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.
If you don't cite, you might plagiarize someone's ideas. Cite to:
When to cite? What to cite?
Much of the information in this guide and more information can be found on the websites listed on the Helpful Sites tab.
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