How Long Should A Literature Review Be In A 10000 Word Dissertation?

A dissertation, if put in simple words, is an elongated version of a research paper. Being a research paper, a dissertation consists of more or less the same chapters and components, which differ by their depth of research and the word count, of course.

What are the main chapters of a dissertation?

  1. Introduction: a brief intro of the topic or research problem, detailing the research question, thesis statement and research aims along with background of the topic.
  2. Literature Review: a critical review of the existing literature available on the topic.
  3. Methodologies: a description of the methods utilised in performing the research.
  4. Analysis/Findings: an understanding of the findings and their subsequent analysis.
  5. Conclusion: the ending of the dissertation, summing up the entire research with its justification, background and reinstatement of the research question.

In this article, we are going to lay an emphasis on the Literature Review chapter and explain how you can craft it better.

But first….Let Us Tell You How a Dissertation is divided!

To answer your question ‘how long should a literature review be in a 10,000 word dissertation’, the answer is 3,000 words. If you are wondering as to how we came to this figure, it is easy to understand that a literature review covers 30% of the total word count in a dissertation.

Therefore, for a dissertation that stretches up to 10,000 words, the 30% of it comes around to 3,000 words.

For your ease, we have listed down the breakdown of a dissertation in terms of word count percentage.

Chapter Word Count (%)
Introduction 10%
Literature Review 30%
Methodology 15%
Conclusion 10%

The findings/analysis can be separated into Findings/Results and Analysis/Discussions/ While doing this, you can consider 5% for the Findings/Results section while the Analysis/Discussions section makes up for the 30% of the word count.

Note: Please remember that this is a general and tentative breakdown and can vary from institute to institute. You will have to confirm from your university regarding the set percentage and make sure that you are aware of the given guidelines. Dissertation Writing Help can draft the specific guideline set according to your institute’s requirements.

How to Write a Dissertation Literature Review? What Is Its Importance?

As stated in the introduction of this article, a Literature Review consists of the critical review of all kinds of literature that is available on the topic. However, that’s only a one-line summary of it. In reality, it constitutes about 30% of your entire dissertation and makes up the most of your research.

You have to read across different literature that already exists and go through what others have written about your particular topic. As such, you can say that the literature review is based on secondary sources and does not concern any new discovery.

What does a literature review involve?

  • Updated and accurate material regarding the topic
  • In-depth reading and summarising of key points
  • A synthesis of the key points, concepts and theories
  • Evaluation of the concepts, theories and key points
  • Identification of the areas that can be debated upon

How to choose the material for research?

While narrowing down the proper stuff for conducting your research, you need to keep in mind the following characteristics:

  1. The specific topic, focus and question of your assignment.
  2. The kind of material you shall require, such as theories, policies, empirical data and methodologies.
  3. The type of literature that is available such as journals, research articles, books etc.
  4. The kind of literature that stands dominant in the field of study.
  5. The room for research the topic offers.
  6. The availability of good-enough samples for reference.
  7. The consideration of alternative points of view.
  8. The relevancy and degree of appropriation of the literature review with the audience

In the age of the internet, researching has become easier in a manner but complex too in the parallel, since students need to cut down the irrelevant and inaccurate sources too. It is always good to have some literature review samples by your side to reference, such as work done by some seniors on the same topic.

While researching, you as a student need to ensure that the topic neither becomes too broad or too specific, otherwise, your research will suffer in both cases.

A very important point that students often miss out on is that they do not consider the point of view of the audience. If the dissertation does not strike well to the reader, then it will fail to make an impact on the reader anyway, thus not securing appreciation. As such, the writing part should be done while keeping the reader in the mind too.

How to structure and write your literature review?

When you are writing a literature review for a dissertation UK based, you need to make sure that you follow the given format properly. You have to build your literature review around your key topic and be specific about the challenges and contributions it has.

Outline the strategy, present the topic theme and analyse all that you have studied and included in your core research. Do use your own voice but use evidence while making your claims and do not jot down any argument without any data. In the end, do not forget to proofread and edit!

If It Still Does Not Help, Hire Our Literature Review Writing Service

Writing a literature review all by yourself, especially if you do not have the experience or knowledge in doing so, can prove to be difficult and may put you under a lot of stress. It is always good to solicit assistance from someone who knows very well about the domain.

In such a circumstance, you can hire our Literature Review Writing Service that will resolve all of your literature review issues. We have a huge panel of writers who belong to different fields and have a substantial amount of experience in the research and writing field.

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