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Writing Literature Reviews

Resources for getting started on writing a literature review

About the Literature Review

VIDEO: Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

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)

Locating Literature Reviews

Locating an in-depth review related to your topic of interest, can be a good first step to finding relevant information.

  • Look for literature review limiters in various databases.
  • Note that in some search tools reviews refer to book reviews and not literature reviews. e.g. in JSTOR

Synthesis Templates

Synthesis grids are organizational tools used to record the main concepts of your sources and can help you make connections about how your sources relate to one another.