How to Write a Literature Review

If you thought that a Literature Review was just an academic essay, using a variety of sources on a particular topic to respond to a given question then you need to think again. The Literature Review differs from an ordinary literary essay in the crucial point that instead of using texts to support, question or qualify an argument that a student has formulated or has been given, a Literature Review provides an overall assessment of a selection of texts which is a useful reflection of your studies.

In addition, a Literature Review is often used as a means of assessment by schools, colleges and universities where the aim is to see how well a student has understood a term’s work or a particular course (in this way it resembles a term paper). Very different learning outcomes will be expected from a Literature Review and different marking criteria will be applied.

In a Literary Review, you could be asked to assess a variety of different sources and they need not necessarily be what we usually think of as ‘Literature’ i.e. famous or important books. The Literature Review might just as easily be a review of leaflets, letters or any form of documentary evidence. However, most schools, colleges or universities will advise students of how a Literature Review will be marked and where to place most emphasis which will help you to prepare exactly the type of Literature Review which will be expected and which areas/approaches will gain you most marks.   

The main thing to remember when beginning to prepare a Literature Review is that the sources are all important. The texts will be the bones of the Literature Review and the flesh will be your assessment of them so they complement each other but the basis of the Literature Review must always be the sources themselves together with the student’s ability to summarise and assess them, in that order. Usually, in a Literature Review, the texts to be reviewed will have been selected by the course tutor/teacher but in some cases, it is a particular issue or era which has been studied so that the Literature Review is representative of the subject or period rather than the texts themselves; in this case, the texts would be representative of the topic or era rather than the subject of analysis in their own right.   

The Literature Review requires that the student should read widely within the area of the texts to be reviewed as a thorough knowledge of the texts is essential, whichever kind of Literature Review is being written. This sounds obvious but there is a great deal of difference between the method of reading required for a Literature Review and merely skimming a number of texts. It is useful to make notes whilst reading so that when you come to write your Literature Review you will have a useful aid to your memory of what was being said in each. As you make the notes for your Literature Review, remember to list the author, title and publication details of each text, journal or source of any kind using the correct referencing style for your school, college or university.
   

Make sure you know which style is required in your Literature Review as there is a great deal of difference between them and you will lose marks if you use the wrong one. For example, Harvard and MLA referencing will require you to cite sources briefly and parenthetically within the text of your Literature Review without footnotes, only listing the source in full in the bibliography or references; whereas other styles ask you to include footnotes on each page with superscript numerals indicating which citation refers to which footnote. However, all styles of Literature Review and all referencing styles require a comprehensive bibliography and this is, indeed, especially important in a Literature Review and should evolve as the review does, never being a ‘last-minute’ job.
   

Before you begin to write your Literature Review, find out as much as you can about what is required. You may well have been given a handout which explains everything that is required for the Literature Review fully but if you are unsure about anything, seek advice from your tutor who will be happy to help. Too many students worry in silence, terrified to ask for assistance with a Literature Review, or writing of any kind, and absolutely sure that everyone else knows just what to do, though this is hardly ever the case (just think how relieved you are when someone asks a question to which you didn’t know the answer in class). Your tutors and teachers want to help with writing your Literature Review, indeed with all of your studies, but can only do so if they know when and where it is needed: so, if in doubt, shout it out!
   

Having clarified what is required in your Literature Review, you can begin to organise your ideas. In this respect, the Literature Review is similar to any academic essay because in both you will be required to formulate a thesis statement, though of a different sort in each case. The major difference between the thesis statement of an academic essay and that of the Literature Review is that instead of providing a thesis statement in the form of a proposal or argument, the Literature Review will form a thesis statement which offers a summation of a particular theme, common to most, if not all, of the texts being assessed in your Literature Review. As with all academic essays, the thesis statement of the Literature Review must be clearly stated within the introduction, with a brief statement of the texts or sources to be studied.
   

Moving on to the main body of your Literature Review, you should organise your paragraph topics according to importance, with each following on from the preceding paragraph connected by a hooking sentence to aid the flow of your Literature Review. Each paragraph should address a particular aspect of your Literature Review, if your review is organised thematically, or a specific work if you have opted to organise your Literature Review textually. The first approach is usually preferable in both an academic essay and a Literature Review, as it allows the student’s own particular analysis of the sources to be developed at the same time as summarising the texts and will help your Literature Review to develop more cohesively. A further option is to develop the paragraphs of your Literature Review chronologically which would work well if your Literature Review were to be historically based or naturally progressive, as in a scientific essay. If you choose this method, your Literature Review will have separate paragraphs for developing it in progressive chronological stages.
   

You should use evidence to support the points you make, quoting in the referencing style required, but in general quotations and analysis would be shorter in a Literature Review than in an average academic essay because your main focus in a Literature Review is on summation and evaluation all the way through. Hence, unlike the academic review, where points being made need to be supported by textual evidence, the Literature Review is providing a synthesis of both simultaneously, so evidence is not used or needed in the same way.
   

Your Literature Review, like any academic essay, should end with a conclusion. As always with academic work, the conclusion should summarise the main points made in the Literature Review. It is not a good idea to provide new ideas at this stage but it is useful to indicate the direction further study of the sources assessed in your Literature Review might take. This enables the Literature Review to be seen as a part of an ongoing process of study, as well as in its context, and your awareness of both. This aids both the assessment of this present piece of work and suggests how your Literature Review might be useful in the future. Your tutor will be hoping to judge from your Literature Review not only how well you have evaluated this set of texts but also the skills you have accumulated as you continue to study.
   

Finally, remember that before submitting your Literature Review you should read, and, if necessary, revise it thoroughly. This is tedious but absolutely vital to obtain the highest grades. At this stage, you should ensure that your Literature Review has covered everything that you were asked to do, all the sources you were asked to read and everything you hoped to achieve. Also, remember to proof read your work carefully in order not to lose marks through careless errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation. All of this provides the framework for your finished Literature Review and should, therefore, display it in the best possible setting. The best Literature Reviews offer the reader a cogent, coherent and cohesive assessment of a number of specified sources whilst simultaneously providing an easily discernable connective theme which displays, without overt argument, the writer’s specific evaluation perspective: this is what you should aim for when you construct a literature review.

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