Nursing Literature Review Writing

Nursing Literature Review Writing

Understanding the Basics of Literature Reviews

A literature review involves analyzing published information about a specific topic or field in a written form. Authors use this review to establish a foundation and rationale for their research or to showcase their knowledge regarding the current status of a field. This review can appear as part of a coursework assignment or as a section within a more extensive capstone project. Continue reading to learn more about crafting a robust literature review.

Students often misunderstand the term “literature review,” thinking it’s just a compilation of summaries of sources, similar to annotations or article abstracts. While summarization is a component of a literature review, you should approach this task as a comprehensive representation of your comprehension of a topic or field. This includes what has already been accomplished or discovered. Additionally, you can utilize these sources to demonstrate the need for future research, specifically your own.

NURSING NSG6620: Quantitative Skills in Nursing Administration – SWOT Analysis Assignment

There is typically no strict format or template for Nursing Literature Review Writing. Nevertheless, certain guidelines should be kept in mind while constructing your review:

1. Introduction and Conclusion:

Incorporate an introduction and conclusion. Even if the literature review is part of a more extensive document, these sections can serve as the starting and closing points for your content. Provide background information for your readers, such as referencing key figures in the field at the outset and offering closure by discussing the implications of future research for the field.

2. Avoid Direct Quotations:

Similar to an annotated bibliography, it’s best to paraphrase all the material presented in a literature review. Successful paraphrasing involves explaining or interpreting another person’s ideas in your own words. In academic writing, this is an effective way to restate, condense, or clarify another author’s concepts while adding credibility to your argument or analysis. While proficient paraphrasing is crucial for strong academic writing, improper paraphrasing can lead to unintentional plagiarism. This assignment provides an opportunity for you to showcase your expertise on a topic, and rephrasing ideas will ensure that you are conveying the discovered material in your own unique voice. Paraphrasing will also help maintain your authorial voice in Nursing Literature Review Writing.

3. Organize by Topic or Theme, Not Author:

When compiling multiple sources, writers often summarize each source individually and then compare and contrast them at the end. Instead, arrange your sources based on the themes and patterns you have identified. This organization helps illustrate your synthesis of the material and prevents you from creating a series of book reports.

4. Use Headings:

APA style recommends the use of headings within longer texts to signify shifts in topic and create visual breaks for readers. In Nursing Literature Review Writing, headings can assist you in organizing your material by theme and noting any subtopics within the field. Headings clarify your logic and organization for readers by establishing a hierarchy of sections in the paper. It’s important to note that “all topics of equal importance have the same level of heading throughout a manuscript” (APA, 2010, p. 62). In Nursing Literature Review Writing, title case is used, meaning only the first letters of words with four or more letters are capitalized, while all other letters are in lowercase. Sentence case means that only the first word of a title is capitalized, with all other letters in lowercase. For the References heading in your reference list, use Level 0 heading (or title heading) formatting.

5. Utilize Comparative Terms:

A literature review can be extensive and dense, so it’s important to make your text engaging for readers. Transitions and comparison terms allow you to indicate where authors agree or disagree on a topic and emphasize your interpretation of the literature. The strength of any argument relies largely on the writer’s ability to establish clear connections between their assessments, assertions, and research. This means that every sentence should build upon the previous one and contribute to the next using transitions. This logical linking guides your reader from one idea to the next and elucidates the relationships between your research and assessments in Nursing Literature Review Writing.