Literature Reviews

Now bring it all together into a complete package where you determine what it all means and how it leads to your research. Use your notes to determine major categories or sections of your review.

There are two common ways of organizing a literature review. Choose the one that best fits your topic:

• Chronological – Start with the oldest research and end with the most recent. This allows you to explain how scholarly thinking has changed over time.
• Topical – Group the research by subject or theme

The goal is provide a summary of what you’ve learned. You don’t need a paragraph on each source; instead, you need a paragraph on each idea.