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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts
Writing a Literature Review
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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.
Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?
There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.
A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.
Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.
What are the parts of a lit review?
Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.
Introduction:
- An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
- A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
- Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
- Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
- Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
- Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
- Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.
Conclusion:
- Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
- Connect it back to your primary research question
How should I organize my lit review?
Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:
- Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
- Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
- Qualitative versus quantitative research
- Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
- Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
- Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.
What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?
Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .
As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.
Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:
- It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
- Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
- Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
- Read more about synthesis here.
The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.
ACAP LIBRARY
ACAP Library Pathfinder: Literature Review
- What is a Literature Review?
Examples of Literature Reviews
- The Research Question
- Types of Literature
- How to Search
- Recording the Search
- Reference Management
- Evaluating the Literature
Types of Literature Reviews
Student Examples
There isn't one ideal type of literature review and you may need to employ a range of methods and provide reasons for your choices depending on the research area, problem and methodology. Aveyard (2014) describes a number of ways to approach writing a literature review. Most importantly though, take a close look at your assessment task, the associated marking criteria and access the support material on the first page of this guide. These will guide you towards an application of the fundamental characteristics required in the review.
Below are some examples of literature reviews written by ACAP students . Use these to gain an understanding of the generic structure and language used when writing your own literature reviews.
Evidence-Based Practice & Systematic Reviews
As a result of a vast increase in the availability of information, practitioners have an increasing responsibility to provide services based on best practice that has been informed by evidence-based research. Practitioners then, use evidence-based practice (EBP) to make decisions about the care of clients (techniques, strategies, interventions, treatments and so on) based on the most up-to-date and judicious use of systematically researched evidence.
Given the vast amount of information available and the varying quality of research conducted in and around EBP, the need for systematic reviews has emerged in order to provide a way to collect, analyse and draw conclusions, particularly about a field where the research may indicate inconsistencies or contradictory findings.
While you cannot use systematic reviews as a part of the research for your literature reviews, they are extremely valuable sources of information and an essential guide to best practice for professionals. While researching for your literature reviews, use EBPs and systematic reviews to gain an understanding of the issues in and around your topic and employ the citation chaining process to extract research that is usable in your assessment tasks. The tabs below will connect you to some examples of both.
- STUDENT EXAMPLES
- EBSCO EXAMPLES
- SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS
- EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE
- Literature Reviews in Ebsco Just a few examples from a search of counselling and psychotherapy literature reviews in EbscoHost databases.
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- Last Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:55 PM
- URL: https://libguides.navitas.com/literature-review
Literature review guidelines
Developed by James O'Neill with assistance from Ronald Levant, Rod Watts, Andrew Smiler, Michael Addis, and Stephen Wester.
General considerations
- A good review should summarize the state of knowledge on a well-defined topic in the psychology of men and masculinity in concise and clear ways. This means that the review is written with exceptional clarity, cohesiveness, conciseness, and comprehensiveness.
- A good review should describe in detail the systematic process or method that was used in doing the literature review. There are articulated ways to do "narrative reviews" just as there are ways of doing experiments or meta-analyses (Baumeister & Leary, 1997; Bem, 1995).
Essential elements for a review
- Focus on an important, relevant, and operationally defined topic in the psychology of men and masculinity, and make a strong case for why a literature review of this topic is important.
- Include a critical and inclusive review of previous theory related to the relevant topic. "Critical" means that the literature review reveals problems, contradictions, controversies, strengths, next steps, and potentials in the theories. "Inclusive" means that there is an active evaluation of all of the theory relevant to the topic.
- Include a critical and inclusive review of previous empirical research related to the relevant topic.
- Critically analyze the distinction between authors' interpretation of their data and the actual empirical evidence presented. A good review critically analyses how accurately previous authors have reported their findings and whether they have refrained from asserting conclusions not supported by data.
- Discuss the methodological diversity of studies reported in the literature review and the implications of this diversity for new knowledge or future research.
- Raise provocative and innovative questions on the topic not discussed before in the literature.
- Write the review so that theoretical knowledge and empirical research is significantly advanced in the psychology of men and masculinity, and that there is an overall contribution to the field's theory, research, and clinical practice.
- Include many "take home messages" (Sternberg, 1991) that generate new theories and empirical research.
Sections that might be included in a review
- Provide a historical account or background of the development of the theory or research program reviewed.
- Include persuasive arguments and articulated points of view on the topic from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.
- Propose novel conceptualizations or theories based on reviews of previous theories and empirical research.
- Propose new research paradigms or testable hypotheses that advance future research.
- Propose new therapeutic paradigms or testable hypotheses that advance clinical practice/psychoeducational programming with men.
- Address the frequent gap between reporting theory/research and interpreting the meaning of the theory and research.
It is not expected that reviews will be able to meet all of the above-listed criteria, but authors should meet many of them.
- Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin, 118 , 172–177.
- Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews. Review of General Psychology, 1 , 311–320.
- Sternberg, R. J. (1991). Editorial. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 3–4.
More about this journal
- Psychology of Men & Masculinities
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- General call for papers
- Call for papers: The complexities of men’s experiences with intimate partner violence and family abuse victimization
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For information and tips about writing research papers in APA style, please visit: http://www.psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/academic-writing-.
Search the research literature. Read the articles. Write the literature review. Structure. How to proceed: describe, compare, evaluate. Tips. Conclusion.
A literature review is a critical, analytical summary and synthesis of ... Sample literature review in APA from Purdue University's Online
This section offers a sample literature review, written by an undergraduate psychology student at Purdue University. Since it's a real paper written by a
One approach is to choose an area of research, read all the relevant studies, and organize them in a meaningful way. An example of an organizing theme is a
Survey of previously published literature on a particular topic to define and clarify a particular problem; summarize previous investigations;
Cite your source automatically in MLA or APA format ... A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the
Want to write a literature review? Here's how! For more information on writing literature reviews
Australian College of Applied Psychology, School of Psychological Sciences. School of Counselling: Literature Review Example 1. Course: Bachelor
Write the review so that theoretical knowledge and empirical research is significantly advanced in the psychology of men and masculinity, and that there is an