How To Write A Literature Review In 3 Simple Steps (FREE Template With Examples)

Feeling lost in your literature review? Three steps take you from a scattered pile of papers to a finished chapter.
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*THE KEY QUESTIONS WE ANSWER IN THIS VIDEO*

*What is a literature review in research actually for?*
It has three jobs: to show you understand the existing research around your questions, to establish the gap that justifies your study, and to give you the basis for a conceptual model and a foundation for your methodology.

*How do I write a literature review?*
Three steps. Find the relevant research, then log, catalog and synthesize it, and finally outline your argument before you write a word. Most students rush the middle step and pay for it later.

*How do I find literature for a research paper or thesis?*
Use four methods together: search Google Scholar, look articles up in your university library database, snowball through the reference lists of relevant articles, and mine other people's dissertations for sources.

*Why use Google Scholar for a literature review?*
Google Scholar has the best search technology for finding material relevant to your keywords and focal topic, and it shows citation data, meaning how often each article has been cited, which gives you a good idea of the authority and credibility of any given article.

*How do I use my university library database to find articles?*
Take the article title from Google Scholar and copy and paste it into your university search engine exactly as written. University databases are rudimentary compared with Google, so one word out and the results look like they do not exist. If you still cannot get access, email your library and ask.

*What is snowballing in a literature review?*
Snowballing means taking two or three articles highly relevant to your topic, working through their reference lists to find the sources they built on, and repeating that with each new relevant article you find.

*Can I use other people's dissertations to find sources?*
Yes, and they are free and easy to access through databases like EBSCO Host and ProQuest. You are mining them for sources, not for how they structured their work. Treat them carefully though: all you know about any student dissertation is that it passed, not that it was good.

*Do I need a reference manager for my literature review?*
Yes. Mendeley, Zotero or similar is the only realistic way to manage references for a dissertation. They import directly from Google Scholar and university databases, so you are not retyping anything, though you should check imports for typos. Log everything as you find it, even material that looks marginal.

*How do I catalog the literature I have found?*
Build a catalog in Excel with a row per article and as many columns as you can manage: author, date, title, a summary of the key insights for your topic, methodological notes and keywords. Granularity is the point, because you will be filtering across 100 to 300 sources and you will not remember who said what.

*How do I synthesize the literature before writing?*
Step back from individual articles and work out how the pieces fit together, who agrees, who disagrees and what narrative emerges. Use a visual aid: mind mapping software like Freemind, or a whiteboard and a marker. Do not rush this, or you will write something fluent that misses how the parts connect.

*OVERVIEW*
00:00 Introduction
00:56 What a literature review is actually for
05:36 Step 1: Find the relevant research
06:52 Method 1: Google Scholar scrubbing
09:53 Method 2: Your university library database
11:04 Method 3: Snowballing through reference lists
13:20 Method 4: Mining other dissertations for sources
15:48 Step 2: Log, catalog and synthesize the literature
17:23 Using a reference manager (Mendeley or Zotero)
18:53 Building your literature catalog
23:07 Synthesizing what you have read
25:45 Mind maps and other visual aids
27:41 Step 3: Outline and write up
31:25 Writing up your literature review
33:43 Getting feedback before your advisor sees it
37:35 Recap: the three steps

*FREE RESOURCES*
Literature Review Template - go.gradcoach.com/Mr84c
Literature Review Catalog - go.gradcoach.com/Z13wp
How to Source and Evaluate Literature Effectively - go.gradcoach.com/Q1cH6
What Exactly Is Literature Snowballing? - go.gradcoach.com/Ez5VM
How to “Synthesize” the Literature - go.gradcoach.com/6nNHj

*PREMIUM RESOURCES*
Literature Review 101 (Blueprint) - go.gradcoach.com/kZEcB

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