At some stage in their studies, all students are required to have to grasp the concept of literature review by a quick introduction from a supervisor. Most students nod, and when they sit and start writing one they panic. This is a common experience, and a common experience for others. There are few academic writing assignments that cause more students to get confused than a literature review.
Here is a step-by-step guide to understanding what is meant by a literature review, its importance to your research, and how to avoid getting lost in word counts, sources and structure.
What Is a Literature Review?
Literature Review: a written summary and analysis of the literature that has been published about a topic. You summarize the research, arguments, or debates of others rather than reporting new research. You then arrange this information to reveal pattern, gap and linkages in the existing knowledge.
Imagine it is like a dialogue between researchers. Your task is to listen to what everybody has said, to see where they agree, where they disagree, and where someone hasn’t yet looked. The research gap that you find is sometimes the basis for your research.
A good literature review has three purposes:
- It demonstrates your knowledge of the current research field.
- Places your own work in that context.
- Explains the significance of your research question.
Why Students Struggle With Literature Reviews
Students have similar issues that they encounter repeatedly. Knowing about these pain points in advance can save you hours of frustration.
You’re not sure where to begin. Having a blank page with dozens of open journal articles is overwhelming. You are not building an argument, you are merely summarising sources, without a plan.
You misunderstand the difference between summarizing and analyzing. A literature review isn’t a list of book reviews. A poor review is a description of each author’s words, one at a time. Professors seek synthesis: to tie ideas together across different sources, to compare methodologies, and to identify the contradictions.
You write a literature review and an annotated bibliography. These are two different things. An annotated bibliography is a list of sources with brief annotations for each source. A literature review synthesizes the same sources in a cohesive, coherent story, either thematically, methodologically, or chronologically.
It’s challenging to locate good sources. Not all the articles in Google Scholar will merit to be included in the review. Peer reviewed journals, trustworthy databases and recent publications are more important than a random blog post.
You’re concerned with plagiarism. It is really difficult to paraphrase text without copying words or phrases, particularly if English is not the first language.
Failing to keep track of citations. Organizing multiple sources with various styles of citations, such as APA, MLA or Harvard can get messy without a system.
You are uncertain of the length of time it should last. The length of a word count is subject to great variability from course assignment to full thesis chapter, and this uncertainty creates a lot of unnecessary stress.
The first step is to identify these pain points. They can only be solved with a clear process, the next of which we will cover.
Types of Literature Reviews
There are no standardized formats for a literature review. When you know what type your assignment needs, it changes your approach.
Narrative literature review: This is a typical style of summarizing and discussing research in general and is often employed in course work or initial writing for research.
Literature review: Systematic (structured) literature review is a method that is structured and consistent and is commonly used in the health sciences and in evidence-based research. There are frameworks which are followed by many systematic reviews to ensure transparency, such as the PRISMA framework.
Thematic literature review: You discuss the sources not chronologically, but in terms of important themes or concepts that appear throughout the literature.
Literature review: This type of literature review looks at the methods of research employed in different studies rather than results, which is appropriate when examining the research of a topic over time.
Theoretical literature review: This involves a discussion of the theories and frameworks that have been used in relation to a topic and an explanation of the changes or development of theoretical understanding.
The type you select will affect the way you arrange your sources and develop your argument; check with your supervisor before you begin writing.
How to Write a Literature Review Step by Step
1. Define Your Research Question or Topic
Before you start looking for a single source, define exactly what you’re looking into! The more general the topic, the more disorganized the review. A research question is a concise, focused question that helps you focus on your research and writing.
2. Search for Relevant Sources
Try to use scientific databases like Google Scholar, JSTOR, PubMed or the library of your university. Use peer-reviewed journal articles, recent publications, and studies that are directly related to your research question. Discard out-of-date or untrustworthy sources, unless they are historically significant to your topic.
3. Evaluate and Select Your Sources
Not all of the information should be included in your review. Question for each source: Is the source credible, relevant and recent enough to matter? The general rule is studying papers that are published in the past five or ten years unless they’re about something that is considered a key theory.
4. Identify Themes, Patterns, and Gaps
Read the sources chosen and make notes on any themes, conflicting information and unanswered questions. This step will make your review an analysis. You should specifically search for the research gap, that is, what pieces of the research puzzle your own project will fill in.
5. Create an Outline
Arrange your sources in your chosen order for your review—usually alphabetical, by method or by date. An outline is a way to avoid wandering from one idea to another and to keep your writing organized.
6. Write the Introduction
Introduce your topic, discuss the purpose of the review and briefly explain how you have structured the review. State the research question or objective clearly to guide readers in the direction of the review.
7. Write the Body
Here synthesis is the most important aspect. Review studies and compare and contrast the results. Do not discuss one source per paragraph, but interweave several sources into a unified discussion which is based on ideas, not authors.
8. Write the Conclusion
Sum up the major trends and/or the missing link you found, and then explain the relationship between your findings and your research question. If you’re doing a thesis, you might want to transition directly in to your methodology chapter from this section.
9. Revise for Clarity and Flow
Read your draft to yourself. Review each paragraph to ensure they flow together and that your argument makes a logical progression between paragraphs. Reduce repetitions and streamline clumping sentences.
Literature Review Structure
The standard format of a literature review is:
- Introduction: States the topic, purpose and scope of the review.
- Discussions and syntheses of sources organized by theme, chronological, or method; discussion and synthesis that are methodically organized.
- Conclusion: summarizes important results, indicates signs of a gap, and ties the research objective.
If you are writing a long paper, such as a thesis or dissertation, your literature review can be divided into multiple sections or even its own section with subheadings for each of the major themes.
Literature Review vs. Annotated Bibliography
These are often confused by students so here is the difference in simple terms.
| Literature Review | Annotated Bibliography |
| Synthesizes multiple sources into a connected discussion | Lists sources individually with separate summaries |
| Organized by theme, method, or chronology | Organized alphabetically or by citation |
| Builds an argument | Provides a reference overview |
| Longer, narrative format | Shorter, list-based format |
Literature review: If your assignment requires you to “discuss” or “analyze” existing research, you are doing a literature review. If it requires you to “list and summarize,” you’re writing an annotated bibliography.
Tools That Make Literature Reviews Easier
The other downside to managing sources manually is that it becomes too difficult very quickly. Use citation management programs such as Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote to save references, create citations automatically, and group sources by topic or project. Before getting started, many university libraries will have free courses to learn how to use these tools effectively.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Considering the review as a list of summaries rather than analysing.
- Using too much out-of-date information.
- Avoiding discussion of conflicting studies rather than confronting them.
- Not relating the review to your own research question.
- Excessive use of direct quotations rather than paraphrasing and synthesizing ideas.
Conclusion
The task of doing a literature review is not just an academic challenge; it’s a skill that helps you to become a critical thinker about the existing literature and the contribution you can make. When you get the hang of why it’s there, how it works and how to run it, it’s much less daunting. Use a well-stated research question, develop your outline around themes, not sources, and provide an authentic synthesis, not a superficial summary. Once you get used to it, writing a literature review becomes second nature.