Subject Guides: PSYC 498: Psychology Honors Seminar: Write Your Literature Review

Nadine Anderson, Behavioral Sciences and Women's & Gender Studies Librarian

she/her/hers

Contact:

4021 CASL/1153B ML
nfanders@umich.edu

Subjects: Anthropology, Behavioral and Biological Sciences, Criminal Justice, Faculty Resources, Food Studies, Integrative Studies, LGBTQ Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Women's & Gender Studies

Writing Your Literature Review

Literature reviews should bring together theories and results from a number of studies to describe the "big picture" of your area of research and provide the context for your thesis research study. Your literature review should be a compelling narrative about the research trails you followed, how they build up to your study hypothesis, and why your research study is original and important.

Sections

1. Introduction: summarizes your research topic and puts it into context

Introduce the research topic: provide background that contextualizes what it is and why it matters
Frame the story: narrow the research topic to the studies you will discuss
End the introduction with an outline of the main points of the literature review and how you will address them

2. Body (organized by theme headings): presents the main arguments of your literature review, organized by theme. Prioritize and organize your themes and arguments to logically build the story you want to tell. Each of your themes should include the following sections:

Describe the relevant parts of each study and how they relate to the theme
Compare the studies to discuss the implications of their findings and whether they differ or are similar between studies
Evaluate the importance of each study, their implications for the theme, and where research on this theme should go from here

3. Conclusion: final evaluation, summarizes what you learned, and how the themes you discussed build to your proposed thesis research study

Restate your research topic from the introduction in different words
Briefly summarize your main themes and arguments
Synthesize your main themes and arguments to provide context for your research study and make the case that it would be original and important research

4. References list: a list of the sources you cited

Cite your sources in APA Style
Format your References list in APA Style

Check out the library's APA ebook, Conducting Your Literature Review, for more in-depth guidance on writing literature reviews for original research projects. For more writing help, contact the Writing Center and make an online appointment to meet with one of their consultants.