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Write a Literature Review

1. Narrow your topic and select papers accordingly

  • Consider your specific area of study. Think about what interests you and what interests other researchers in your field.
  • Talk to your professor, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the ﬁeld.
  • Limit your scope to a smaller topic area (ie. focusing on France's role in WWII instead of focusing on WWII in general).

2. Search for literature

  • Define your source selection criteria (ie. articles published between a specific date range, focusing on a specific geographic region, or using a specific methodology).
  • Using keywords, search a library database.
  • Reference lists of recent articles and reviews can lead to other useful papers.
  • Include any studies contrary to your point of view.

3. Read the selected articles thoroughly and evaluate them

  • Evaluate and synthesize the studies' ﬁndings and conclusions.
  • Note the following:
    • assumptions some or most researchers seem to make
    • methodologies, testing procedures, subjects, material tested researchers use
    • experts in the ﬁeld: names/labs that are frequently referenced
    • conflicting theories, results, methodologies
    • popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time

How to Integrate Critical Voice in Your Lit Review


  • Note the following:
    • Findings that are common/contested
    • Important trends in the research
    • The most influential theories
    • Tip: If your literature review is extensive, ﬁnd a large table surface, and on it place post-it notes or ﬁling cards to organize all your ﬁndings into categories.
      • Move them around if you decide that (a) they ﬁt better under different headings, or (b) you need to establish new topic headings.
  • Develop headings/subheadings that reflect the major themes and patterns you detected

5. Develop a thesis or purpose statement

  • Write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major trends and developments you see in the research that has been conducted on your subject.

6. Write the paper

  • Follow the organizational structure you developed above, including the headings and subheadings you constructed.
  • Make certain that each section links logically to the one before and after.
  • Structure your sections by themes or subtopics, not by individual theorists or researchers.
  • Prioritize analysis over description.
    • For example, look at the following two passages and note that Student A merely describes the literature, whereas Student B takes a more analytical and evaluative approach by comparing and contrasting. You can also see that this evaluative approach is well signaled by linguistic markers indicating logical connections (words such as "however," "moreover") and phrases such as "substantiates the claim that," which indicate supporting evidence and Student B's ability to synthesize knowledge.

7. Review your work

  • Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. If you were to read only these sentences, would you ﬁnd that your paper presented a clear position, logically developed, from beginning to end? The topic sentences of each paragraph should indicate the main points of your literature review.
  • Make an outline of each section of the paper and decide whether you need to add information, to delete irrelevant information, or to re-structure sections.
  • There should be no grammatical or spelling errors.
  • Sentences should ﬂow smoothly and logically.

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