Writing a literature review

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a critical analysis of published sources, or literature, on a particular
topic. It is an assessment of the literature and provides a summary, classification,
comparison and evaluation. At postgraduate level literature reviews can be incorporated
into an article, a research report or thesis. At undergraduate level literature reviews can be
a separate stand alone assessment.
The literature review is generally in the format of a standard essay made up of three
components: an introduction, a body and a conclusion. It is not a list like an annotated
bibliography in which a summary of each source is listed one by one.
Why do we write literature reviews?
At university you may be asked to write a literature review in order to demonstrate your
understanding of the literature on a particular topic. You show your understanding by
analysing and then synthesising the information to:
 Determine what has already been written on a topic
 Provide an overview of key concepts
 Identify major relationships or patterns
 Identify strengths and weaknesses
 Identify any gaps in the research
 Identify any conflicting evidence
 Provide a solid background to a research paper’s investigation
How to write a literature review
Determine your purpose
Work out what you need to address in the literature review. What are you being asked to do
in your literature review? What are you searching the literature to discover? Check your
assignment question and your criteria sheet to know what to focus on.
Do an extensive search of the literature
Find out what has been written on the topic.
What kind of literature?
Select appropriate source material: Use a variety of academic or scholarly sources that are
relevant, current and authoritative. An extensive review of relevant material will include —
books, journal articles, reports, government documents, conference proceedings and web
resources. The Library would be the best place to search for your sources.

How many resources?

The number of sources that you will be required to review will depend on what the
literature review is for and how advanced you are in your studies. It could be from five
sources at first year undergraduate level to more than fifty for a thesis. Your lecturer will
advise you on these details.
Note the bibliographical details of your sources
Keep a note of the publication title, date, authors’ names, page numbers and publishers.
These details will save you time later.
Read the literature
 Critically read each source, look for the arguments presented rather than for facts.
 Take notes as you read and start to organise your review around themes and ideas.
 Consider using a table, matrix or concept map to identify how the different sources
relate to each other.
Analyse the literature you have found
In order for your writing to reflect strong critical analysis, you need to evaluate the sources.
For each source you are reviewing ask yourself these questions:
 What are the key terms and concepts?
 How relevant is this article to my specific topic?
 What are the major relationships, trends and patterns?
 How has the author structured the arguments?
 How authoritative and credible is this source?
 What are the differences and similarities between the sources?
 Are there any gaps in the literature that require further study?
Write the review
 Start by writing your thesis statement. This is an important introductory sentence that
will tell your reader what the topic is and the overall perspective or argument you will be
presenting.
 Like essays, a literature review must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
Structure of a literature review
Introduction
Your introduction should give an outline of
 why you are writing a review, and why the topic is important
 the scope of the review — what aspects of the topic will be discussed
 the criteria used for your literature selection (e.g.. type of sources used, date range)
 the organisational pattern of the review.
Body paragraphs
Each body paragraph should deal with a different theme that is relevant to your topic. You
will need to synthesise several of your reviewed readings into each paragraph, so that there
is a clear connection between the various sources. You will need to critically analyse each
source for how they contribute to the themes you are researching.
The body could include paragraphs on:
 historical background
 methodologies
 previous studies on the topic
 mainstream versus alternative viewpoints
 principal questions being asked
 general conclusions that are being drawn.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should give a summary of:
 the main agreements and disagreements in the literature
 any gaps or areas for further research
 your overall perspective on the topic.
Checklist for a literature review
Have I:
 outlined the purpose and scope?
 identified appropriate and credible (academic/scholarly) literature?
 recorded the bibliographical details of the sources?
 analysed and critiqued your readings?
 identified gaps in the literature and research?
 explored methodologies / theories / hypotheses / models?
 discussed the varying viewpoints?
 written an introduction, body and conclusion?
 checked punctuation and spelling?

Now consider some typical ways of organizing the sources into a review:

 Chronological: If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the
materials above according to when they were published. For instance, first you would talk
about the British biological studies of the 18th century, then about Moby Dick, published in
1851, then the book on sperm whales in other art (1968), and finally the biology articles
(1980s) and the recent articles on American whaling of the 19th century. But there is
relatively no continuity among subjects here. And notice that even though the sources on
sperm whales in other art and on American whaling are written recently, they are about other
subjects/objects that were created much earlier. Thus, the review loses its chronological
focus.
 By publication: Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order
demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on
biological studies of sperm whales if the progression revealed a change in dissection
practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.
 By trend: A better way to organize the above sources chronologically is to examine the
sources under another trend, such as the history of whaling. Then your review would have
subsections according to eras within this period. For instance, the review might examine
whaling from pre-1600-1699, 1700-1799, and 1800-1899. Under this method, you would
combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby Dick itself in
the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart.
 Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than
the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a
thematic review. For instance, the sperm whale review could focus on the development of the
harpoon for whale hunting. While the study focuses on one topic, harpoon technology, it will
still be organized chronologically. The only difference here between a “chronological” and a
“thematic” approach is what is emphasized the most: the development of the harpoon or the
 harpoon technology.But more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from
chronological order. For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might
examine how they are portrayed as “evil” in cultural documents. The subsections might
include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors
misunderstood. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within
each section according to the point made.
 Methodological: A methodological approach differs from the two above in that the focusing
factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the
“methods” of the researcher or writer. For the sperm whale project, one methodological
approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of whales in
American, British, and French art work. Or the review might focus on the economic impact of
whaling on a community. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents
in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed. Once you’ve decided on
the organizational method for the body of the review, the sections you need to include in the
paper should be easy to figure out. They should arise out of your organizational strategy. In
other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period. A
thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.