How do I Write a Literature Review?: Home

What is a literature review?

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.

There are 5 basic steps to performing a literature review:

1. Choosing your topic
2. Finding information
3. Evaluating the information's content
4. Synthesizing the information's content
5. Summarizing your findings

After you've completed all 5 steps, it's time to write about your findings. The actual review generally has 5 components:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Body
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography

This guide offers tips & "best practices" on how to perform & write a literature review. Click on a tab to learn more about a specific step in the literature review process, and, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact at librarian. We are here to help you with your research!!

Below is a brief list of different types of research terms. Clicking on the name will take you to an entry in Credo Reference Online defining the term and describing them-