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Literature Review

This guide will help you conduct and complete a literature review.

Why Complete A Literature Review?

Why Do We Complete A Literature Review?

Literature reviews help us understand more about our topic but also more about how other scholars in the discipline write about the topic. Literature reviews also tell us what has been discussed on a given topic so far, how scholars have talked to one another about this topic, and what future questions need to be asked and answered. Writing a literature review may also help you read and analyze scholarly works more efficiently,

Watch this 60 second video explaining why we complete literature reviews.

What is a Literature Review?

Definition of a Literature Review

"A literature review is a systematic examination of the scholarly literature about one’s topic. It critically analyzes, evaluates, and synthesizes research findings, theories, and practices by scholars and researchers that are related to an area of focus." (Efron and Ravid 2018)
A literature review may also:

  • identify and critique existing sources to research questions from other studies, find conflicts between sources, or ask new questions
  • identify key sources in a certain time period, topic, theme, or research study
  • create new relationships to past sources
  • place your research alongside existing sources in context

Watch this short video (3:30) reviewing literature reviews:

Additional Resources for Understanding Literature Reviews

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