not they want to publish a research paper. The most common way they decide whether or not to accept a manuscript is by reading the literature review. If your literature review could explain the topic of your paper well enough, then you might just get accepted!
Checklist of things to include in your review
- Selection of the topic of your literature review: What do you want to learn about? What is the significance of this topic? Why should you write a literature review on this topic?
- Review of relevant sources: What were the most important sources you read about your topic? What did you find most relevant? What is the context that you found most relevant? What did you synthesize from these sources? What is the main conclusion you drew from your sources?
- Summary of the information: Did you summarize each source? Did you synthesize information from these sources? What is the main idea that you drew from your sources? How does this information compare to what other sources have to say about the same subject?
- Conclusions: What overall conclusion have you drawn from your sources? What did you learn from these sources? What do you recommend to others who look into this topic?
- References: Finally, you will need to include a reference list at the end of your paper with the titles of the sources you used in your literature review. Learn more about referencing list and referencing format.
Conclusion
We’re sure that by now, you’re convinced that writing a literature review is a great way to gain a lot of insight into your research topic. But, we want to assure you that it is possible to write a literature review without much trouble. We just need to keep these things in mind while we’re writing.
