Graduate Education Research Guide

1. Identify the Question

• Choose a topic that interests you or start with the topic assigned by your professor.
• Explore your topic in background resources, such as online encyclopedias or websites. And review what has been written about the topic in the literature.
• Be open to changing your topic as you gather more information.

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

2. Review Discipline Styles

• Look at literature reviews in your field to get an idea of what they include and review literature reviews in your discipline that are similar to what you are wanting to write.

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

3. Search the Literature

• Use your background research on your topic to help you brainstorm keywords to use in database searches and Google Scholar. 
• Utilize the strategies in the "Search Strategies" tab in this Libguide to search for articles.
• If you find good articles, review the references section to see if there are more articles you might want to read on your topic.
• Use the forms in the "Understanding Your Sources" tab in this guide to help you organize your sources and write down key information as you read articles.

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

4. Manage Your References

• Create a References section for your paper where you will list your citations and put your citations on that page as you include them in your writing. 
• If you have many citations, utilize a tool like Zotero to help you get organized. Zotero is a free, open-source, easy-to-use tool that helps collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research. Use Zotero as your personal research assistant for all of your academic and scholarly projects. You can download Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/.
• If you need help with APA format, see the Writing and Citing tab in this Libguide.

5. Critically Analyze and Evaluate

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

• What is the research question?
• What is the primary methodology used?
• How was the data gathered?
• How is the data presented?
• What are the main conclusions?
• Are these conclusions reasonable?
• What theories are used to support the researcher's conclusions?

Take notes on the articles as you read them and identify any themes or concepts that may apply to your research question.

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

6. Synthesize

• See the "Understanding Your Sources" tab in this Libguide. 
• Organize your sources in preparation for writing your literature review.
• Organize your sources by theme, historically or chronologically, or by research methodology. 

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

7. Write Your Literature Review

Some points to remember:

• Include only the most important points from each source -- you want to digest, not quote from, the sources.
• The value of the review for your audience will consist of a clear, well-organized synopsis of what has been found so far on your topic. 
• Avoid plagiarism in your literature review. 

Source: University of Oregon (2024). How to write a literature review. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview/evaluate

Want more in-depth information on literature reviews? Click here to review an exhaustive Libguide on How to Write a Literature Review created by librarians at the University of Oregon.