A literature review is an extensive survey of scholarly research on a single topic. A literature review may be one part of a larger text, such as a dissertation or journal article, or it may be a single text in itself. Though literature reviews are focused on presenting research, literature reviews should not be confused with research papers. A research paper presents scholarly studies to make a point or argument; a literature review objectively presents an overview of research on a particular topic in order to suggest the scope and depth of scholarly opinion on that topic.

Literature reviews should be organized by the subdivisions of the topic they address. For instance, if one were composing a literature review on the mating behavior of eels, the literature review would group studies with similar findings together in such a way that the mating behavior of freshwater eels is discussed in one portion of the literature review and the mating behavior of saltwater eels is discussed in another. Within those subdivisions, each study should be discussed in its own paragraph or set of paragraphs. All of the studies in one subdivision should be discussed before moving on to a different subdivision.

Each study in a literature review should have its own paragraph or set of paragraphs that clearly outlines (1) the authors of the research, (2) the year the research was published, (3) what the study sought to determine, (4) the way the study was executed, and (5) the study’s results or findings. All of this information should be discussed in an academic and objective fashion. Literature reviews are not places for commentary, but reporting; they are essentially guides to relevant research on a single topic. The student should simply present a summary of each study according to the guidelines presented above.

The literature review should end by summarizing the main points presented by the studies discussed in the review and pointing to any conclusions the research as a whole makes about the topic at hand. It should then suggest areas of research in the particular topic that have yet to be investigated.

Many students struggle with the literature review because of the amount of information it presents. The best way to approach the writing of the literature review is therefore to make a clear outline of the subdivisions of the topic and list the order in which each study will be discussed within that subdivision. Then, just follow the outline, summarizing each study one by one.

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