How to write a 'non-boring' literature review?

Question

I'm writing a literature review for my thesis (history). It seems so boring to read! Any tips?

Answer 1

Your lit review is most likely going to sound boring. That's because lit reviews are primarily focused on transmitting information in an academic and formulaic manner.

If your lit review wasn't boring, that'd be a sign that you're either a master-class thesis writer or you're writing too informally and need to do some edits.

With that said, there are some things you can do to keep your paper from being a total snoozefest. These include:

- don't let your sentences run on too long,

- make sure you're using paragraphing correctly (one topic per paragraph), and

- ensure you're using varied sentence structure.  In other words, use different beginnings and endings to all/most of your sentences.