Table of Contents

- Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography: Similarities and Differences
- Literature Review and Its Prevailing Types
- How Long Should a Literature Review Be? Brief Useful Answers
- Common Format of Literature Reviews
- 5 Essential Software Tools for Perfect Literature Reviews
- Why Best-Writing-Service.com is Your Ultimate Literature Review Helper
If you are familiar with academic research, then you must have composed a literature review at least once. You could have also noticed that your professors are particularly demanding regarding such an assignment, but do you know why? The simplest reason to regard this task as highly important is that it allows checking students’ knowledge on the topic. Basically, a teacher can determine whether you read the necessary material or not. Thus, besides demonstrating your writing skills, you learn to analyze a scholarly essay, an article, or the entire book in its depth. Therefore, there are numerous types of literature review assignments, which depend on the special features of a literary piece. Although this task seems to be painstaking and monotonous, it brings many benefits. Indeed, it stimulates you to read the entire work. You should also write down the most sophisticated parts to decipher them in the process of writing. No matter how challenging this assignment is, every step of its completion endows you with unique knowledge. It also can get tricky if you have to express your judgment on the literary work. While having a standpoint usually facilitates the overall writing, you must find trustworthy and relevant sources to support your opinion. The main purpose is to establish the balance between the authenticity of your beliefs and expert evaluation of the same problem.
If you strive to be a diligent student with excellent grades, then you must be well-versed in literature review writing. This knowledge can be flexibly applied to academic works of any kind, despite the subject you are going to explore. First off, you have to test your general understanding of the literature review. Secondly, you will have to learn the widely applied types of literature essays within modern academics. The experts of our unique literature review writing service have prepared a comprehensive article on the peculiarities of reviewing various publications. However, for a start, let us evaluate the discerning elements of an annotated bibliography and a classic literature review.
Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography: Similarities and Differences
Do you know what is the difference between a literature review and an annotated bibliography? Before you start composing your review, you should realize that its structure resembles a typical academic essay, especially an expository one. The text of your analysis should reflect the depth of your knowledge regarding the work in question. As it is crucial to make this paper coherent and logical, you need to include the major elements of any academic work: introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. The review should revolve around a central idea or a thesis statement.
When you create an annotated bibliography, you should provide a list of all the sources you used for your scholarly investigation. Typically, it should be done in alphabetical order. Each cited source should have brief comments on its main concepts below. Each source should be mentioned in an annotated bibliography only once. In contrast, while crafting an overview of the literature, one is allowed to refer to the same source multiple times if it encompasses a range of fundamental ideas. Another similarity to a regular research paper is that a literature review needs to include in-text citations and references or works cited on the final page.
Hence, when comparing literature review vs annotated bibliography, you should take into consideration that the main similarity between them is in a particular reference to literary material and elucidation of its fundamental elements. When you review literature, you are focused on the explanation of a particular subject. When compiling an annotated bibliography, you succinctly disclose how each separate source contributes to the revelation of the given content.
Read also our article – Assistance in Completing a Systematic Literature Review
Literature Review and Its Prevailing Types
There are eight relevant types of literature reviews, which are applied in contemporary academic research. They mostly vary depending on their approaches, assessment techniques, and goals. They are divided into certain categories, which define their major discerning elements. Some literature reviews are based on narratives, some are focused on critical thinking skills, while others can be related to meta-analysis and meta-synthesis. Let us delve into the types of literature review, which are associated with rigorous scholarly investigations: