Narrow the topic down; develop clear research questions.

Your topic should be specific. Do not overwhelm yourself.

The questions you ask should be clear and relevant to the topic.

Find your gap.

Look for a place in the topic that no one has really researched.

Introduce existing research and where it is found.

Summarize overall trends in the research.

Is it found in articles? Websites? Special databases?

Explain why it matters.

Why should a reader care?

Include key terms, common methods, and relevant debates and platforms.

Detail and summarize these general elements of the topic. The reader needs to know the history and state of the topic. Where are current researchers?

Create a specific literature review thesis.

Are you extending, questioning, combining, updating, or challenging modern research? How so?

Do not summarize.

Synthesize (i.e., combine them to make something new).

Focus on your own voice!

Even though you are using multiple sources, the literature review should focus on your thoughts.

Answer the same questions with every source.

This helps to keep every source easily relatable.

Organize by theme, methods, time, argument, theory, etc.

You can choose to organize it in any way that makes sense for your paper. Which is the most relevant to the topic, for example?

Use quotes sparingly; paraphrase fairly and accurately.

This will keep the focus on your thoughts and keep it visually tidier.

Always represent the authors' thoughts how they intended them.

Keep citations tidy.

Literature reviews can get messy. Try to keep every source in an annotated bibliography and maintain proper formatting.