Writing a Literature Review in Social Sciences

Process of Literature Review

This guide was created to help FSU graduate students in Social Sciences with writing a literature review.

Whether you are writing a literature review for your term paper, research article, or thesis/dissertation, you will find some helpful tips for completing the task.

Each tab in this guide was designed to correspond to each stage of the literature review process, starting with a quick checklist for the stage. At the  "FSU Resources" tab, you will find campus resources to assist you in writing a literature review.  

If you have any question, please contact your liaison librarian, Scholars Commons of the FSU Libraries (850- 644-6061) or me (kkim4 at fsu dot edu). 

•  List of Subject Specialist Librarians

A Literature Review IS...

• a selective, integrated analysis and synthesis of what has been researched and published on a particular topic
   
• a process, typically starting from selecting a topic to review and concluding with writing a manuscript to report the published works on the topic
   
• an iterative process: you may have to keep coming back to previous stage(s) to refine your topic, modify the search statements, and/or revise a working thesis, etc. 

A Good Literature Review IS NOT...

• a mere summary of what you have read on a topic
• a summary of everything that is reported on a topic
• an annotated bibliography 

         ...BUT IS/DOES

• a critical summary of relevant and selective literature on the topic
• situate and focus your research in context
• use credible and most relevant sources
• written in clear language
• a piece of research on its own
• add value to the existing knowledge on the topic 

•  Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students (9:38)
•   From North Carolina State University Libraries
  
  
• Writing the Literature Reviews: Step-by-Step Tutorial for Graduate Students : Part 1 (5:21)  
•    From Univ. of Maryland University College