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And you made it to the last step!
All the preliminary work is now done, and you’re ready to write.
The structure of the literature review is similar to other academic texts, with an introduction,
body, and conclusion.
Generally speaking, the introduction of your literature review should clearly state the
focus and purpose of the literature review.
If you’re writing a literature review for your research paper or dissertation, restate
your research question and give a brief overview of what you’ll discuss.
You can emphasize the timeliness of the topic, so something like “many recent studies have
focused on the problem of x” or highlight a gap in the literature, like
“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”.
If you are writing a stand-alone paper, give some background on the topic and its importance,
discuss the scope of the literature you will review (for example, the time period of your
sources), and state your objective.
What new insight will you draw from the literature?
For the body of your literature review, you can divide it into subsections and use a subheading
for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.
Keep these 4 tips in mind as you write: Summarize and synthesize
Analyze and interpret Critically evaluate
Use well-structured paragraphs
We will show you how to use these 4 tips with an example paragraph, feel free to pause if
you need more time to read through it.
Tip number 1: Summarize and synthesize the information
Summarizing means giving an overview of the main points of a source, but it’s also important
to synthesize - that means combining several sources to make an overall point, showing
the similarities and differences between them.
In this paragraph, you can see how different studies are pieced together to convey a point.
We first summarized the theory of Perloff 2014.
Then we synthesized several studies, as highlighted here, that had a similar focus and findings,
illustrating a clear trend in the field.
Tip number 2: Analyze and interpret the research
It’s important to add your own interpretation and discuss the significance of findings in
relation to the literature as a whole.
From this sentence, we analyzed several studies and concluded that the visual and interactive
aspects of social media are the most important factor in body image issues.
Tip number 3: Critically evaluate your sources to identify and discuss strengths and weaknesses
Take a look at this sentence.
This is a critical evaluation of the literature - you contributed your own opinion on how
new technology is changing the role of media in body image.
Tip number 4: Write in well-structured paragraphs
To make sure your sentences and paragraphs are cohesive, use transitions and topic sentences
to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.
If you need help with writing topic sentences, check out this video!
Finally, for the conclusion, sum up the main takeaway of your literature review.
If it’s part of your dissertation, here you should clearly show how your research
addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge.
If it’s a stand-alone paper, you can summarize the major findings and implications of the
literature, and make suggestions for future research.
Now for the final tip, before you go ahead and submit your paper, make sure to proofread
and revise it.
Apart from typos, you should also pay attention to:
- Informal and subjective language - Repetitive phrasing
- Over-use of passive voice - and much more...
Sounds scary?
Don’t worry, Scribbr has a team of academic editors who can proofread your literature
review for you.
Click here!
Good luck on your journey to write a good literature review!
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