Basic Rules To Consider When Writing A Dentistry Dissertation Literature Review
According to the rules of academic writing, any dissertation has to contain a literature review. The purpose of it is to provide some on the existing studies (books, articles, research papers etc.) in your area of research. In short, you are to show that you’ve read different sources and thus you’re familiar with the topic. Of course, your dissertation in dentistry should also have a literature review. Here are some simple steps on how to write it.
Step # 1: Planning Your Literature Review
First of all, you should plan your literature review. Think about your area of research in dentistry and the questions your study is going to answer. Think of different approaches to the problems you’re going to describe in your thesis. Go to the library and look for books and articles related to your research in dentistry. Then, look for online sources. Take your time to read the information you found or at least read the most important chapters or sections. In short, this is what you have to do:
- Define your research questions.
- Identify the sources of literature (specialized libraries, certain websites on dentistry etc.).
- Find the literature.
- Read the literature,
- Evaluate what you’ve read.
- Define the main ideas of what you’ve read.
Step #2: Writing the Literature Review
After you’ve identified the main concepts and ideas of your literature, it’s time to start writing your dentistry dissertation literature review. You can choose two ways of doing it: it can be either a descriptive or an analytical review. Depending on your topic your and research questions you can either just describe the current approaches to your area of research or analyze and criticize them (which might be more difficult but much more interesting). Whatever you choose, don’t forget that your literature review should:
- Identify the major questions and problems of your area of research in dentistry.
- Find the gaps in the existing studies and suggest some strategies to eliminate them.
- Express and justify your attitude to each of the literature sources.
- Explain which literature you find most interesting and most useful for your study.
Besides, don’t forget that your ideas and your understanding of the topic are the most important thing in your review and in the whole dissertation. You may cite certain authors and provide detailed descriptions on what they wrote, but don’t forget to express your opinion on this or that approach, concept or hypothesis, and find strong arguments to convince the audience your judgment is unbiased and trustworthy.