How to Write a Literature Review - A Self-Guided Tutorial

What's a Literature Review? 

A literature review (or lit review, for short) is an in-depth critical analysis of published scholarly research related to a specific topic. Published scholarly research (the "literature") may include journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and thesis, or conference proceedings. 

A solid lit review must:

• be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you're developing
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• formulate questions that need further research

We have highlighted some sections which may be of particular interest.

• Research is about telling a story -- a professor's perspective (2:12 - 3:08)
• Different types of literature review -- e.g. in a thesis or dissertation (3:48 - 4:13)
• So what's involved in reviewing the literature? (7:00 - 8:46)

* produced by NC State University Libraries (~10 minutes)