How to Write a Literature Review

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It

provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify
relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.
There are five key steps to writing a literature
review:
1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates, and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review
 A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it
analyzes, synthesizes, and critically evaluates to give a clear
picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.
 What is the purpose of a literature review?

 When you write a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, you will likely
have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within
existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:
• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge
of the scholarly debates around your topic.
 Examples of literature reviews

 Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting

point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of
literature review you’d like to write.
• Example literature review #1:
“Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” (
Theoretical literature review about the development of economic
migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2:
“Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guideli
nes”
(Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge
acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3:
“The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature
Review”
(Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on
language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4:
“Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language
Learning: A Literature Review”
(Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening
skills has changed over time.)
 Step 1 – Search for relevant literature

 Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly

defined topic.
 If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or
research paper, you will search for literature related to your
research problem and questions.
 Literature review research question exampleWhat is the impact of
social media on body image among Generation Z?
Make a list of keywords

 Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question.

Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and
list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you
discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.
• Keywords exampleSocial media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth
 Search for relevant sources
 Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to
search for journals and articles include:
• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• JSTOR
• EBSCO
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
Step 2 – Evaluate and select sources

 You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it
will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research qu
 For each publication, ask yourself:
• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or
challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
Step 3 – Identify themes, debates, and gaps
To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the
connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and
notes, you can look for:
• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more
or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction
of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?
 Example of trends and gapsIn reviewing the literature on social
media and body image, you note that:
• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms
like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in
your own research.
Step 4 – Outline your literature review’s structure
Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these
strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed
chronologically).
 Chronological
The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you
choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.
 Thematic
If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review
into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.
For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes,
key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status,
and economic access.
 Methodological
 If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a
variety of research methods, you might want to compare the results
and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:
• Look at what results have emerged in
qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus
theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources
 Theoretical
A literature review is often the foundation for a
theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various
theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.
 You might argue for the relevance of a specific
theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical
concepts to create a framework for your research.
 Step 5 – Write your literature review

 Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an introduction,
a main body, and a conclusion. What you include in each depends on the
objective of your literature review.
 Introduction
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the
literature review.
 Body
Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide
the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or
methodological approach.
 As you write, you can follow these tips:
• 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 sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts
 Conclusion
 In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken
from the literature and emphasize their significance.