How To Write A Literature Review For A Research Paper

You may be asked to submit a literature review for your research paper. It is designed very differently from the research paper itself. The research paper is designed to develop new ideas, and this is contradictory from a literature review which is just a description of the literary sources that would be used to conduct the research. It is designed to give a synopsis of the various resources that will be used in your research paper.

You will use various resources to answer the research question that you are seeking to answer for your research paper. You have found a topic, developed a research question, and written a thesis statement. The literature that you used in this process is what you would write your literature review on.


  • What to include in the review?
  • There are some elements that have to be included in the review. It is not just a simple summary on what the literature is about. The main focus of the literature review is to show how that source will relate to your topic. It should not only give a summary of the work. You will also want to describe how the piece will be used in the research paper. It could include the interpretation of the information as well.


  • What is it used for?
  • It is used as the foundation for your research paper. It is the support for the new information that you are seeking to contribute through your research paper. It will not add any additional information. The main purpose is to give the reader an overview of all of the sources that you used to write your paper whether they were used for a direct quote or as background information. Or to create a compiled list of the various sources that can be used to study the topic.

    A literature review is usually used as a part of the research paper. It is especially important for a dissertation research paper. You would submit the literature review in the proposal. This will show how you will have enough back up or proof to support your claims. When writing a literature review for a dissertation, you would want to make sure that you only include the sources that deal specifically with your topic. You would not add the ones that were used for back up information.