2.1 The Literature Review

Purpose

A literature review surveys the existing scholarship on your topic — summarizing, comparing, and evaluating what's known — to situate your study and reveal the gap you'll address.

Not a list

It is a synthesis, not a list of summaries. Organize by theme or debate, showing how sources relate, agree, and disagree.

Positioning your work

The review ends by pointing to what's missing or unresolved — the gap — and explains how your research question fits into and extends the conversation.

Key terms

Literature review

survey of existing scholarship on your topic

Synthesis not list

organize by theme/debate, showing relationships

Purpose

situate your study; reveal the gap

Positioning

explains how your question extends the conversation

Weakness

summarizing each source separately

Try an AP-style question

A literature review…

1. synthesizes existing research on a topic
2. summarizes one article
3. lists every book ever written
4. presents your results