Literature Review

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a review of multiple works on the same topic. In the literature review, the author will summarize, clarify, and critically analyze the information found. Critically analyzing information is when the writer looks at the strengths and weaknesses of articles and comparing and contrasting the sources together, also known as conversation between the articles. Literature reviews show the reader that the writer is knowledgeable of methodology and history in the area of study.

What is NOT a Literature Review

A Research Paper

A Literary Analysis

Opinionated

Steps to Writing a Literature Review

Step 1: Choose a topic that is relevant.

It’s always important for a writer to choose a topic that they are passionate about, as well as that would spark interest to an audience. The more passionate the writer is about a topic, the more inclined they will be to conduct extensive research. It’s important for the writer to narrow down their topic as much as possible, so the researcher does not get overwhelmed with journals that don’t directly correlate to their topic.

Broad Topic

Narrow Topic

Broad TopicThe impact of technology

Narrow TopicThe impact of technology on mental health

Broad TopicThe impact of language barriers

Narrow TopicThe impact of language barriers in the medical field

Broad TopicThe impact of poverty

Narrow TopicThe impact of poverty on students

Step 2: Find the sources you want to use.

Don’t just use the first source you find. To make an educated literature review, you must evaluate the sources. Use reputable journals and databases to base your literature review off of. Finding reliable sources will only help you understand your topic more, which could make for an easy segway into a research paper.

Step 3: Connect your sources to each other.

After you’ve read through multiple articles, it’s necessary to compare and contrast your sources. In other words, what trend/s do you see amongst all your sources? Is there a finding that’s more predominant than any other finding? What’s the biggest controversy of your topic? Do some articles disagree with each other? Why is this? Connecting your sources will help you to create a layout of your literature review.

Step 4: Decide how you want the layout of your literature review.

There are a few different ways that you could set up your literature review. Depending on the research you find, some ways may make more sense for the reader.

Types of Literature Review Layouts

Methodological:
Organizing your literature review by methodology is when the author organizes conclusions or results by different approaches. One example of organizing by methodology is if there were surveys done. A sub categorical way to organize surveys is by qualitative (characteristics) and quantitative (numerical) data. Another way to organize your literature review can be through whether the research is based on logical (what WILL happen) or theoretical examples (what CAN happen).

Thematic:
All of your articles should be centered around your main topic, but to organize your literature review thematically is to find and examine common themes amongst multiple works. For example, if you are doing a literature review on the impact of poverty on students, you could separate your literature review into main themes such as attendance, grades, and graduation rates.

Chronological (by publication):
Organizing your literature review by publication can be a great way to show the progression of your chosen topic. It’s important that as the author, you analyze instead of summarize. Some questions that you can ask yourself are: What’s different from an earlier year compared to a later year? Why might this be? What happened in society that urged a change? What’s stayed similar throughout the years? Why might this be?

Theoretical:
Another way to organize your literature review is theoretically. When you organize your literature review theoretically, it could create a base for your research paper on the points you want to elaborate on. When organizing theoretically, the writer may choose to organize by theories, key definitions/terms, and models used in the practice. The literature review can analyze why these theories did or did not work and the importance behind them in terms of your main topic.

Step 5: Decide how you want to structure your literature review.

Now, it’s time to put it all together. By this time, the writer should have had sufficient time analyzing their sources, understanding the content, and recognizing the importance. If you are struggling with any part of your literature review process, check out these tips!

Structure of Literature Review

Introduction:
Just like any other writing, the introduction sets the foundation for the rest of the paper. In the case of writing a literature review, you will start by mentioning the topic you have chosen to research. In addition to mentioning the topic, you want to include why it’s important to your field of study (i.e. medical, education, politics). You’ll also want to give a brief overview of the literature you have reviewed, this could tie into the way you organize your paper (i.e. What themes did you find? What theories were most prevalent?) Lastly, you’ll want to state your thesis–why should people continue exploring this topic?.

Body:
Your body paragraphs may differ slightly depending on how you organize your paper, however, it should have the same general layout. To begin any of your body paragraphs, you will introduce the reason as to why you are grouping together the articles (i.e. thematically, chronologically). Then, you will go into reviewing your sources. The review will consist of the research questions the literature looked at, methods (i.e. survey, observations) used to find the answers, and findings. If you are organizing your literature review by themes, it’s important to note that you can use one piece of literature multiple times as long as it correlates to your different theme.

Conclusion:
In the conclusion, you will evaluate the literature in your paper without adding bias. Some key questions that should be answered in your conclusion are:
What does this research contribute to the field?
You may have mentioned something similar in your introduction with why it’s important to look at this literature. But now, since you’ve reviewed the literature, this proposes a great chance to pull out key points you want your reader to take away from your topic; it can also create a segway to restate your thesis.
What are the strengths and limitations in this literature?
Focusing on the strengths and limitations show your analysis skills to the readers. When mentioning the strengths and limitations, it’s also important to mention why the strengths and limitations are important to the research or how it can seem outdated. Examples of strengths and weaknesses that you could review are the participants (i.e. group size, race, age), the methods of the studies, or any bias. Looking at strengths and weaknesses can open up a chance for opportunity for other researchers or people interested in the topic.
What is missing that would be important to include?
This can be an opportunity to connect and create conversation between sources. Looking for gaps can include something you saw in one source that you wish you would’ve seen in more sources; it’s important to elaborate why this missing gap should’ve been included more. This can also be a chance to bring in your background knowledge on your topic to create a drive for research you wish you saw more of; again, it is important to explain yourself and why filling these gaps would be essential.
What next steps could be taken in future research?
If you choose to include this in your conclusion, it’s important that, as the critiquer, you mention how new research can make up for the weaknesses and missing gaps. Why should the future research disregard the weaknesses? Why are the missing gaps important to study and how can they include the missing gaps in their research?

References:
Another way to organize your literature review is theoretically. When you organize your literature review theoretically, it could create a base for your research paper on the points you want to elaborate on. When organizing theoretically, the writer may choose to organize by theories, key definitions/terms, and models used in the practice. The literature review can analyze why these theories did or did not work and the importance behind them in terms of your main topic.

Steps to Writing a Literature Review

Academic writing can without a doubt be stressful! Here are some helpful tips that may ease overthinking:

1. Check for currency of sources:

Depending on the guidelines of your literature review given by your professor, it may be important to check for sources that are current. If it’s necessary for “up-to-date” sources, a good rule to follow is selecting sources that have been released within the past ten years. Newer sources may also appeal to what’s going on in the world today and what is piquing most researchers’ interests. However, some instances where you may use older sources are if you are writing a literature review based around changes in the field. It would be necessary to gather older literature and analyze the similarities and differences to current literature.

2. Look at examples:

Don’t be ashamed to look at examples if you get stuck. Looking at examples can be a great way to learn! It can help you gauge a deeper understanding of how you want your literature review to look like!

3. Keep your voice present:

It can be hard to keep your own voice in a literature review because it’s crammed with so many other writer’s voices, but it’s important to understand yours is the most important. A place where your voice can be present is in the introduction and conclusion but also when you are analyzing. Note: although it’s your voice, you are still writing a formal paper in which you want to stay away from 1st person pronouns (i.e. I, my).

4. Don't over do it:

It may be easy to want to take everything you learned and add it into your paper, but it’s important to choose only the most important information. When you take too much information from your resources, you will lose your own voice. You don’t want to overwhelm your reader with bulks of information, instead, you want to embrace the main points of your articles.

5. Paraphrase instead of quoting:

Paraphrasing will help write the information in a way you truly understand and what the reader will be able to understand. You can still use quotes, however, you shouldn’t overbear your paper with them. In literature review writing, quotes are generally used to make a point stand out or if you believe the author wrote it in the best way possible.

6. Organization:

Using headings or titles can help you, as the writer, organize your thoughts most efficiently. It will also create an easier read and help readers understand what is to come in the upcoming paragraphs.

7. Don't be afraid to revise:

Like any academic writing, it’s necessary to look over your work multiple times. Revisions can help make sure that you are meeting your assignment guidelines as well as your own expectations. If you find something that isn’t how you want it, revise it! Some aspects to look for while revising can include: grammar, terminology (do you tell your reader what the terms mean?), citations, and professionalism.

The 5 C's in Literature Review Writing

A common rule in literature review writing is following the 5 C’s: citing, comparing, contrasting, critiquing, and connecting. The 5 C’s can help draft your literature review and make sure that you are including everything that makes up a literature review.

Cite

Compare

Contrast

Critique

Connect