Literature Review
Reviewing the Literature: Why do it?
- Personal: To familiarize yourself with a new area of research, to get an overview of a topic, so you don't want to miss something important, etc.
- Required writing for a journal article, thesis or dissertation, grant application, etc.
Literature reviews vary; there are many ways to write a literature review based on discipline, material type, and other factors.
Background:
- Literature Reviews - UNC Writing Center
- Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students - What is a literature review? What purpose does it serve in research? What should you expect when writing one? - NCSU Video
Where to get help (there are lots of websites, blogs, articles, and books on this topic):
- Dissertations A Guide to Preparing and Submitting your Dissertation - GSAS
- Official documentation - find out from publisher websites, journal editors, dissertation advisors, etc. what their expectations are for a lit review
- (these are non-STEM examples: dissertation guidance, journal guidelines)
- Books - these are just a sample of books available at Harvard
- How to prepare a scientific doctoral dissertation based on research articles (2012)
- Writing a graduate thesis or dissertation (2016)
- The good paper : a handbook for writing papers in higher education (2015)
- Proposals that work : a guide for planning dissertations and grant proposals (2014)
- Theses and dissertations : a guide to planning, research, and writing (2008)
- Talk to your professors, advisors, mentors, peers, etc. for advice
READ related material and pay attention to how others write their literature reviews:
- Dissertations
- Journal articles
- Grant proposals