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

Welcome

This guide will help you to:Literature Review Process: 1) identify the question; 2) review discipline styles; 3) search the literature; 4) manage your references; 5) critically analyze and exclude; 6) synthesize; 7) write literature review

  • Define a literature review.
  • Recognize that different fields of study have their own way to perform and write literature reviews.
  • Prepare to search the literature.
  • Read critically -- analyze and synthesize.
  • Prepare to write a literature review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic from Literature Review (2009) by Machi and McEvoy. 

Long description of "Literature Review Process" for web accessibility

Creative Commons License

Literature Review - A Self-Guided Tutorial was created by Bronwen K. Maxson, with contributions from Kathleen Hanna, Sara Lowe and Ted Polley (IUPUI University Library), and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Content used in this tutorial adapted from Writing at the University of Toronto's "The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It" and The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill's "Literature Reviews."