Literature Reviews for Media, Communication and Information: What is a "Literature Review"?

This guide is intended to assist you in writing the literature review section of a scholarly article or research paper.

The tabs offer a suggested series of steps that will help you research, organize, and write your review.

It is important to know that research is a messy process. You may find yourself repeating steps, doing them out of order, or even adjusting your topic or the focus of your review. This is a normal part of scholarly writing.

If you need help, please contact your librarian.

A literature review provides a summary of the previously published academic work on a topic. The literature review should help "make the case" for why someone is writing their paper or conducting their research. A literature review can be a section of a larger paper or it can be the focus of an entire paper.

Goals of a Literature Review:

1. to provide an overview of the scholarly literature on a chosen topic, including the major theories, issues, works, and debates on the topic
2. to synthesize the information in the literature into an organized summary
3. to critique the information and current knowledge of a topic
4. to identify aspects of the topic that need further investigation

Much of the information in this guide and more information can be found on the websites listed on the Helpful Sites tab.