How to Write a Literature Review
Your literature review is one of the most important chapters of your dissertation proposal. It grounds your reader in the scholarly discourse around your research topic. As a coach, I find that most of my students need very clear guidance about exactly how to write a literature review. Understanding and using the below approach to writing a literature review can streamline the process.
Step 1: Write a problem statement.
Your research is likely grounded in a real-world problem, and your literature review needs to align with this problem. Writing a draft of your research problem statement will help you focus your review. These free video lessons will guide you through the process.
How to Write a Problem Statement Lessons
Step 2: Search the relevant literature.
As you search, you are looking for research related to key concepts (qual) and variables (quant) to review. Limit your search to peer-reviewed research articles published within the last 5-10 years. Once you retrieve articles, read the abstract to determine if they are worthy of deeper analysis. If they are, then analyze them and put the critical elements onto an annotation table.
Step 3: Begin to Synthesize.
Synthesis is at the heart of the literature review writing process. To synthesize, you need to analyze groups of studies. As you analyze groups of studies on your annotation table, you will look for emerging patterns, discrepancies, and gaps. The work of synthesis is necessarily time-consuming, but if you do this work well, you will write a critical analysis of the literature rather than simply sharing study summaries one after another. Synthesis makes or breaks a literature review, so give this work its due.
Step 4: Write a Single Strand (Report the work of your synthesizing).
Remember those similarities, discrepancies, and gaps you identified? Now is the time to write about them. Have you seen paragraphs in the body of the literature review strand that begins something like, “While researchers agree that ________, there is conflicting evidence regarding _______.” Those are synthesis statements. Put these types of statements front and center in your body paragraphs. These body paragraphs of synthesized writing are the backbone of your literature review. After you write them, write a summary and introduction to each strand. Repeat the process for all strands of your literature review.
Step 5. Land Your Literature Review.
To land your literature review, you need to write a summary or conclusion (depending upon your program). You also need to write an introduction with an organizing statement. These crucial pieces of your literature review will help orient your reader and drive home your main points. As with any complex process, understanding the steps involved can help anchor your writing process. I’ve distilled the steps, but I want to land this post by offering you an opportunity to see each step modeled. Recently, our coaches wrote a self-guided online course called “How to Write a Literature Review.” In this course, a dissertation coach models the literature review writing process (nearly 10 hours of instruction plus resources).
How to Write a Literature Review Self-Guided Course
If you follow the course timeline, you can complete a draft of your literature review in 8 weeks. The course is cost-effective and available to you on-demand for an entire year after purchase.
Writing a lit review takes time, but the literature review is a powerful piece of persuasive writing that will help your reader understand that you are an expert on the topic you are proposing to research. Learn how to write a literature review and reap the rewards of the complex undertaking.
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12-Week Timeline for Writing Your Literature Review
This free guide outlines the necessary tasks to complete each week to finish your literature review in just 12 weeks.
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