A literature review is a summary of published information in a subject area; sometimes limited to a specific time period. Researchers benefit from literature reviews since they provide critical evaluation of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Oftentimes a literature review will highlight disagreements between different scholars or schools of thought. The following literature review examples are just two types found in scholarly literature and does not reflect the format you may need to produce for your assignment.
A literature review can be a standalone document that provides a survey of current research in a particular field or subject. Notice this entire article is dedicated to reviewing literature on the topic.
A literature review may also be located at the beginning of an original research article. Notice this article's literature review is located only in the beginning of the article before the Methodology section.
Literature review provides a narrative summary and evaluation of the findings or theories within a literature base. The literature base may include qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methods research. Literature reviews capture trends in the literature.
When writing a literature review, here are some things to consider
Consider what the assignment prompt is asking you to highlight within your literature review.
Is it part of a research paper (usually found after the introduction) or
Are you asked to summarize previous literature to inform readers of the state of the research?
You may need to identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature.
Parts of a literature review may include:
An Introduction, Body, & Conclusion.
A literature review may be organized
Chronological - to identify the development of the topic
Thematic - grouping research on the basis of similarity in the topic and concepts.
Methodological - if you are pulling together information from various fields that use different research methods.
Theoretical - in order to discuss different theories, models, and key concepts.