Scientific Literature Reviews

Prepare to Write

Tips for preparing to write

• Read other literature reviews--ask your instructor for recommendations.
• Create an outline that includes themes, questions, propositions, and logical steps in your argument.
• Draw a diagram or mind map of the connections between ideas and threads.
• Write summaries of individual sections (you might not include these in the final version).
• Write often; including plenty of notes about your thoughts.
• Within your group, talk about ideas before, during, and after writing them down.
• Get regular feedback on what you write. This can be from a reader unfamiliar with the topic, a peer in the same subject, or your instructor. The Writing Center is also available to FLC students.

Organizing sources

• Work from the general to the specific, starting with tertiary sources like textbooks, them secondary sources (reviews of research), then primary research (journal articles documenting original research).
• Organize the literature around findings, ideas, or themes rather than studies or authors. Your mind map will help with this.

It might be helpful to use a Review Matrix, such as this example provided by the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries, to organize your thoughts on the sources you find.

What to Write About

Write the literature review as a logical argument which leads the reader to your research question or problem.

A successful literature review

• Presents an overview of relevant research.
• States Why and How your study will contribute to existing knowledge.
• Provides a commentary on literature in your field.
• States What you plan to do given the existing knowledge.
• Highlights the similarities and differences between your work and the work of others.
• Positions the research problem within a theoretical framework by reviewing the underlying and existing history.

Identify the following for each source you review

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions. Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited?; if so, how has it been analyzed?

*From Writing A Literature Review - Biomedical Sciences, University of West Florida University Libraries