How to write a literature review
A literature review is simply a set of organized notes from a reading project on a particular topic or issue, with your evaluation of each source. Its purpose is to give an up to date picture of current thinking on a topic and a fair evaluation of the main ideas. Literature reviews are good assignments by themselves. Examples are easy to find because most theses and dissertations have a chapter containing a literature review. (Look near the front; it's usually about chapter 2 or 3.)
Preliminaries and introduction
The preliminaries are simple: A title, your name, the date of submission and your tutor's name.
Write a brief introduction explaining your purpose. This will most likely be to explore a topic or issue of some kind and say why it is important. You might need to specify the boundaries of the topic.
Content
While many of your sources will be books and journal articles, you can also use chapters of large books, anthology articles, and Internet sources. (Try to use a range of sources, and not just the Internet.) In most cases, you'll be looking at the works of individuals, but you can also study leading figures and major movements in the field.
Your content comprises your comments on sources relating to your topic. For each source, say why it's relevant, important, and unique. Then clearly report the main points or ideas.
Consider anything that would affect your interpretation. Did the author have a particular purpose for writing? Or a particular audience? Did the source have a particular background that you need to tell your readers about? For example, if an author wrote about a particular country, is he/she a local person or a vistor? If the person is a visitor, how long did they live there? Did they work in the field they are describing? (If the author was a military veteran writing about a battle, you might interpret what they say quite differently from a young armchair amateur, or a prominent academic writing on the same topic.)
Write a critique. (This does not necessarily mean "find fault"; you might find that the source is excellent.) Identify any of the following that are helpful:
- strengths,
- things that don't make sense (logical fallacies, gaps),
- topics where it contradicts itself (inconsistencies),
- assumptions, and,
- major implications.
- comments of other writers.
Conclusion
At the end, write a conclusion so your readers know what you concluded. You should mention general patterns, trends, or themes that you can see in the literature. Present your conclusions in an advanced a state as you can justify from the literature. The conclusion should show that you have achieved the purpose that you stated in the introduction.
Presentation
Then type it up for presentation according to the guidelines. Present your critical review at a publishable standard of layout and typing with accurate grammar and language style. It must include a bibliography of all your sources. See the guide.