Unit 2.1

Unit 2.1

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Unit 2.1

Q.1 Why are literature reviews such an important component in scientific writing?

Literature review holds a central position in writing effective scientific articles. It does not matter whether scientific writing is done at the undergraduate level or master level; a literature review is the first step towards writing a literature review (Hart, 2018). By having a thorough understanding of the research done so far on a topic will result in a brilliantly written scientific review (Buenz, 2019). Moreover, it is important to understand the type of content that one is looking to write on. One must differentiate between argumentative, historical, and integrative review.

Q.2 In your experience in previous classes, what is the most challenging portion of writing a literature review?

Certainly, many problems crop up if one does not do a comprehensive literature review. Thus, anyone writing a literature review must ensure that all points of scientific writing are addressed (Hart, 2018). For me, the most challenging thing in writing a literature review was to establish a clear understanding between relevant and non-relevant materials (Buenz, 2019). Differentiating between these two mean that a piece of top-quality scientific writing would be done. During the previous classes, only this challenge was the biggest for me in writing a literature review.

Q.3 What steps can you take to improve the quality of the literature reviews you write?

Following steps can be taken to enhance the quality of a literature review. For instance, the quality of a literature review can be increased by defining the scope of the research topic as narrow as possible but making it of broad interest so that it addresses every aspect of the research topic (Hart, 2018). Furthermore, the quality of a literature review depends upon the level of critical analysis. Therefore, to increase the quality of a literature review, a critical analysis should be done. Additionally, the quality of a research paper is automatically increased if the readers can find a logical structure in the writing. Any piece of writing lacking logical organization is bound to fail (Buenz, 2019).

Q..4 Finally, even if they do not want a career in psychological research, why would it still be important for a psychology major such as yourself to be able to write and read/understand professional literature reviews?

Even if a psychology major not wanting to opt for a career in psychological research would benefit from the fundamentals learned from the literature review (Hart, 2018). If a student can write effective literature reviews, then they will have no problem in completing their final dissertation as they already are familiar with the importance of the literature review (Buenz, 2019).

References

Buenz, E. J. (2019). Essential elements for high-impact scientific writing. Nature.

Hart, C. (2018). Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.