What Are The Common Errors That Students Make When They Conduct A Literature Review?

Dissertation is an extensive project with six main sections. Each section has its own importance and purpose that adds coherence to the content. A literature review is one such important section of a dissertation project. Besides that; literature reviews are also done as individual academic projects with the same significance. 

Have you ever taken a law essay writing service just because you have to conduct a lot of research for it? Well! If that is the case then be ready for extensive research work because a literature review is all about it. Besides research conduction; there are a lot of other elements that students must consider while working on their literature reviews. The following post brings the common literature review writing errors along with their respective solutions. 

Common Literature Review Writing Errors And Their Respective Solutions

The professional platforms through which students can buy law essay help can also assist you with your literature review projects if you feel like you won’t be able to do justice with them. However; if you want to work on it by yourself then learn everything important regarding it. Learn what a literature review, what is the structure of literature review, what are the common mistakes that students mistakes and how to fix them effectively. The common errors made during this process are mentioned below, and practical solutions are provided to address them effectively.

1. Lack Of A Clear Research Focus

Conducting a literary studies research project involves time and effort (Mauer & Venecek, 2022,). One of the most common mistakes while writing a literature review is starting the process without a well-defined research question or objective.

The problem here is that students often read but don’t know what they need to find. They don’t have a clear direction which often results in an unfocused and scattered review. 

Solution:

• Clearly outline your research objectives and key questions before beginning the review. This will define the scope of your research. 

• Visualise how different concepts connect to your research focus like a concept map.

This will save students time from writing and re-writing the content again because they will have clear directions to follow. 

2. Relying On Limited Sources

Another common error is depending on a limited set of sources. They only have a few articles or outdated materials to find data from. 

Research problems are not simple, and neither are their solutions (thedissertationhelp.uk, 2021,). The issue here is that the presence of limited sources also limits the depth and breadth of the review, which ultimately leads to biased conclusions.

Solution:

• Use academic databases like PubMed, JSTOR, or Google Scholar to access wider sources. These sources can be peer-reviewed articles, books, and conference papers.

• You can include studies from various time periods and methodologies to provide a well-rounded perspective.

3. Failing To Critically Evaluate Sources

Collecting data and presenting it is not enough. Students often just present the data without evaluating them. They summarise studies without critically assessing their quality, methodology, or relevance.

The problem here is that this results in a descriptive review rather than an analytical review.

Solution:

• Use tools like the CRAAP Test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) to evaluate each source.

• Highlight the differences in methodologies, findings, and interpretations across studies through comparison methods. 

4. Poor Organisation And Structure

Many students don’t know what are the structure of literature review. This is why; they often struggle with structuring their literature reviews effectively.

The issue here is that a poorly organised review can confuse readers and take away from your key insights.

Solution:

• Present the review around thematic areas, methodologies, or chronological order for an organised pattern. 

• Create a detailed outline to ensure logical flow and coherence.

5. Plagiarism And Improper Citation

The addition of references in a literature review is a must but many students fail to cite sources correctly or present others’ ideas as their own. This is a critical mistake in the academic community. 

Basically; plagiarism reduces the integrity of the review and can result in severe academic consequences.

Solution:

• Make use of citation tools like Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley to manage references accurately.

• Familiarise yourself with required citation formats which might vary from APA to MLA.

• Stay consistent with the chosen citation style throughout the paper.

• Pass the content through the plagiarism detection tools to ensure the submission of plagiarism-free work.

6. Overlooking Recent Studies

Many students make the mistake of incorporating content from old research works. They neglect recent research papers which can make the literature review outdated and less relevant.

The problem here is that when you rely solely on older studies, you fail to capture the current state of research.

Solution:

• Prioritise studies published within the last five to ten years while including seminal works for context.

• Make sure to regularly check for new publications and trends in your research field.

7. Inadequate Synthesis of Findings

Listing of studies is not enough as many students fail to synthesize or deduce conclusions from the information. 

This approach does not demonstrate how the studies interconnect or contribute to the research question.

Solution:

• Look for repetitive themes, gaps, or debates in the literature in order to identify the patterns. 

• Summarize key aspects of studies, such as objectives, methods, and conclusions, in a comparative table.

8. Overloading With Irrelevant Information

Including information that does not directly relate to the research question can take away from the focus of the review.

The issue with this approach is that the irrelevant content increases wordiness and diverts the reader from the main argument.

Solution:

• Stay extremely focused and disciplined while writing your content. You must constantly refer back to your research objectives to ensure relevance.

• Edit keenly to remove any extensive or irrelevant details.

Conclusion

Literature review writing is where students’ understanding of their research research work is evaluated. This is the kind of research where you have to conduct extensive research and evaluate it to make new contributions to the field.  However; students often tend to make common mistakes that affect the quality of the project. This is why; each error has to be addressed and must be fixed to submit high-quality literature reviews.