WRITING A LITERATURE REVIEW
What is Research and “Academic Writing” all about anyway?
University research is all about examining problems in any particular discipline and
considering questions for which no one has yet found conclusive and totally satisfactory
answers.
Academic writing is part of a dialogue between researchers who are interested in the
same problems and questions.
The Literature Review
When you write a literature review, you are beginning to enter this academic dialogue. In
the process, you will learn how to be a more critical reader, to identify issues, and to
discover a space which is available for your own research.
Specifically, a literature review
 provides an overview of a limited body of literature available which addresses a
particular issue or question.
 offers background for the topic or problem using previous research
 evaluates the depth and effectiveness of research available
 tells you what the literature tells you, what it does not tell you and why this is
important
 reveals any major areas of disagreement between researchers about the topic
 determines remaining questions or aspects of your topic still in need of research
How To Write a Literature Review
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Synthesize and evaluate information:
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Read literature reviews in your discipline to see how they are structured.
Take note of the themes or categories that you see emerging.
Examine each work on its own and in relation to other works by considering the
following:
Topic
Argument
Results found and conclusion
Methods
Theoretical approach
Key words
If it helps, make actual charts, with questions in categories at one side and the
works you have read along the other, then fillin the blanks.
2. Consider these questions for analyzing individual works:
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What is the argument?
Is it logically developed?
Is it well defended?
What kind of research is presented?
What are the methods used?
Do they allow the author to address the research question effectively?
Is each argument or point based on relevant research? If not, why?
What theoretical approach does the author adopt?
Does it allow the researcher to make convincing points and draw
convincing conclusions?
Are the author’s biases and presuppositions openly presented, or do you
have to identify them indirectly? If so, why?
Overall, how convincing is the argument/
Are the conclusions relevant to the field of study?
3. Consider these questions for comparing works:
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What are the main arguments?
Do the authors make similar or different arguments?
Are some arguments more convincing than others?
How has the research been conducted in the literature?
How extensive has it been?
What kinds of data have been presented?
How pertinent are they?
Are there sufficient amounts of data?
Do they adequately answer the questions?
What are the different types of methodologies used?
How well do they work? Is one methodology more effective than others?
Why?
What are the different theoretical frameworks or approaches used?
What do they allow the authors to do?
Overall, is one work more convincing than others? Why?
4. Identify the main ideas of the literature.
Once you have begun to synthesize your research, you will begin to identify
some main ideas and trends that pervade the topic or the research question.
Use these main ideas to classify the information and sources that you have
read. Later, these ideas can be used as the main topics of discussion in the
literature review, and if you have already organized your literature on these
topics, it will be easy to summarize the literature and find examples.
5. Identify the main argument of the literature review
Just like any academic paper, the literature review should have main idea about
the literature that you would like the readers to understand. This argument is
closely related to your research question in that presents a situation in the body of
literature which motivates your research question.
6. Organize the main points of the review
After identifying the main ideas that need to be presented in the review, organize
them so as to support the main argument. A well-organized review presents the
relevant aspects of the topic in a coherent order the leads readers to understand the
context and significance of your research question and project.
As you organize the ideas, keep track of the supporting ideas, examples and
sources that you will be using for each point.
Tips for Writing the Review
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Like any academic paper, a review should contain an introduction, a body
and a conclusion. It should be centred on a main idea or argument about
the literature you are reviewing.
Explain the relevance of material you use and cite. Do not simply restate
what others have said; rather, explain what the quoted or summarized
information means in relation to your review.
Use present verb tense to relate what authors say. Example: “In her article
on biodiversity, Jones stipulates that….”
Use present tense when you present your observations on literature.
Example: “However, on the important question of extinction, Jones
remains silent.”
Past tense is used for recounting events, results found, etc.
Do not turn your paper into a list in paragraph form, giving a summary of
one work in one paragraph, and then a summary of the next work in
another. It is not necessary to give a complete description for every study
or article you looked at.