– What is a literature review?

During your academic career, you might be asked to write a literature review. It could be required as a stand-alone project, a preliminary step in writing an essay, or even a section or chapter within a longer paper. But what exactly is a literature review?

Typically, a literature review gives a critical overview of the published sources (articles, books, dissertations, etc.) on a particular topic. Though it does not present new first-hand scholarship, the literature review will include your thoughts on the different sources. In that sense, the literature review includes a combination of summarizing other people’s ideas, evaluating them, and drawing conclusions about the state of research on a certain subject.

It will usually begin with an introduction that sets out the area of research, and a discussion of the relevant sources will follow. The sources should be presented in a logical manner, for example grouped into different subtopics with the main subject, arguments for or against a certain proposition, the type of approach used, or even just chronologically, tracing the development of the ideas over time. Each source should be summarized and critiqued, with an emphasis on showing its significance for the topic and the value of its arguments/research. After all of the sources have been covered in that manner, a conclusion is needed to tie together the different ideas presented in the review, summarize the current state of the research, and introduce possible directions for future research.

For more detailed information about writing a literature review, you can visit these three helpful websites:

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