San José State University Writing Center
www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter
Written by Christina Cantero
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 1 of 7
How to Write a Literature Review
Literature reviews are a vital part of a research project or paper,
and they are particularly important during graduate school. This
handout will focus on defining what a literature review is, how to
organize and synthesize information, and what the different parts
of a literature review are.
The Purpose of a Literature Review
A literature review demonstrates your ability to research; it also
showcases your expertise on your chosen topic. By including a
literature review in your project or thesis, you are also providing your reader with the most
prevalent theories and studies on your topic, evaluations and comparisons of these studies, and
gaps there may be in the literature. This helps your reader understand your project/thesis better.
It also makes you a more credible and reliable author.
What Isn’t a Literature Review?
A literature review is not an annotated bibliography. In an annotated bibliography, the writer
presents a summary and critical evaluation of each article or scholarly resource, one by one, with
little or no connection made between the various articles or resources. This is very different from
the synthesizing and comparing of information in a literature review. Additionally, a literature
review is also not an essay, report, or research paper, as it does not state, prove, or develop main
points. A literature review does not answer a question, nor is it a list of summarized articles.
What Is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a review or discussion of the current published material available on a
particular topic. It attempts to synthesize and evaluate the material and information according to
the research question(s), thesis, and central theme(s). In other words, instead of supporting an
argument, or simply making a list of summarized research, a literature review synthesizes and
evaluates the ideas of others on your given topic. This allows your readers to know what is being
said about your given topic, how these sources compare with one another, and what gaps there
are in the research.
Parts of a Research Paper
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings/Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
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Three Types of Literature Review Organization
Organization
Type
Explanation Usage
Chronological Organized by publication date or
history of topic
Use this type if sequential order
of events is important
Thematic Organized by topic or issue, may still
involve chronology or an order of
importance
Use this type to go from general
topic themes to more specific
(e.g., education to higher
education to writing centers)
Methodological Organized not by the content of lit
review material, but on the methods of
the researcher/writer
Use this type if the methods of the
researchers/writers are the most
important
Summary, Synthesis, and Evaluation
Remember, to summarize means to recap the important information of the source; whereas, to
synthesize means to re-organize, re-shuffle, or re-interpret that information and involves finding
connections and relationships among your sources. Synthesizing research shows an awareness of
how research from different articles can be intertwined. Additionally, to evaluate means to
assess the worth of something. This means that while you are synthesizing the information of a
certain resource, be sure to also include an evaluation of that resource.
Examples of Summary, Synthesis, and Evaluation
Topic: Communication styles between married men and women
Sources:
Booth-Butterfield, M. & Frisby, B.B. (2012). The “how” and “why” of flirtatious
communication between marital partners. Communication Quarterly, 60(4), 465-480.
Frisby, B.N. (2009). “Without flirting, it wouldn’t be a marriage”: Flirtatious communication
between relational partners. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 10(1), 55-60.
doi: 10.1080/17459430902839066
Horan, S.M. & Booth-Butterfield, M. (2010). Investing in affection: An investigation of
affection exchange theory and relational qualities. Communication Quarterly, 58(4), 394-413.
doi: 10.1080/01463373.2010.524876
Summary
In Frisby and Booth-Butterfield’s study, they provide research on how flirting
with one’s spouse creates positive benefits within the relationship.
Synthesis
In Frisby and Booth-Butterfield’s (2012) research on the purpose of flirtation,
they found that the biggest reason for flirtation within marriage was to create a
more intimate world between the couple and to encourage sex. They also found
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 3 of 7
that women were more likely to utilize flirtation. However, in a separate study
on flirtation, men were also found to use attentive flirting as a way to make
their wives feel attractive (Frisby, 2009). Agreeing with previous research,
Frisby found that men usually flirt to engage in sex, and women flirt to
encourage attention, fun, and interest in their spouses.
Evaluation
Overall, Horan and Booth-Butterfield’s study demonstrates the great effects of
negative communication on the perceptions of perspective-taking between
spouses.
Parts of a Literature Review
A literature review is composed of three parts:
• Introduction
o Keep it brief: most commonly only a paragraph long, but can go up to 1.5 pages.
o Introduce the larger subject.
o Narrow that larger subject into your manageable topic.
o Explain the significance of the topic.
o Formulate research question(s).
o Explain the scope of your coverage (what criteria was used to include or exclude
studies and why).
o Lay out the organization of the review (forecasting statements).
• Body
o Provide some background information (e.g. definition of concepts, historical
perspective(s) on the issue, etc.).
o Group the research according to themes, trends, approaches, etc.
o Summarize individual items with as much detail as merited (determined by its
comparative significance within your overall paper).
o Weave citations/descriptions of the literature with your analysis and show the
reader how this connects to your overall research question(s).
o Point out any methodological flaws, gaps in research, or inconsistencies in theory
and findings.
• Conclusion
o Summarize major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of
knowledge under review.
o Point out any gaps in the published literature and discuss areas or issues pertinent
to future study.
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 4 of 7
Tips on Citation
Citing your resources is required for all kinds of writing projects. Literature reviews are no
exception. Remember that it is important to cite, not only direct quotes, but paraphrased
sentences as well. A paraphrased sentence is when a you take a passage from a source and
rewrite it in your own words. In addition to citing quotes and paraphrased sentences, remember
to maintain only one citation style throughout your literature review; you cannot use more than
one citation style in a given paper.
Sample Literature Review with Annotations
Excerpt from “Audience Address on Dating Profiles: My Desired-Other and Second Person
Reference,” by Amy Russo, San José State University
When a user makes an online personal profile, they are crafting an
online artifact, or a contained and recorded performance, which can
be accessed countless times asynchronously through websites by
unknown users, and as artifacts can act as proxies for the profile
makers themselves (Hogan, 2010; Reed, 2005). As Ellison et al.
(2006) observed, a profile is “a crucial self-presentation tool
because it is the first and primary means of expressing one’s self
during the early stages of a correspondence and can therefore
foreclose or create relationship opportunities” (p. 423). Users of
dating sites such as OkCupid usually do not know other users
before coming into contact. Indeed, the purpose of dating profiles is
to connect people who are strangers for potentially personal and
intimate relationships.
Dating profiles as artifacts are tools to separate the desiredothers
(auditor-addressees) from the undesired-others (auditoroverhearers).
For writers, Ede and Lunsford (1984) make the
distinction between the actual audience (the real readers) and the
audience invoked (the envisioned group the writer constructs and
writes for). On dating profiles, the actual audience is all the readers
of the profile. The audience invoked is only the desired others,
because profiles are written for the intended purpose of selling the
profile makers to and attracting their desired-others (Ellison et al.,
2006; Fiore, Taylor, & Mendelsohn, 2008; Jagger, 1998).
In this paragraph,
the author has
synthesized the
literature by
discussing multiple
findings to express
their ideas.
The author uses
APA citation style
and maintains it
throughout the
paper.
Note: the author
doesn’t just use
quotes and
paraphrases, but
includes their own
ideas, evaluations,
and analysis of the
topic.
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 5 of 7
Activity
Read the following sources carefully. Then, in a paragraph that summarizes, synthesizes, and
evaluates the information from these two sources, write on the topic of media affecting
presidential elections.
Source 1:
Source 2:
The advent of television in the late 1940’s gave rise to the belief that a new era was opening in public
communication. As Frank Stanton, president of the Columbia Broadcasting System, put it: “Not even
the sky is the limit.” One of the great contributions expected of television lay in its presumed capacity
to inform and stimulate the political interests of the American electorate. “Television, with its
penetration, its wide geographic distribution and impact, provides a new, direct, and sensitive link
between Washington and the people,” said Dr. Stanton. “The people have once more become the
nation, as they have not been since the days when we were small enough each to know his elected
representative. As we grew, we lost this feeling of direct contact—television has now restored it.” As
time has passed, events have seemed to give substance to this expectation. The televising of important
congressional hearings, the national nominating conventions, and most recently the Nixon-Kennedy
and other debates have appeared to make a novel contribution to the political life of the nation. Large
segments of the public have been given a new, immediate contact with political events. Television has
appeared to be fulfilling its early promise.
(Excerpt from Campbell, Angus. “Has Television Reshaped Politics?” In Encyclopedia of Television /
Museum of Broadcast Communications, vol. 1, ed. Horace Newcomb. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn,
2005.)
April 20, 1992: Not a historic date perhaps, but a suggestive one. It was on this date [while
campaigning for President] that Bill Clinton discussed his underwear with the American people
(briefs, not boxers, as it turned out). Why would the leader of the free world unburden himself like
this? Why not? In television’s increasingly postmodern world, all texts—serious and sophomoric—
swirl together in the same discontinuous field of experience. To be sure, Mr. Clinton made his
disclosure because he had been asked to do so by a member of the MTV generation, not because he
felt a sudden need to purge himself. But in doing so Clinton exposed several rules connected to the
new phenomenology of politics: (1) because of television’s celebrity system, Presidents are losing
their distinctiveness as social actors and hence are often judged by standards formerly used to assess
rock singers and movie stars; (2) because of television’s sense of intimacy, the American people feel
they know their Presidents as persons and hence no longer feel the need for party guidance; (3)
because of the medium’s archly cynical worldview, those who watch politics on television are
increasingly turning away from the policy sphere, years of hyper-familiarity having finally bred
contempt for politics itself.
(Excerpt from Hart, Roderick P., and Mary Triece, “U.S. Presidency and Television.” Available at
http://www.museum.tv/debateweb/html/equalizer/essay_usprestv.htm.)
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 6 of 7
Example:
In Campbell’s (2005) article on how television has reshaped politics, he discusses how television created
a direct link between the candidate and the American public. In a quote from Frank Stanton, president of
the Columbia Broadcasting System, “people have once more become the nation, as they have not been
since the days when we were small enough each to know his elected representative” (Campbell, 2005).
However, in a separate article about how television has affected American politics, they discuss how this
type of connection can be manufactured through turning presidential candidates into celebrity-like
personalities (Hart & Triece).
How to Write a Literature Review, Summer 2019. 7 of 7
References
Hager, M. & Russo, A. (2019). Graduate Writing Tutor Training. Presentation, San Jose.
Khan, S. (2018). LLD 250W Course Reader: Becoming a Professional. Course reader, San Jose
State University.
Literature Reviews. (2007). Retrieved July 22, 2019, from https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-
tools/literature-reviews/
Lunsford, A. (2010). The Everyday Writer (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Macmillan Higher Education.