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Literature reviews

Whether you're writing your dissertation, an annotated bibliography or a research proposal, this guide covers everything you need to know in order to structure and write an expert literature review.

Top tips

Two key principles apply to every literature review, whether you are writing the review as part of a dissertation or an individual assignment:

  1. A literature review is more than just a list of sources. The articles and evidence you include must be linked together around shared themes and characteristics, or highlight significant disagreements and contrast. Map your reading using keywords or themes that occur in multiple articles - these can be used as subheadings in your draft literature review.
  2. While it is important to show that you are familiar with research in your field, you also need to show that you can evaluate and offer interpretations of the evidence you present to the reader. Remember to keep answering the 'so what?' question as you write.

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