How to Write a Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide

Having difficulty with your literature review? You're not the only one facing this challenge. More than 60% of university students experience trouble crafting an engaging literature review while integrating information from various sources to develop a new or enhanced perspective on a topic. A literature review is a comprehensive study that critically analyzes existing research papers and documents on a particular topic.  

Literature reviews effectively identify gaps in existing papers, justify the narrative and ideas of the paper with strong arguments, and explore its weak points to justify the need for further research. They also showcase the researchers' expertise in specific topics. So, if you are looking to write a literature review and struggle to understand how to start and what the right way of writing is, then this is for you. Everything you need to know before writing a literature review will be covered in this post.

What is a Literature Review?

The literature review summarizes different research about a topic through analysis to detect regular patterns as well as missing information and universal connections. Literature reviews surpass annotated bibliographies because their purpose involves critical assessment of research content as opposed to straightforward investigation of source materials. An annotated bibliography includes basic definitions, yet a literature review presents the research sources as a unified narrative that demonstrates their value in advancing understanding of the subject. 

Literature reviews come in various forms, and the academic discipline influences the type of essay you produce and whether you are a researcher preparing the review for a PhD, aiming to publish in a journal, or completing a coursework assignment. Specific factors influence how to write a Literature Review. A literature review for an undergraduate course will not be as thorough as the review needed for a PhD dissertation. Here is a brief of various literature review types: 

• Narrative Reviews: Gather information to add to existing research. A literature review is a comprehensive, critical, and objective examination of the existing research on a particular subject. This is typically a descriptive and mainly relies on the judgment and expertise of the researchers. It is useful for investigating novel, inventive, intricate, and developing fields of study since it enables researchers to record a wide variety of viewpoints and hypotheses. However, these reviews often lack statistical data and are prone to bias.   

Example: What challenges did you face when learning to read in a second language? 

• Systematic Reviews: A more rigorous and structured approach to writing a literature review. Researchers typically use a predetermined set of "inclusion" and "exclusion" criteria to make sure that the evaluated material is objective and representative of the study subject. Under a systematic review, researchers compare multiple findings and studies, facilitating the creation of a more objective and comprehensive summary. However, writing a systematic review is time-consuming and requires a significant amount of resources, which can increase the likelihood of excluding some relevant studies due to strict inclusion criteria. 

Example: A systematic review: Nicotine effects on exercise performance and physiological response in nicotine-native individuals. 

• Meta-Analysis: Statistical combination of two or more studies to reach a single conclusion. Meta-analysis is a method that combines the results of multiple independent studies on a single topic to arrive at a more precise conclusion. The core method for this approach involves determining the total impact size from every conducted research study. The approach collects and combines effect sizes as well as variance metrics that researchers have presented in their respective studies. The statistical power reaches its maximum strength because effect size additions enhance the inconsistencies and probabilities typically observed in separate studies.

Example: Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral and pharmacological treatments for children with social anxiety

8 Steps to Write a Literature Review 

Producing a literature review can be quite challenging! A literature review summarizes existing research or papers. Due to its intricacies and word count limitations, many students find writing a literature review difficult. The eight Steps to write a literature review will guide you in crafting an engaging research paper. Stay focused on these eight steps and approach your writing systematically. 

Step 1: Define Your Scope

Since the writing of a literature review has a limitation on word length. Therefore, you must include the most important points. Before you begin the writing process, clarify the scope of your review. Ask yourself specific questions to determine the most effective methodology for your review. Here are a few questions. 

• What specific problem or question does my research tackle? 
• Which disciplines, theories, or methodologies are most relevant? 
• What time frame (e.g., last 10 years) or geographic focus should I emphasize?

Asking these simple questions before you dive into the writing process will help you draw a clear roadmap for your review. For instance, you have to cover the impact of social media on mental health among adolescents. You would likely have restricted your studies and research to the fields of psychology and communication in recent years. 

Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria Setting Process

Step 2: Search for Sources

The literature review delivers convincing academic and research documents. A literature review functions with purposes that surpass study summaries since its main goals are to provide background to current academic work, alongside research gaps analysis, and suggest possible solutions. The author must perform in-depth research to collect vital information as well as multiple sources of arguments. How it helps: 

• Researcher Effectiveness: Methodical database evaluation allows researchers to grasp the complete scope of previous studies about their study subject.
• Identifying Gaps: You can determine research vacancies by assessing what scholarly work already exists and spotting cases of conflicting research findings.
• Establishing Credibility: Referencing a wide range of relevant sources strengthens the credibility of your review.
• Avoiding Redundancy: Knowing what has been done helps you avoid simply repeating existing research.
• Focusing Your Review: The search process can help you refine your research question and the scope of your review.

Selecting Relevant Databases and Search Engines: Different databases specialize in different types of information. For academic literature reviews, you'll primarily focus on scholarly databases.

• US-Centric Tools:
  • Google Scholar: A broad search engine specifically for scholarly literature across many disciplines. It's a good starting point for finding a wide range of academic sources, including journal articles, theses, and conference papers.
  • JSTOR: A digital library with a strong collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. It's excellent for in-depth research and historical context.
  • PubMed: A database focused on biomedical and life sciences literature. If your topic has a health or psychological component, PubMed is a crucial resource for finding relevant studies and research findings.

Refining Searches with Boolean Operators: Boolean operators are words like AND, OR, and NOT that you use to combine your keywords and make your searches more precise.

• AND: This operator narrows your search by requiring all specified keywords to be present in the results. For example, "social media" AND "adolescent anxiety" will only find articles that discuss both social media and anxiety in teenagers.
• OR: This operator broadens your search by including results that contain any of the specified keywords. For example, "teenagers" OR "adolescents" will find articles that use either term.
• NOT: This operator narrows your search by excluding results that contain a specific keyword. For example, "social media AND anxiety NOT adults" will find articles about social media and anxiety but exclude those that primarily focus on adults. This is particularly helpful when you want to focus specifically on adolescents.

Step 3: Evaluate Sources

As you have chosen topics in different fields, the review must be authentic, and for that, it must be efficient; hence, you must evaluate the sources you used. This evaluation makes the information credible and sustainable. This means looking into the authority, accuracy, currency, relevance, and the purpose of a source, or the bias that it may hold. However, do check to retain author credentials, relevance to the subject, and reputation of the publication.

1. Peer-Reviewed Journals: Scholarly publications’ experts examine the article to ensure the quality and accuracy of the report. It helps the writer to understand how to write a Literature Review efficiently.  

• Firstly, the author has to submit the manuscript to the editor. 
• Second, the author can reject it and send it back to the author, or accept it and send it to the peer reviewer for further review. 
• Third, the peer reviewer will evaluate the manuscript and suggest changes. 
• Fourth, the author will make the required changes and create the final draft for the publication. 

2. Author Affiliations: This is where the author's research took place. It helps the readers identify the institution that provides the support and resources to the author. Affiliations of the renowned publications increase the trust of the readers in the literature review. 

3. Citations in recent studies: Citation often helps the author to eradicate the chances of plagiarism, if they have used the work of other writers or researchers. The literature review includes the findings and studies of recent times, and therefore, you must use the citations to acknowledge the source of information. It will enhance the credibility and support your claims by providing the evidence.

Zotero 

Use Zotero, an open-source reference tool, to gather, arrange, cite, and distribute research materials. Saving references from online sources and library catalogs is beneficial. Include PDFs and other files, annotate them, and make bibliographies using several citation formats.

Step 4: Identify Themes & Gaps

Spend enough time reviewing literature, both past and present. Before you start writing your research paper, you must address thematic and research-gap analysis within the existing literature. This will help you identify areas that are under-researched or where contrasting evidence requires more attention. Look out for topics, questions, or themes that keep recurring in literature across sources. This way, you can group the literature in clusters with some meaning. 

Uncover neglected demographics: certain marginalized populations have not been sufficiently studied. Often, these groups have not been the subject of research and feel neglected. It is vital to recognize their needs for shaping relevant policies and practices.

Step 5: Write a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement encapsulates the essence and main argument of the literature review. The statement should be concise and clear, and guide the reader about the research paper. With the thesis statement, the writer clearly states their stance. Now, how to write a Research Paper thesis statement? Once you have developed the arguments and evidence for your reviews, you should return to the main points to refine a thesis statement covering the review's summary. 

Keep a few things in mind to craft a complete thesis statement: 

• Make a thesis statement that can be argued in both directions, for and against. 
• The thesis should be a single sentence that addresses the main question or states your primary argument. 
• Avoid using complex language. 
• Make sure your statement is interesting and draws the attention of the reader. 

Here is a weak and strong thesis Literature Review Example, learn what to avoid and how your thesis should be. 

• Weak: This review discusses social media.
• Strong: This review analyzes how Instagram usage correlates with anxiety in US adolescents aged 13–18.

Step 6: Structure Your Review

While you set the literature review structure, you have two options: Chronological or Thematic. 

• Chronological Structure: As the name suggests, the research continues in a straight timeline, where the writer presents the data and arguments of different researchers in a linear time with the publication dates. The structure presents the earliest arguments at first, and then continues to include the progress on the topic and reach the present time. The structure is carefully considered in showcasing the development of a specific topic and how it has evolved over time, highlighting the key findings, methodologies, and shifts in theories. 
   
• Thematic Structure: It uses the Synthesize sources. The research combines information across various sources to develop a modern point of view and argument. A thematic structure integrates existing research through the collection of evidence that belongs to the same group and unites these statements under a single framework while bypassing conventional methodological and chronological frameworks. The researcher benefits from easily identifying gaps to deliver stronger descriptions that enhance the topic structure. 

Step 7: Write the Draft 

If you are wondering how to write a Research Paper of a literature review, use the following structure: 

• A theme describing your paragraph's main point should reflect social media's impacts on mental health.
• Present a source that supports your main point while showing its value. 
• Wipe it off with a transition that establishes movement from one section to another while also keeping the discussion coherent and accessible to readers. Highlight a gap in current research while specifying key areas that demand additional studies. 
• Examine both your spelling and grammar to make your writing both easier to understand and more effective.

Step 8: Revise & Edit

Review your finished research paper to ensure no errors exist before its official submission. Failure to review your work proves unadvisable because multiple errors could exist that you failed to detect. Thoroughly proofread your writing to make it both easier to understand and more effective in its communication. Check how transition statements like " however and similarly" work in your text. The work should be presented in passive voice to make it more effective. Consider hiring someone or asking a peer to review your writing; their fresh perspective can help identify flaws more effectively. Once mistakes are identified, proceed with the necessary edits. Editing involves making specific changes to correct grammatical and spelling errors. You can use the tool Grammarly to identify and rectify the mistakes and errors. 

Download Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/desktop 

Tap on the link and download Grammarly to take the free trial and enhance the quality of your paper. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Over-relying on outdated studies  

A major drawback in writing literature reviews exists when researchers depend too heavily on outdated studies. The field of knowledge transforms at a fast pace, particularly within rapidly evolving domains, including medicine and technology; thus, previous year foundational studies may fail to provide current applicable knowledge. Examining US tech trends requires focusing on sources published between 2018 and 2023. Your review will accurately present current discoveries combined with evolutions in industrial practice and new challenges through this approach. Recent studies enable you to strengthen your arguments while proving your deep knowledge of contemporary research outcomes within your topic domain.

Mistake 2: Ignoring contradictory findings  

Research that shows results against your hypothesis often gets ignored by some scholars as a standard mistake. A thorough literature review demands inclusion of contradicting evidence, which proves both your analytical thinking abilities and the multifaceted dynamics of research fields. Your analysis risks losing credibility when you decide not to incorporate studies that present alternative views. Embracing research opposed to your viewpoint serves to make your argument segment stronger. Including this approach strengthens your discussion because it demonstrates how extensive the current knowledge base is, which enables you to solidify your arguments and highlight unexplored research areas.

FAQs

How do you start writing a literature review?

Beginning a literature review requires incorporating the findings, arguments, and evidence from previous research papers. Writing a research paper involves analyzing earlier and current studies. The literature review should commence with an overview that encapsulates the main arguments found in earlier works on the same subject. 

What are the 3 parts of literature review?

A literature review consists of three key parts: the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. 

1. Introduction: This section sets the stage for the review by presenting the research topic, its significance, and the objectives of the review. It provides context and outlines the scope of the literature examined.

2. Main Body: This portion of the analysis presents an extensive review of different research, theoretical frameworks, and study results regarding the subject matter. It displays both current research tendencies and academic arguments, along with recognized areas that need investigation to achieve an extensive comprehension of known information and theories.

3. Conclusion: The conclusion draws together essential points from the work before discussing how the research findings affect understanding and proposing research guidelines for the future.

What are the 5 steps in writing a literature review?

Here are the five steps to write a literature review: 

1. Define the Scope and Research Question: Identify the topic and start researching the questions and the scope of the review. Using this methodology will enable you to follow the most applicable direction through to the end of your main argument.
2. Search for and Select Relevant Literature: Your initial task should entail searching past research for your topic and extracting key elements, including data and keywords. Record key information from your research to highlight important topics while finding areas that lack study.
3. Evaluate Sources: Analyze chosen literature by examining methodology and evaluating the significance to validate its reliability and applicability while assessing the quality of published content.
4. Organize and Summarize the Literature: Choose between a thematic or chronological literature review structure. Based on your choice, form the group and organize the data. 
5. Write a Review: Begin your review with an introduction, followed by the body paragraphs, and conclude with a summary. Employ clear and concise language while addressing gaps in prior research, key themes, and ongoing debates.

Search for Relevant Literature: Begin by systematically searching academic databases, journals, and books to gather literature related to your topic. Ensure you include a variety of sources to cover different perspectives.

• Evaluate and Select Sources: Analytically evaluate both the quality standards and the relevancy levels of all found literature. The foundation of your review needs credible sources from peer-reviewed articles and influential studies to build it correctly.
• Identify Themes, Debates, and Gaps: A thorough analysis of the chosen literature sources should reveal major themes and active discussions, together with insufficiently researched areas. By identifying the context, you establish proof of why your study matters.
• Outline Your Literature Review’s Structure: You must develop an organized framework that groups your literature based on themes or developmental sequence. A well-organized literature review structure functions as both planning guidance and assists with maintaining a coherent flow throughout your document.
• Write Your Literature Review: Write a first draft of your review that combines multiple sources to create new perspectives while avoiding excessive summarization. Identify through direct statements what each source adds to the comprehension of the subject matter.

What are the 5 C's of writing a literature review?

1. Cite: All referenced literature in your review should contain appropriate citations. The citations not only honor primary authors but also strengthen the credibility of your work

2. Compare: Research how multiple studies connect to each other. Drill down into the various research works through detailed analyses of their methodologies and findings, and assessment of their final results to pinpoint matching and diverging elements.

3. Contrast: Demonstrate the dissimilarities between methods and results found in published articles. The analysis helps explain multiple findings while resolving overlapping, contrasting views in the field.

4. Critique: Analyze the existing literature through both positive and negative assessments. Analysis should explore the methodological constraints and inherent biases and their effect on research outcomes.

5. Connect: Use researched works to connect findings across studies. Use multiple research studies to build a complete knowledge base about the topic while highlighting unexplored areas that need additional study.

Conclusion 

Bringing together existing studies through critical analysis remains fundamental during literature review research writing. Through gap identification combined with theme analysis and enlightened synthesis of previous studies, researchers produce significant insights that benefit their discipline. Using the defined steps of scope definition alongside source evaluation, gap identification, and systematic review writing will help you create a higher-quality exploration. Research incorporating the latest studies, as well as addressing conflicting findings, creates robust reviews that serve as the foundation for upcoming research initiatives.