5 Cs To Structure Literature Review In The Right Way

A literature review aims to get insights related to the research problem and dive into the discussion. The structure of literature review is something that needs close attention. Without having a good structure, you cannot ace the milestones, and your literature review cannot stand out. The easiest way to structure literature review is using 5 Cs. These 5 Cs are comprised of cite, compare, contrast, critique, and connect. Each C has a particular set of attributes that help you make a perfect design to structure literature review. If any of the C is found to be missing in your literature review, I assure that you will have to resubmit it after editing. So, if you want to limit the errors in a literature review, this article is for you. As per its importance, this article aims to discuss the 5 Cs to structure literature review factually.

What Are The 5 Cs To Structure Literature Review?

Following are the 5 Cs with a detailed discussion that can help you structure literature review:

Cite

The first C to structure literature review refers to cite. Searching for different authors and their work that can support your claim needs proper citation. First of all, you need to understand what type of data is supposed to be cited. With the proper information, you can figure out things very well. If you are adding some facts to support an argument, there is no need to cite them.

Furthermore, the personal opinion does not require citation. Based on the type of research, you can share your personal opinion on a particular aspect. So, while adding anything similar to this, you have to be careful about the citation rules. If you try to cite a personal comment, it presents you as a novel researcher who is unaware of the standards of citation.

On the other hand, any information taken from a book or article written by another writer demands citation. Furthermore, it includes documents, audio, videos, and movies. Also, there can be a journal or speech of a famous personality. If you don’t cite someone’s data, it comes under the violation of writing rules and causes plagiarism in a literature review.

Compare

Compare is another C that works well to structure literature review correctly. While working on this second C, you have to focus on different comparisons. It includes a comparison of several arguments. You may have collected data from different credible authors for your research topic. So, it is good to collect those arguments, but it does not mean you have to simply mention the collected information in a literature review. Here, you have to compare different thoughts and evaluate them.

Similarly, you have to see which theories and methods are connected to the problem of your study. Make a comparison to explain similarities and dissimilarities in the major areas of the literature review. This C helps you develop a healthy and effective literature review debate that provides insights into a research topic. Your major discussion is supposed to be on the description that at which point a researcher agrees or disagrees.

Contrast

The third C refers to contrast to find a good literature review structure. When you collect data for literature review, there you can find different researchers who have used a single theme in different ways. So, you have to describe the controversial aspects related to each aspect. For example, you need to identify how the controversies are playing role in a detailed discussion. Based on the study requirements, you have to target a particular area of debate. If you are a novel researcher, you should practice contrasting arguments.

First of all, you can seek help from the Venn diagram. In this way, you can get better brainstorming ideas. It helps you get an overview of the discussion, and you can find controversial points. For contrasting, you have to target the point of difference by identifying the objective of the research.

Critique

To structure literature review, you need to refine the data. The data refining makes it suitable to enhance the reliability of the literature review. The critique in literature review aims to upgrade the relatability of data. For example, you have targeted a particular research paper. Although the research paper’s objective matches your research’s problem, still you cannot add all sets of information provided in it. Here, you need to refine data and find the most suitable and relatable one. In this way, you can work well in contributing to the research for a particular problem.

The best way to critique is by developing a deeper understanding of discussion. Find the goal of argumentation and determine the expression of discussion. In this way, you can better relate the research problems to each other. To structure literature review, you have to evaluate the subject of study and highlight the function that can contribute to support the claim of your research.

Connect

The last and most important C to structure literature review is connect. As literature review is the collection of data on a particular research problem done by other researchers, it is rare to find data that can directly help you. So, what you have to do is utilization of data in the best way. You have to make a connection between different studies on a particular topic. The connection needs to be logical that have a ground base.

To make a connection, you have to work on resources. Only add those sources that are linked with your study, and their use can help reader understand the main problem. Most of the time, students want to get affordable dissertation help in this regard. In case of making a connection to structure literature review, the most effective and affordable way is to do it by yourself under the supervision of your advisor.

Concluding Lines

By understanding the above-mentioned points, you can write a productive literature review that can grasp a reader’s attention. Also, these 5 Cs ensure the smooth flow of writing a literature review.