How to Write a Literature Review
| Guide, Examples, & Templates
Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes. Revised on September 11,
2023.
What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of
scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of
current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories,
methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply
to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic.
There are five key steps to writing a literature review:
1. Search for relevant literature
2. Evaluate sources
3. Identify themes, debates, and gaps
4. Outline the structure
5. Write your literature review
A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it
analyzes, synthesizes, and critically evaluates to give a clear
picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.
Tip
We’ve also compiled a few examples, templates, and sample
outlines for you below.
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Table of contents
1. What is the purpose of a literature review?
2. Examples of literature reviews
3. Step 1 – Search for relevant literature
4. Step 2 – Evaluate and select sources
5. Step 3 – Identify themes, debates, and gaps
6. Step 4 – Outline your literature review’s structure
7. Step 5 – Write your literature review
8. Free lecture slides
9. Other interesting articles
10. Frequently asked questions
Introduction Quick Run-through Step 1 & 2
Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
What is the purpose of a literature
review?
When you write a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, you will
likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research
within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance
to:
Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly
context
Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your
research
Position your work in relation to other researchers and
theorists
Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a
debate
Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your
knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.
Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want
to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve
written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.
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Examples of literature reviews
Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting
point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind
of literature review you’d like to write.
Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A
Review of the Theoretical Literature” (Theoretical literature
review about the development of economic migration theory
from the 1950s to today.)
Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a
research methodology: An overview and guidelines”
(Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary
knowledge acquisition and production.)
Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in
English Language Learning: A Literature Review” (Thematic
literature review about the effects of technology on language
acquisition.)
Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening
Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A
Literature Review” (Chronological literature review about how
the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)
You can also check out our templates with literature review
examples and sample outlines at the links below.
Download Word doc Download Google doc
Step 1 – Search for relevant literature
Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly
defined topic.
If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or
research paper, you will search for literature related to your
research problem and questions.
Literature review research question example
What is the impact of social media on body image among
Generation Z?
Make a list of keywords
Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research
question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re
interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can
add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of
your literature search.
Keywords example
Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat,
TikTok
Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental
health
Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth
Search for relevant sources
Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful
databases to search for journals and articles include:
Your university’s library catalogue
Google Scholar
JSTOR
EBSCO
Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
EconLit (economics)
Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your
search.
Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is
relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article,
you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.
Step 2 – Evaluate and select sources
You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has
been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate
which sources are most relevant to your research question.
For each publication, ask yourself:
What question or problem is the author addressing?
What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
What are the key theories, models, and methods?
Does the research use established frameworks or take an
innovative approach?
What are the results and conclusions of the study?
How does the publication relate to other literature in the field?
Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you
read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of
research.
You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources
you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to
download.
Download Word doc Download Google doc
Take notes and cite your sources
As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes
that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.
It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid
plagiarism. It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography,
where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph
of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember
what you read and saves time later in the process.
Tip
You can use Scribbr’s free APA citation generator or MLA
citation generator to quickly create correct and
consistent citations. Want to check your literature review for
plagiarism? Try Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker for students.
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check.
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Step 3 – Identify themes, debates, and
gaps
To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and
structure, be sure you understand the connections and
relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your
reading and notes, you can look for:
Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do
certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the
literature?
Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources
disagree?
Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or
studies that changed the direction of the field?
Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there
weaknesses that need to be addressed?
This step will help you work out the structure of your literature
review and (if applicable) show how your own research will
contribute to existing knowledge.
Example of trends and gaps
In reviewing the literature on social media and body image,
you note that:
Most research has focused on young women.
There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of
social media.
But there is still a lack of robust research on highly
visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a
gap that you could address in your own research.
Step 4 – Outline your literature review’s
structure
There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature
review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can
combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall
structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed
chronologically).
Chronological
The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic
over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid
simply listing and summarizing sources in order.
Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have
shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how
and why certain developments occurred.
Thematic
If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize
your literature review into subsections that address different
aspects of the topic.
For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in
migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare
policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and
economic access.
Methodological
If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use
a variety of research methods, you might want to compare the
results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For
example:
Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus
quantitative research
Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical
versus theoretical scholarship
Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural
sources
Theoretical
A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical
framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and
definitions of key concepts.
You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical
approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a
framework for your research.
Tip
AI tools like ChatGPT can be effectively used to brainstorm
ideas and create an outline for your literature review.
However, trying to pass off AI-generated text as your own
work is a serious offense. This will be recognized by your
university’s plagiarism checker or AI detector.
Visit our AI writing resources page to learn how to use these
tools responsibly.
Step 5 – Write your literature review
Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an
introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. What you include in
each depends on the objective of your literature review.
Introduction
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of
the literature review.
Tip
If you are writing the literature review as part of your
dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or
research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly
context. You can emphasize the timeliness of the topic
(“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or
highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much
research on x, few researchers have taken y into
consideration”).
Body
Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want
to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for
each theme, time period, or methodological approach.
As you write, you can follow these tips:
Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main
points of each source and combine them into a coherent
whole
Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other
researchers—add your own interpretations where possible,
discussing the significance of findings in relation to the
literature as a whole
Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of
your sources
Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words
and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and
contrasts
Conclusion
In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have
taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.
Tip
Be sure to show how your research addresses gaps and
contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn
on existing theories and methods to build a framework for
your research.
When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review,
don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a
language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading
services!
Free lecture slides
This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use
to teach your students about writing a literature review.
Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for
educational purposes.
