What's on this Page
This page is meant to help you create a literature review for academic projects and publications. Each tab outlines a different aspect of what a literature review is and how to build one. If you need help finding sources for your literature reviews, check out How To pages.
How to Build a Literature Review
What is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a comprehensive summary and analysis of previously published research on a particular topic. Literature reviews should give the reader an overview of the important theories and themes that have previously been discussed on the topic, as well as any important researchers who have contributed to the discourse. This review should connect the established conclusions to the hypothesis being presented in the rest of the paper.
What a Literature Review Is Not:
- Annotated Bibliography: An annotated bibliography summarizes and assesses each resource individually and separately. A literature review explores the connections between different articles to illustrate important themes/theories/research trends within a larger research area.
- Timeline: While a literature review can be organized chronologically, they are not simple timelines of previous events. They should not be a list of any kind. Individual examples or events should be combined to illustrate larger ideas or concepts.
- Argumentative Paper: Literature reviews are not meant to be making an argument. They are explorations of a concept to give the audience an understanding of what has already been written and researched about an idea. As many perspectives as possible should be included in a literature review in order to give the reader as comprehensive understanding of a topic as possible.
Why Write a Literature Review?
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After reading the literature review, the reader should have a basic understanding of the topic. A reader should be able to come into your paper without really knowing anything about an idea, and after reading the literature, feel more confident about the important points.
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A literature review should also help the reader understand the focus the rest of the paper will take within the larger topic. If the reader knows what has already been studied, they will be better prepared for the novel argument that is about to be made.
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A literature review should help the reader understand the important history, themes, events, and ideas about a particular topic. Connections between ideas/themes should also explored. Part of the importance of a literature review is to prove to experts who do read your paper that you are knowledgeable enough to contribute to the academic discussion. You have to have done your homework.
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A literature review should also identify the gaps in research to show the reader what hasn't yet been explored. Your thesis should ideally address one of the gaps identified in the research. Scholarly articles are meant to push academic conversations forward with new ideas and arguments. Before knowing where the gaps are in a topic, you need to have read what others have written.
What does a literature review look like?
As mentioned in other tabs, literature reviews should discuss the big ideas that make up a topic. Each literature review should be broken up into different subtopics. Each subtopic should use groups of articles as evidence to support the ideas. There are several different ways of organizing a literature review. It will depend on the patterns one sees in the groups of articles as to which strategy should be used. Here are a few examples of how to organize your review:
Chronological
If there are clear trends that change over time, a chronological approach could be used to organize a literature review. For example, one might argue that in the 1970s, the predominant theories and themes argued something. However, in the 1980s, the theories evolved to something else. Then, in the 1990s, theories evolved further. Each decade is a subtopic, and articles should be used as examples.
Themes/Theories
There may also be clear distinctions between schools of thought within a topic, a theoretical breakdown may be most appropriate. Each theory could be a subtopic, and articles supporting the theme should be included as evidence for each one.
Methods
If researchers mainly differ in the way they went about conducting research, literature reviews can be organized by methodology. Each type of method could be a subtopic, and articles using the method should be included as evidence for each one.
Preliminary Steps for Literature Review
- Define your research question
- Compile a list of initial keywords to use for searching based on question
- Search for literature that discusses the topics surrounding your research question
- Assess and organize your literature into logical groups
- Identify gaps in research and conduct secondary searches (if necessary)
- Reassess and reorganize literature again (if necessary)
- Write review
Example
Here is an example of a literature review, taken from the beginning of a research article. You can find other examples within most scholarly research articles. The majority of published scholarship includes a literature review section, and you can use those to become more familiar with these reviews.
Source: Perceptions of the Police by LGBT Communities
Assistance
- ISU Writing AssistanceThe Julia N. Visor Academic Center provides one-on-one writing assistance for any course or need. By focusing on the writing process instead of merely on grammar and editing, we are committed to making you a better writer.
- University of Toronto: The Literature ReviewWritten by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre
- Purdue OWL - Writing a Lit ReviewGoes over the basic steps
- UW Madison Writing Center - Review of LiteratureA description of what each piece of a literature review should entail.
- USC Libraries - Literature ReviewsOffers detailed guidance on how to develop, organize, and write a college-level research paper in the social and behavioral sciences.
- Creating the literature review: integrating research questions and argumentsBlog post with very helpful overview for how to organize and build/integrate arguments in a literature review
- Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House”Article focusing on constructing a literature review for a dissertation. Still very relevant for literature reviews in other types of content.
Examples
A note that many of these examples will be far longer and in-depth than what's required for your assignment. However, they will give you an idea of the general structure and components of a literature review. Additionally, most scholarly articles will include a literature review section. Looking over the articles you have been assigned in classes will also help you.
- Sample Literature Review (Univ. of Florida)This guide will provide research and writing tips to help students complete a literature review assignment.
- Sociology Literature Review (Univ. of Hawaii)Written in ASA citation style - don't follow this format.
- Sample Lit Review - Univ. of VermontIncludes an example with tips in the footnotes.