Literature Reviews

Once you have enough sources to completely answer your research question, it’s time to start the writing process.

• Read your articles—it's OK to skim rather than reading each article from beginning to end. Scan the abstracts, introductions, discussions, and conclusions. Highlight and make note of important findings, main ideas and arguments, and references to previous studies and theories.
• Create an outline that organizes your sources into an order (topical, chronological, etc.) for you to follow in your review.
• Write a short introduction to your summary that lets your reader know what to expect.
• Write paragraphs that summarize the findings found in the literature. Each paragraph should address one major idea. Similar sources can be summarized together in statements like, "Most researchers agree that..." or "Current trends in the literature are..."
• Use transitions to show how different sources interact with each other. For example, you might write, "While earlier researchers thought X, new discoveries have led researchers to think Y." Or "Researcher applied W in new circumstances and found Z."
• Avoid directly quoting material in your review—you should be summarizing and paraphrasing as much as possible. Remember to use in-text citations when you refer to an idea from a specific source, whether you're paraphrasing or using a direct quotation.
• Write a short conclusion that sums up the major points from the literature. If you've noticed there are subjects that the literature hasn't tackled yet, you can point out that further research is needed.
• Only include sources in your bibliography that you quoted, paraphrased, or mentioned in your paper. 

Most scholarly peer-reviewed articles follow a formula or the structure seen in the image below. A quick way to evaluate it for your needs is to read the abstract, introduction, and conclusion or findings sections. It is also a good idea to evaluate the author's credentials.

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