Literature Review Writing Resources - ANTH 499 - Honours Seminar - LibGuides at University of Victoria Libraries

Writing a literature review?

According to the APA, 7th Edition (2020), literature review articles provide narrative summaries and evaluations of the findings and theories within a literature base. The literature base may contain qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research. Literature reviews may capture tends in the literature.

In a literature review, the authors should

define and clarify a problem;
summarize previous investigations to convey the state o the research;
identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and
suggest next steps in solving the problem.

This is often done as an introduction to one's own research - the problem stated becomes your research question, and after reviewing and summarizing the existing research and state of the topic, you can continue to develop that topic and take it into the future!

Literature Review Matrix
Use this Literature Review Matrix to document and collate your article analyses.
Literature Review Prompts
Use this list of literature review prompts to help consider, organize and execute your literature review (from Emily Arvay, Centre for Academic Communication).

Am I the only one struggling to write a literature review? (Video)
From Sage Research Methods, an introduction to the Literature Review and why these are different from other kinds of writng.
The Purpose of a Literature Review (VIdeo)
This video from Sage Research Methods, explains the purpose of a literature review.
Designing your literature review (Video)
How to design your literature review, from Sage Research Methods.