How do you keep a critical tone in your literature review?

A common mistake adopted while putting a critical writing is to simple state the pros and cons of the selected article. While being critical does entail these elements, it does not mean that the writing has to be dominated by two extremes. Rather, the attempt should be to take view of one author and to support, build, or negate it with other scholarly work. Writing a critical piece thus requires adopting comparative analysis of different literature.

The way to vet whether the paper is worthy of detailed study lies in its research design and experimental method. As long as both these aspects of the paper show and prove itself as a very rigorous focus on observation based results, the results section can always be relied on.

It is most important to create a review using unreliable sources. The authenticity of our work as well as our contribution to the research topic will hold importance only then.

The purpose of a literature review is to collect relevant, timely research on your chosen topic, and synthesize it into a cohesive summary of existing knowledge in the field. This then prepares you for making your own argument on that topic, or for conducting your own original research.

Literature review is an informed logical critical analysis of available literature on the subject bringing in additional integrated insight into the topic including also the reviewers' own knowledge analysis and experience. The idea us to gain a critical and wider perspective of the subject of analysis or understanding. It is unbounded in the sense one need not join a particular camp in the argument but demonstrate his/ her understanding of the diversity of argument or perspective. The objective is to widen one's perspective and gain understanding to help in defining ones research purpose and methodology

A rule of thumb is to compare the year of publication, sample size, design and the how meticulously the researcher(s) explained their reasoning.

In face review is the way by which we argue to have our research is essential for the particular topic . How simple we criticise all the research study so far published and write our aim and objective

As one compiles their data, main themes start to materialize. One can read only few papers and ascertain the patterns that have been primarily followed on the given topic.

It is imperative that one should read the full articles thoroughly. Many times it has been observed that researchers just read the abstract. There are high chances that information gets distorted and the true essence of the original study gets lost.

My writing on Pinter was influenced by a very close reading of Michel Foucault's Archaeology of Knowledge. It was an accident that I found this book when I did and that it was so appropriate to the thesis I was writing at the time. My argument came from analysis of it and Pinter's plays, and then a synthesis of this, describing discourse, knowledge and episteme and how this 'worlds' (although Heidegger came to be important for me later). The main evidence was the literary text but criticism and theory helped me to look at it and talk about it in a particular way.

Always know the argument that counters your own back to front. Learn what any potential detractors will say about your argument, and the reasons why they might say it. If you know as much about your antagonist's point of view as well as you know your own, your critical voice is going to be so much stronger by dint of knowing your own Achilles Heel and working through it. You will also be a more convincing voice if you can draw on the influences of your antagonists.

Contrary to what early-career researchers believe, a literature review is not a mere summary, nor is it the one great truth. When writing a literature review, you must, first and foremost, adopt a critical lens, even, and especially, when dissecting established fact and seminal works.

If you need help with critical language use the various thesaurus on the internet. If you plug in the word "however" you will find a multitude of different words to help keep your writing interesting to the reader.

Most universities have writing centers. I strongly encourage everyone to use them. You will learn a lot. The writing center will help you with ideas, outlines, and how to organize your literature review.

In my experience, "critical analysis" includes looking outside of your established area and including literature on the topic from related disciplines. An interdisciplinary approach is even more important now, I believe.

In my humble opinion, the best literature review consists of contrasting opinions and a neutral one, it provides the reader with all kind of opinions and researches around a topic but at the same time keeps the tone of the research itself neutral until results reveal which side the research is leaning towards.

I find that one of the most important moments when writing such papers is after you have collected the sources and made them in order to take a step back and try to look at it with fresh eyes. New ideas and fresh views might appear this way.