Are you a researcher planning to publish your research paper and don’t know how to write a literature review? This guide will address these questions and offer practical tips and strategies to help you present your findings effectively. Before diving into this – check out the previous blog – How to Write a Research Paper?

What is a literature review?

Essentially, a literature review is an analysis of the work or writing of others on a specific topic.

This can be a standalone document, like a college assignment, or a section of a larger document, such as a research paper. In a research paper, the literature review usually comes after the introduction and before the research methodology section.

Hence, literature review is a critical evaluation of other people’s work on a particular subject. A literature review can be broken down into three parts: 

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion.

How to write a literature review?

Introduction

Introduce the topic – When writing an introduction for a literature review, it is important to first introduce the topic and explain why it is worth reviewing. If the literature review is part of a larger research paper, you can also mention the research gap or problem statement of your study. 

Mention key terms and concepts – You should define any key terms or introduce concepts that will be covered in the review. 

Mention an overview of topics to be discussed – Additionally, you should outline the criteria you will use to compare or analyze the literature

Establish the scope of the literature review by specifying any categories of research papers you will or will not be reviewing.

Body

The next step is the body of your literature review, which is the most crucial component. This is where you will present the research conducted by others. Before you start writing, you need to consider how you will organize this section. Depending on your chosen topics, there are various approaches you can take. 

First Approach – Chronological Order

This is the simplest approach where you share how the development of the topic has taken place over time. This also gives an understanding to your audience as to how that topic has evolved, and what is the current stage of research in this field. However, when you are reviewing the literature, make sure you don’t just list all the literature one by one, but also, share key turning points or patterns that have shaped the direction of the field. 

Second Approach – Methodological

If your literature review is based on sources that employ various methodologies, you can compare the outcomes and conclusions of different methodologies, such as qualitative versus quantitative research or experimental versus theoretical research. To do so, you can provide a comparison of these methodologies and their implications for your research.

Others – Thematic and Theoretical

The other two methods are thematic and theoretical. If your research topic has various themes to it, for instance, if you are writing a review on solar cells, then different themes could be the materials used to make solar cells or the applications of solar cells. The last method, theoretical, involves different theoretical approaches or frameworks. In this case, you can compare and contrast them or summarize them together for your study.

A literature review is not only stating what was done but your analysis of it. The structure of the body is as follows –

Summarize and synthesize: Group similar literature together and try to give an overview of the main points of each source 

Analyze and interpret: Add your interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings about the topic of your literature review 

Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources

Conclusion

In the conclusion, if your literature review is independent, reiterate the purpose, research questions, key findings, and main conclusions, including future research directions or applications. If part of a research paper, share the study’s objective and overall significance.

That’s all we have to share with you today, folks. We hope this blog will help write your research paper. If you would like to learn more about the different sections involved in writing a research paper and how to write the content under each section, please consider joining our course – A-Z of Research Paper Writing & Presentation Keep in mind that no software or AI tool can teach you the intricacies of the process. In this course, we will cover everything from start to finish, including how to choose the right research topic and select the right journal for publication. We wish you the best of luck with your research endeavors!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below and we will get back to you as soon as possible 🙂