How to Write a Stellar Literature Review for Your Australian University Assignment

If you are someone who is new to literature review, you will surely have a hard time understanding its purpose and how you are supposed to write it. As it is an important part of any research it is crucial you get the hang of it as soon as you can. Because as a university student, you will be asked to write literature reviews as assignments and we don’t want your grade to suffer right? This guide is for Australian students who are new to writing literature reviews. We will explore its purpose and structure and by the end of the guide, you will be able to write a stellar literature review.

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is an in-depth investigation of existing research related to your topic or a specific research question. When you are reviewing existing literature, you are looking for patterns and trends to inform your own research. By analysing the existing work, you can make connections between different areas and you will be able to relate your own findings to the larger field. 

As a general rule, your literature review should:

• Explain the reasons why your research topic is important.
• Rather than just summarising your findings, provide a critical analysis of the ideas in the literature
• Instead of organising ideas by sources, organise them into themes
• Identify similarities and differences in opinions, evidence and the findings of sources.
• Identify limitations of research methods or areas of controversy 
• Provide citations of sources and a reference list or bibliography 

The number of sources that you will use in your literature review may differ. At the undergraduate level, literature reviews are short assessments so you may only need to review a small number of sources. You may be asked to search for the sources yourself or you will be given a set of sources to review. At the postgraduate level, you can include a larger number of sources in your literature review. Typically, you are expected to include sources according to the word count you have been given. This means the higher the word count, the greater the number of sources you will include in the literature review.

Purpose of Literature Review

The purpose of a literature review is to look for peer-reviewed sources that inform you of key ideas in your field of study. By literature we mean all books, academic journal articles and other sources. The information you gather from this research of existing literature then can be used to identify potential gaps in knowledge or investigate new issues that haven’t been discussed before. Doing a literature review provides you with a chance to:

• Show how familiar you are with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Show a connection between your work with other researchers and theorists.
• Analyse the current state of research and show your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your chosen topic.

The Process of Writing a Stellar Literature Review

• Reading and Researching

For an excellent literature review, you must show that you have done extensive research and reading. A thoroughly researched literature will often include books, journal articles, reports, government documents and credible web resources. The quality of your review is judged by the quality of your sources so be very mindful before choosing your source and make sure they are credible. 

Another thing you should remember when searching for sources is to manage your time by reviewing the abstract, table of contents and heading before you start reading the whole thing to see if the source is relevant to your topic or not. Make a sheet with all the sources you find relevant to your research topic so that you can go back to them later. 

• Use Keywords

Start by making a list of keywords associated with your research question. List any synonyms and related terms, as well as the key concepts and variables you are interested in. As you keep researching you can add to the list new keywords you have discovered. 

Databases you can search for journals and articles:

• Google Scholar
• JSTOR
• EBSCO
• Project Muse
• Medline
• EconLit
• Inspec

• Selecting and Evaluating Sources

The set of questions below can help you choose relevant sources for evaluation and analysis.

Categories	Limits	Inclusion/Exclusion	Evaluation
Think about what categories you will use to select sources.  Why do you think these categories/themes are relevant to the question? Do you have enough time to use all the categories?	Is there a geographic limit to your studies? What is the relevance of geographical location?  Is there a time limit to your studies?  How does historical context relate to the question?	What literature did you decide to include and what did you reject and why?	You must evaluate your sources in order to demonstrate that you have critically analysed the literature: How relevant is this article to your topic? What are the major patterns and trends? How has the author structured the arguments and why?

• Keep Critical Notes as You Read

Taking notes of your personal responses and thinking processes when you are going through a source is something we highly recommend. Doing this regularly will help improve your disciplinary vocabulary and help you write about the literature in your own words. Also, you may not need to read the whole thing again if you have taken note of what you were thinking while reading a certain passage. 

You can use a table, matrix or mind map to identify findings, common themes, disagreements and key ideas that are common throughout the papers. 

• Writing the Literature Review

The structure of the literature review is similar to that of an essay as it consists of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. However, a literature review also includes:

• A description of your search methods
• Paragraphs organised into themes
• A concluding summary of key themes
• The contribution it is making to understanding the topic you are researching

• The Abstract

If you are writing a standalone literature review you will need to include an abstract as well. The purpose of an abstract is to provide readers with an inkling of what the literature is about. 

What you should include in an abstract of a literature review:

• Brief background information
• Include any gaps or inconsistencies that the review aims to address
• Include the purpose and scope of the review briefly as well

• The Introduction

Just like an introduction to an essay, this section will include the context and purpose of your review. Tell your reader:

• Your review’s aim
• Why are you conducting this review and why is it important?
• All the aspects that the review will address
• The scope of your review, for example, the points you will include as well as what methods/limitations you utilised to find readings.
• An overview of the themes you will discuss

• The Body

In the body paragraphs of your review, you will review the literature that is relevant to your research question. In order to write your body paragraphs, you will need to synthesise the literature you have reviewed to establish a clear link between the various sources. You need to analyse each source to demonstrate how it adds to the theme you are working on.

This section may focus on:

• Background and methodologies
• Other studies on the topic
• Key questions on the topic
• Conclusions that are being drawn

• The Conclusion 

In this conclusion section, you should summarise the key findings you have drawn from the literature and emphasise their significance. 

When you are finished writing your review, remember to proofread it thoroughly before submitting it. We would suggest hiring an expert such as Assignment Studio’s professional proofreading services!