Harms and Benefits of Artificial Sweeteners - Essay Example

I believe that the author would also go into some detail about the research that has already been done so that they can show why there are holes in the current research, which I discovered to be true the more that I read on.

            Within this introductory paragraph, the author makes it known that research has already been undergone on the topic of the harms and benefits of artificial sweeteners, though this paragraph does not reveal the specific kinds of research that they will be focusing on. However, the author sets up the literature review to explain that further research needs to be on this topic; the purpose of the literature review is not only to show what research has been done and what conclusions have been made but also to reveal the holes in these findings. The author feels that the current findings from the research are outdated and, by showing the past studies and their conclusions, reveals that this is true.

            The author chose to organize the research that they are reviewing by first offering an introduction to their topic, then introducing the body of the research, which discusses the cancerous side effects of artificial sweeteners, which looked at the findings of research centered on discovering cancer-related downfalls of artificial sweeteners, as well as the areas where more research should be done. The next portion of research looks at the non-cancerous side effects of artificial sweeteners. This is then followed by a section that is dedicated to the studies that have proven that artificial sweeteners also have health benefits, such as weight loss. In these aforementioned sections, each section is also ordered based on gender in terms of who is affected the most by the sweetener. The literature review then closes out with a conclusion that briefly goes over what was discussed throughout the rest of the literature review.

            The structure described above is a very useful way of organizing the information. Each type of information is given its section, which gives the paper a strong sense of order. The author summarizes the sources but also shows how the various researchers and findings fit together. They show how each piece of research affected another, and how they helped the topic of the dangers of artificial sweeteners as a whole. The only flaw that I believe exists in the organization of the literature review is that the information was not spaced out into different paragraphs. Even though each item had its section, a lot of the information within those sections seemed to run together. Between the various facts, researchers, and citations, the literature review became a little difficult to wade through. Other than that, I feel that the author did a good job in organizing their material.

            The author used an abundance of source materials, all of which are relevant and appear to have come from reliable sources. Though some sources were taken from the Internet, these websites were online article databases; the remaining sources came straight from medical journals and periodicals. These sources were used effectively and appropriately, supplying the author with proof of the claims that they were making and attempting to support. The reliability of the sources convinces me as both a reader and a critic that the information being shown is accurate. Furthermore, the author also used the sources to support the works of others; in the section dedicated to the non-cancerous effects of artificial sweeteners, the author combined the works of some sources to help not only support one another but also provide more support for the points that the author is making. Regarding the implementation of sources, I can think of no other way that the author could have improved their literature review.