LIBS 350 - Interdisciplinary Skills

What is a Literature Review?

When we say, “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research (scholarship) in a given field  You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.("Writing a Literature Review," 2025. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/writing_a_literature_review.html)

The Literature review's main emphasis is on bringing together theories and results from a number of studies to describe the "big picture" of an area of research. Strong literature reviews focus on addressing the thesis statement, organize sources and evidence into themes and arguments, and then organize themes and arguments to logically build towards conclusions.

Step 1: Identify the information you want to use from your sources

• What key information, issues, theories, approaches, evidence, and/or arguments will you use in your paper?

Step 2: Identify relationships, links, and common themes

• What relationships and links do you see between the information you want to use from each of your sources?
• What common themes and arguments can you build from the information and evidence in your sources?

Step 3: Arrange themes and arguments

• How can you arrange your themes and arguments hierarchically and sequentially so that they logically build towards evidence-based conclusions about your thesis statement?
• These will represent the paragraphs of your research paper

Literature reviews survey research done in a particular area. Their main emphasis is on bringing together theories and results from a number of studies to describe the "big picture" of an area of research.

Writing Tips

• Decide on the literature review's main research question and main points first
• Write the body of the literature review first and then write the introduction and conclusion
• Everything in your literature review should point back to the research question

Sections

1. Introduction: summarizes what you will write and puts it into context

• Start the introduction with background that contextualizes the paper's main research question
• End the introduction with a thesis statement, which outlines the main points of the paper and how you will address them

2. Body: presents the main points of the paper, with each paragraph representing one aspect of the paper's main focus. Prioritize and organize your main points and paragraphs to logically build your arguments to a compelling conclusion. Each paragraph should include a topic sentence, evidence, analysis, and a transition sentence:

• The topic sentence summarizes the paragraph's main idea
• Use evidence from your research sources to support or make the argument for your main ideas
• Analyse your evidence to show how it links to your broader research question
• Include a transition sentence at the end of each paragraph to connect what you discussed in that paragraph with the main idea of the next paragraph

3. Conclusion: summarizes what you wrote and what you learned

• Restate your research question from the introduction in different words
• Briefly summarize your main points or arguments and pull them together to answer your main research question
• End with a strong, final statement that ties the whole literature review together and makes it clear the paper has come to an end
• No new ideas should be introduced in the conclusion; it should only review and analyze the main points from the body of the paper (with the exception of suggestions for further research)