How Do I Write A Literature Review Outline

Writing a literature review can be a daunting task for many students and researchers. It requires a
thorough understanding of the topic, critical analysis skills, and the ability to synthesize information
from various sources. One crucial aspect of writing a literature review is creating an outline to
organize your thoughts and structure your paper effectively.

Here are some steps to help you create a literature review outline:

1. Define your research question or topic: Before diving into the literature, clearly define what
you want to explore or investigate. This will help you stay focused and guide your search for
relevant literature.
2. Conduct a comprehensive literature search: Use academic databases, libraries, and online
resources to find scholarly articles, books, and other sources related to your topic. Be sure to
consider both classic studies and recent research to provide a comprehensive overview of the
literature.
3. Evaluate and select relevant sources: Critically evaluate the sources you've found to
determine their relevance and credibility. Look for key themes, methodologies, and findings
that contribute to your understanding of the topic.
4. Organize your sources: Once you've selected your sources, organize them into categories or
themes that align with your research question. This will help you identify patterns and gaps in
the literature.
5. Develop a thesis statement: Based on your analysis of the literature, develop a clear and
concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or purpose of your literature review.
6. Create an outline: Use your thesis statement to create an outline for your literature review.
This outline should include the main sections of your paper, such as introduction, body
paragraphs, and conclusion, as well as subheadings for each theme or category of literature
you'll be discussing.
7. Write your literature review: Once you have a solid outline in place, begin writing your
literature review using the information and analysis you've gathered. Be sure to follow your
outline closely to maintain a logical flow and coherence in your paper.
8. Revise and edit: Finally, review your literature review for clarity, coherence, and accuracy.
Make revisions as needed to strengthen your argument and ensure that your paper meets
academic standards.

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At this point consider: Does your study extend current research. LibGuides: Literature Review:
Purpose of a Literature Review The purpose of a literature review is to: Provide a foundation of
knowledge on a topic Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to
other researchers Identify inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in previous studies, open
questions left from other research Approaching literature review for academic purposes: The
Literature INTRODUCTION. Qualitative versus quantitative research Empirical versus theoretical
scholarship Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources Theoretical: In many
humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. A literature
review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the
assignment. By doing this, you’ll achieve a comprehensive literature base that is both well-rooted in
tried and tested theory and current. This is because the purpose of a literature review is to provide a
comprehensive overview of all the relevant existing research on a particular topic. Under this method,
you would combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby Dick
itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart. This becomes an
essential part of the literature review outline template. If you want to work smart, you don't want to
miss this. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own
research or to identify ways to organize your final review. Consider organization You’ve got a focus,
and you’ve stated it clearly and directly. Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from
historical precedent. You mentioned cataloging references, I would like the template for excel.
Consider whether your sources are current Some disciplines require that you use information that is
as current as possible. Further Readings Generative AI and Writing USC Libraries Tutorials and
Other Guides Bibliography A literature review surveys prior research published in books, scholarly
articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so
doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the
research problem being investigated. It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to
avoid plagiarism. You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your
discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. Therefore, it is something that should not be
taken lightly and should be given the attention that it deserves. The literature represents background
and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in
a synthesized way. Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a
literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also
developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any
other stakeholders in your topic. For creating proper writing in this section, you must have the
sample literature review outline. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches.
Sampling methods Simple random sampling Stratified sampling Cluster sampling Likert scales
Reproducibility Statistics Null hypothesis Statistical power Probability distribution Effect size
Poisson distribution Research bias Optimism bias Cognitive bias Implicit bias Hawthorne effect
Anchoring bias Explicit bias A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books,
journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question. Open Google Slides
Download PowerPoint If you want to know more about the research process, methodology, research
bias, or statistics, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of
your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. You must be
careful to cite all of your sources in your literature review and that your works cited page is accurate.
That’s why there is a literature review outline template. Make sure the contents are suitable for what
you want to explore in this research. Or the review might focus on the economic impact of whaling
on a community. A chronological compilation of studies The reason for conducting a literature
review is to: Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students While this 9-minute video
from NCSU is geared toward graduate students, it is useful for anyone conducting a literature review.
In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit
review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources. Depending on the length of your
literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure
might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically). Don’t worry about getting the
outline perfect before writing. For example, the resources available through JGME include several
articles on writing. 17 The journal Perspectives on Medical Education recently launched “The
Writer's Craft,” which is intended to help medical educators improve their writing. Make sure the
sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in
your field of research. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as
required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research.
Conducting a Literature Review While there might be many reasons for conducting a literature
review, following are four key outcomes of doing the review. Goals of Literature Reviews What are
the goals of creating a Literature Review. A summary is a recap of the important information of the
source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. Standards:
Description of the way in which you present your information. Problem formulation -- which topic
or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2. Teachers or professors will provide
a simple and easy template to help students, so they are accustomed to making the literature reviews.
Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field.
Professional Research: Conduct a literature review for a project, report, or proposal at work. It also
allows for effective communication among researchers by helping them to decide which issues are
significant. Many search tools include options for viewing citations of selected articles. The main
focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to
contain a literature review as one of its parts. In other words, a chronological review would have
subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors
that relate to the theme or issue. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and
synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions. This can be
especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire
community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered. Have a language expert
improve your writing Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
This part is very necessary since it provides specific theories and discussion of the topic. What types
of sources (books, journal articles, websites). Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-
conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces
may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. This can be
especially helpful for students who are working to balance a full course load and struggling to
complete all the reading required for their classes. You identify: core research in the field experts in
the subject area methodology you may want to use (or avoid) Getting started What is a literature
review. The best you can do to stop getting confused is to have an outline for the review. An
organized and compiled list of source material makes notations easier in the writing process.
TemplateLab templatelab.com ?? How To Do A Review Article. Landmark literature (sometimes also
referred to as seminal or pivotal work) refers to the articles that initially presented an idea of great
importance or influence within a particular discipline.
Types of Literature Reviews What kinds of literature reviews are written. Understanding their
methodology’s thinking can help shape how you approach your literature review and future studies.
For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to
look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and
French websites. Instead, you’re compiling existing information while looking for commonalities and
contradictions between studies. If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then
this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
These types of content have their place, especially when setting the context for your study. By
Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a
more important trend. Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence
pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized
methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data
from the studies that are included in the review. Writing the literature review: A practical guide
Available 3rd floor of Perkins Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and
behavioral sciences Available online. Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around
a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. A literature review provides context, informs
methodology, maximizes innovation, avoids duplicative research, and ensures that professional
standards are met. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. The lit review is an
important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as
novels and plays). Professional Research: Conduct a literature review for a project, report, or
proposal at work. New York: Longman. Troyka, Lynn Quittman, and Doug Hesse. 2016. Simon and
Schuster Handbook for Writers, 11th ed. When you read research studies as you’re completing your
literature review, it’s wise to question the methods used for each study. Analysis: Involves critically
evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature.
Critical literature reviews: A critique and actionable advice This article treats critical literature
reviews as a distinct review type, and presents a critique of author-labeled critical literature reviews
in Organization and Management Studies. A review organized in this manner would shift between
time periods within each section according to the point being made. By the same token, a review of
previously conducted studies might lend itself to researchers determining a new angle for
approaching research. Cite this Scribbr article If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste
the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free
Citation Generator. It also allows for effective communication among researchers by helping them to
decide which issues are significant. Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature
Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March
2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Moreover, it permits the researcher to situate his or her work within the
existing body of knowledge. By understanding the goals of a literature review and following a few
basic processes, authors can enhance both the quality of their educational research and the likelihood
of publication in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education ( JGME ) and in other journals. The
critical evaluation of each work should consider: Provenance -- what are the author's credentials. Use
Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent
the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Strategies for writing the
literature review Find a focus. A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around
ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography would be organized. The bibliography
or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus,
are also excellent entry points into your own research.
The high school students and undergraduates use them for assignments. A literature review holds
paramount significance within a research proposal help, serving as a critical component that
contextualizes, justifies, and informs the proposed study. It helps to clarify the rationale for the study
and shows how the research is linked to existing theory. 3. Literature Review Helps Clarify Research
Questions One of the main functions of the literature review is to help researchers formulate clear
and concise research questions. Provides an intellectual context for your own work, and enables you
to position your project in relation to others in the field. This section provides a comprehensive
survey of existing scholarly works relevant to the research topic, offering insights into the current
state of knowledge, identifying gaps, and establishing the research’s theoretical framework. The
review was developed as part of an implementation evaluation of six. Now that you’re aware of
these common mistakes, be sure to also check out our literature review walkthrough video, where to
dissect an actual literature review chapter. History: The chronological progression of the field, the
research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the
literature review is not already a chronology. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but
then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work and the
work of others. And a review does not necessarily mean that your reader wants you to give your
personal opinion on whether or not you liked these sources. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On
Conducting It. Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review. Under this
method, you would combine the recent studies on American whaling in the 19th century with Moby
Dick itself in the 1800-1899 category, even though the authors wrote a century apart. When writing
your review, keep in mind these issues. If your audience is unfamiliar with the topic, you’ll need to
take complicated study topics and break them down into a format that anyone can understand. The
general lay-out of a literary overview is simple, and to the point. They mostly come from the book or
at least the reliable source. Create an organizational method to focus this section even further. Such
studies frequently are not oriented toward progressive knowledge building and generalization to
other settings. Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement. Instead, you’re compiling existing
information while looking for commonalities and contradictions between studies. This statement
indicates the trend to be addressed rather than presenting a new idea or theory. Why conduct a
literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these
books. The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation. Some
chapters can waffle on for pages and pages and leave the reader thinking, “so what?” So, how do
you decide what’s relevant. Where to find databases: use the tabs on this guide Find other databases
in the Nursing Information Resources web page More on the Medical Library web page. It is the
section that explains the theory, reference and quote that you can use to analyze the issue.
Qualitative versus quantitative research Empirical versus theoretical scholarship Divide the research
by sociological, historical, or cultural sources Theoretical: In many humanities articles, the literature
review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. An outline template will make your work
easier with a readymade framework. Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous
studies.
For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of
source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report
study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’
purposes and conventions in scholarship. As she described it: “Imagine yourself joining a
conversation at a social event. While outlines are not strictly required, being in the habit of
completing an outline before beginning any project also promotes good writing habits, and improves
technical skill. CONCLUSION A well-crafted literature review is indispensable in a research
proposal, as it not only informs the reader about the existing state of knowledge but also highlights
the research proposed study’s theoretical foundation, identifies gaps, and justifies the research’s
significance within the broader academic context. This might seem harmless, but plagiarism is a
serious form of academic misconduct and could cost you a lot more than just a few marks. Validity -
- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing. The first step of any research project is to
review the field. A thesis statement within a literary review should present the theme, debate, or
trend that makes up the topic of the literary review. For instance, you might explain that your review
includes only peer-reviewed articles and journals. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC
Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that
focuses on specific issues. How to Add a Hanging Indent in Google Slides A hanging indent adds an
indent to the first line of each paragraph and is. Questions for Further Research: What questions
about the field has the review sparked. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. In a
research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you
contribute. The former provide current data on a population whereas the latter study changes in
exposure and outcome variables over time. 14. Literature Review Helps In Realizing Importance Of
Validity And Reliability The process of literature review makes readers more aware of the
importance of validity and reliability. Just completing a draft outline can work wonders in organizing
the thought processes that drive the Literary Review. What theories have been used to explain,
predict, or understand their research problem. If you have found some recurring central themes, you
can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. A
literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational
pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. This is especially true for those studies that use
quantitative methods since they generally provide more objective data than qualitative studies do. It
also helps them to identify any gaps in the research and to formulate their research questions
accordingly. While the study focuses on one topic, harpoon technology, it will still be organized
chronologically. This means that you will not just simply list your sources and go into detail about
each one of them, one at a time. No. As you read widely but selectively in your topic area, consider
instead what themes or issues connect your sources together. Now what is the most effective way of
presenting the information. Recap: 7 Literature Review Mistakes We’ve covered a lot of ground in
this post. Remember, the purpose of the literature review is to build the theoretical foundation that
will help you achieve your research aims and objectives, and answer your research questions. Keep in
mind that UNC Libraries have research guides and to databases relevant to many fields of study.
You would have to study a lot of texts to develop a solid understanding on the theme or angle of
your research and the literature review states how these books helped you in shaping your theory. So
let’s think about surveying, synthesising, critically analysing and presenting in more detail.
The proposal is a plan, and the paper is the execution and documentation of that plan. 6.How do I
choose a research topic for my proposal. Summarize and synthesize Remember to summarize and
synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. Or the review might
focus on the economic impact of whaling on a community. A research paper assigned in a course A
thesis or dissertation A grant proposal An article intended for publication in a journal All these
instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can
demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic. Literature search -- finding
materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3. Data evaluation -- determining which literature
makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4. Analysis and interpretation -
- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature. New York: Longman. Troyka, Lynn
Quittman, and Doug Hesse. 2016. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers, 11th ed. If you begin
to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas
have been generated to address the research problem. Determination of methodologies used in past
studies of the same or similar topics. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts,
with an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the
Social Science Research Imagination. Publishing a literature review can help people new to a topic
get a broad understanding of current research in the field. If there are conflicting studies, why do
you think that is. While this type of literature review may not require the intensive search processes
mandated by systematic reviews, it merits a thoughtful and rigorous approach. For guidance on
formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. History: The chronological
progression of the field, the literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review,
if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology. This saves time when you want to
redo, or modify, the searches. To learn more, check out our guide on how to write a literature review.
When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread
thoroughly before submitting. Purpose and Importance of the Literature Review An understanding
of the current literature is critical for all phases of a research study. One of the most common issues
we see in literature reviews is an over-reliance on low-quality sources. In other words, a complete
understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and
perspectives have changed over time. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field,
including major debates. Look at sources the authors cite to in their work. Even, there can be
specific formats in using the numbering, and commonly there is already regulation made by the
institution or school. Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous
studies. Don’t worry about getting the outline perfect before writing. When you come to write up
your findings, your literature review will therefore provide a crucial point of reference. You must
start with a literature review outline and a dissertation outline template will be helpful here.
However, it’s (generally) unlikely to be as academically sound (i.e., well-researched, objective and
scientific) as a journal article, so you need to be a lot more sceptical when considering this content
and make sure that it has a strong, well-reasoned foundation. The general lay-out of a literary
overview is simple, and to the point.
Once you’ve started writing your Literary Review you’ll likely want to adjust your outline a little bit
which is perfectly acceptable. Another problem is that many medical education studies are
methodologically weak. 12 Good research requires trained investigators who can articulate relevant
research questions, operationally define variables of interest, and choose the best method for specific
research questions. For example: Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative
research Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources Theoretical A literature review
is often the foundation for a theoretical framework. Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional
research. This can be arranged in various ways (e.g. thematically, chronologically or
methodologically). However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems
from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new
perspective. Knowing who’s already working in your area and getting in touch with them can be an
invaluable source of knowledge and support. Literature Reviews A literature review discusses
published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject
area within a certain time period. It helps to clarify the rationale for the study and shows how the
research is linked to existing theory. 3. Literature Review Helps Clarify Research Questions One of
the main functions of the literature review is to help researchers formulate clear and concise research
questions. The three main components you’ll need to complete before beginning your outline are the
Theme, Thesis, and Source Material. If your assignment is not very specific, seek clarification from
your instructor: Roughly how many sources should you include. Cite this Scribbr article If you want
to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to
automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator. It’s explained in simple, plain grammar
and you will greatly appreciate it. Thanks. A lot. This was excellent. I really enjoyed it. Begin
composing Once you’ve settled on a general pattern of organization, you’re ready to write each
section. The proposal is a plan, and the paper is the execution and documentation of that plan. 6.How
do I choose a research topic for my proposal. This means identifying, summarizing and critically
assessing past research that is relevant to your own work. Any lit review is only as good as the
research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. When
considering books, try to focus on those that are published by academic publishers, for example,
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Routledge. You would have to study a lot
of texts to develop a solid understanding on the theme or angle of your research and the literature
review states how these books helped you in shaping your theory. It helps them to make sense of
their research and to better understand it. They are useful to support your theory and hypothesis. It
shows how these two characteristics can influence research results and thus help them to make
informed decisions about whether or not to include specific studies in their work. 15. Literature
Review Helps To Develop Understanding About A New Topic Another benefit of the literature
review is that it helps researchers explore complex topics, which they may be unfamiliar with at first.
Organizing the body Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider how you
will present the sources themselves within the body of your paper. Popular Publications Qualitative
Methods Quantitative Methods Insiderness Using Non-Textual Elements Limitations of the Study
Common Grammar Mistakes Writing Concisely Avoiding Plagiarism Footnotes or Endnotes. By
doing this, you’ll achieve a comprehensive literature base that is both well-rooted in tried and tested
theory and current. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have
anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you: It often helps to
remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand
your research, to help them read the rest of your paper. Please include what you were doing when
this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. New York: Longman.
Troyka, Lynn Quittman, and Doug Hesse. 2016. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers, 11th ed.
In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit
review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources. It gives the direction where the
references must be focused on.