Writing Literature Reviews: A Step-by-Step Guide for Graduate Students and Other Academic Researcher

The literature review is an essential component of nearly all scientific writing. New findings generally build upon the work of prior scholars. Even in the case of completely novel discoveries, the scope of previous works must be sufficiently described to demonstrate novelty. Literature reviews involve exploration, identification, critical appraisal, selection, and synthesis of sources relevant to the specific research question. Understandably, this can be a tedious and time-consuming process for the graduate student who has a dissertation deadline to meet, or the academic researcher who must write a manuscript or study report. This handbook has been written in simple, everyday language, and has one objective: to make the writing of the literature review less onerous and more enjoyable. I hope you find it so!