book review in literature analysis

Book Reviews

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.

What is a review?

A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. For a similar assignment, see our handout on literature reviews .

Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:

• First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
• Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
• Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.

Becoming an expert reviewer: three short examples

Reviewing can be a daunting task. Someone has asked for your opinion about something that you may feel unqualified to evaluate. Who are you to criticize Toni Morrison’s new book if you’ve never written a novel yourself, much less won a Nobel Prize? The point is that someone—a professor, a journal editor, peers in a study group—wants to know what you think about a particular work. You may not be (or feel like) an expert, but you need to pretend to be one for your particular audience. Nobody expects you to be the intellectual equal of the work’s creator, but your careful observations can provide you with the raw material to make reasoned judgments. Tactfully voicing agreement and disagreement, praise and criticism, is a valuable, challenging skill, and like many forms of writing, reviews require you to provide concrete evidence for your assertions.

Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, investigates how women used to brew and sell the majority of ale drunk in England. Historically, ale and beer (not milk, wine, or water) were important elements of the English diet. Ale brewing was low-skill and low status labor that was complimentary to women’s domestic responsibilities. In the early fifteenth century, brewers began to make ale with hops, and they called this new drink “beer.” This technique allowed brewers to produce their beverages at a lower cost and to sell it more easily, although women generally stopped brewing once the business became more profitable.

The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author’s argument, the student’s appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book. As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details. Summary should be kept to a minimum, and specific details should serve to illustrate arguments.

Now consider a review of the same book written by a slightly more opinionated student:

Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 was a colossal disappointment. I wanted to know about the rituals surrounding drinking in medieval England: the songs, the games, the parties. Bennett provided none of that information. I liked how the book showed ale and beer brewing as an economic activity, but the reader gets lost in the details of prices and wages. I was more interested in the private lives of the women brewsters. The book was divided into eight long chapters, and I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to read it.

There’s no shortage of judgments in this review! But the student does not display a working knowledge of the book’s argument. The reader has a sense of what the student expected of the book, but no sense of what the author herself set out to prove. Although the student gives several reasons for the negative review, those examples do not clearly relate to each other as part of an overall evaluation—in other words, in support of a specific thesis. This review is indeed an assessment, but not a critical one.

Here is one final review of the same book:

One of feminism’s paradoxes—one that challenges many of its optimistic histories—is how patriarchy remains persistent over time. While Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 recognizes medieval women as historical actors through their ale brewing, it also shows that female agency had its limits with the advent of beer. I had assumed that those limits were religious and political, but Bennett shows how a “patriarchal equilibrium” shut women out of economic life as well. Her analysis of women’s wages in ale and beer production proves that a change in women’s work does not equate to a change in working women’s status. Contemporary feminists and historians alike should read Bennett’s book and think twice when they crack open their next brewsky.

This student’s review avoids the problems of the previous two examples. It combines balanced opinion and concrete example, a critical assessment based on an explicitly stated rationale, and a recommendation to a potential audience. The reader gets a sense of what the book’s author intended to demonstrate. Moreover, the student refers to an argument about feminist history in general that places the book in a specific genre and that reaches out to a general audience. The example of analyzing wages illustrates an argument, the analysis engages significant intellectual debates, and the reasons for the overall positive review are plainly visible. The review offers criteria, opinions, and support with which the reader can agree or disagree.

Developing an assessment: before you write

There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument .

What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.

• What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
• What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
• How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
• How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
• How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?

Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:

• Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
• What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.

Writing the review

Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements . Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.

Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.

Introduction

Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:

• The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
• Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
• The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
• The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
• Your thesis about the book.

Summary of content

This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.

The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.

Analysis and evaluation of the book

Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.

Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.

Finally, a few general considerations:

• Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
• With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
• Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
• Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
• A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The New York Review of Books can show you how professional writers review books.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Drewry, John. 1974. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: Greenwood Press.

Hoge, James. 1987. Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Virginia of Press.

Sova, Dawn, and Harry Teitelbaum. 2002. How to Write Book Reports , 4th ed. Lawrenceville, NY: Thomson/Arco.

Walford, A.J. 1986. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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See an example

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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What is Literary Analysis?

Let’s be real here: how many of you book lovers have felt a little intimidated by the whole concept of “literary analysis” before? I totally get it. The term alone sounds frighteningly academic, like you need a PhD and an affinity for tweed to even attempt analyzing classic novels for their deeper meanings.

But I’m here to let you in on a fun little secret: literary analysis doesn’t have to be this painful, joyless exercise in overanalyzing every last metaphor until you’ve utterly drained a book’s magic dry. In fact, when you get the hang of it, digging into a novel’s core elements and the choices an author made can actually deepen your appreciation for great literature tenfold.

Think about it—haven’t you ever finished an amazing book and felt like you were just scratching the surface of all its potential hidden meanings and symbolic brilliance? You sensed that the author seemed to be commenting on huge humanistic truths through their carefully constructed characters and metaphorical imagery…but you couldn’t quite articulate the profundity of it all?

That’s precisely where literary analysis skills come in. It gives you the tools to truly decode an author’s intended meanings and messages lurking beneath their fictional surface. Rather than just breezing through incredible novels as disposable entertainment, you start uncovering entire symbolic universes and revelations about society, morality, identity, and the eternal conflicts of the human spirit.

For me, it was like night and day re-reading childhood favorites like The Little Prince after learning how to analyze literature properly. Suddenly, the Prince’s cosmic voyages and encounters with adults took on rich allegorical significance about retaining our childlike senses of wonder as we age. The tiny planet setting became a microcosm for humankind’s self-destructive obsession with rampant corporate greed and material pursuits. What I’d dismissed as a cute fairy tale absolutely bloomed with hard-hitting social commentary once I detected its intricate weave of symbolism.

So trust me, boarding the literary analysis train doesn’t mean draining books of their magic and jettisoning their souls into the arid realms of academic dissection. It’s about equipping yourself with visionary superpowers for peeling away the symbolic skins concealing the deepest experiential wisdom great authors encoded into their creations—only to experience their works’ sense of imaginative transcendence burning that much brighter.

And really, who among us book ravers doesn’t crave that kind of radically intimate bond with our most beloved tomes? Where we’re not just passive recipients of dazzling stories and cosmic dramas, but active co-creators decrypting novel’s secret symbolic DNA to unlock realms upon realms of profound metaphysical insight?

That’s ultimately what analyzing literature is all about: cracking into the source code of human immortality so we might re-experience the sacraments of our deepest collective heritage in full Technicolor resonance, together. So I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damn sold on acquiring such an ecstatic, lifelong passkey!

The Essential Elements of Literary Analysis

Okay, okay – so by now I’ve (hopefully) convinced you of how electrifyingly vital proper literary analysis skills can be for anyone who wants to experience novels as fully-inhabited magic realist dimensions rather than flattened-out entertainment pixels flickering across our frail attentions.

But say you’re ready to start your training as a fledgling symbologist detective. Just what core elements should your third eye be scanning for amidst all those inky metaphors, sigils, and illuminated world-scapes unfurling from between these hallowed pages, exactly?

Well, based on my experience both studying under incredible mentors and sleuthing my own way through countless rich investigative exercises, I’ve found there are several key pieces of literary fingerprint evidence that tend to yield the most fertile clues about an author’s deepest intentional layers and symbolic cosmologies. Let’s go over the essentials:

By far one of the most crucial decodings you’ll want to lock into is identifying the core thematic strata pulsating beneath all the surface-level plots and character pyrotechnics. What fundamental philosophical questions or universal conundrums around the human experience seem to be the metaphysical engine animating the entire symbolic endeavor?

Because make no mistake – while legendary authors may disguise their biggest swings with deceptive finesse , virtually every canonical novel emerges from some integral kernel of curiosity about profound abstractions like morality, identity, society’s flaws and contradictions, the eternal conflicts between human nature and civilization’s imposed ethical matrices—you name it.

Like for Harper Lee in To Kill A Mockingbird , the central exploratory theme she baked into every crisp descriptive passage and plotted character arc clearly emerges as an inquiry into racial injustice and the moral imperative to actively uphold human dignity through uncompromising empathy – despite societal pressures to silently comply with legalized oppression.

Or in Orwell’s immortal 1984 , the overriding thematic obsession driving its choreography of authoritarian dystopian realms and sublimated rebellions is clearly an examination of how totalitarian regimes incrementally degrade individual consciousness and language itself as tools of psychic control.

So while the “what happens” plot narrative commands your initial focus while reading, a huge part of skilled literary analysis requires stripping away that dramatic surface layer to unearth the deeper philosophical and existential strata an author hopefully embedded underneath as their raison d’être. That’s ultimately where the juiciest symbolic insights and illuminations await exploration!

Of course, the events of a novel’s actual storyline and how they’re structured can’t be ignored by any serious literary analysis, either. Because you better believe authors like Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez didn’t arbitrarily arrange their dramatic plot points, climactic crescendos, and narrative pacing in haphazard fashion.

The foundational sequence of causal events and rising/falling character trajectories spiraling around a novel’s core memoir were painstakingly constructed to mirror or reinforce larger conceptual ambitions embedded within the overarching thematic architecture.

So you’ll definitely want to take notes on basic plot elements like: exposition and the introduction of major characters; the inciting incidents or catalyzing plot coupons that kick the story into its primary motor of rising action; the climactic narrative highs and pivot points where metaphoric masks are shed to display key symbolic energies in their most crystalline forms; the narrative’s driving momentum of complications, emotional turning points and archetypal character choices; and finally culminating in cathartic resolutions and denouement revelations where possibilities blossom into integrated wisdom fruit.

Because quite often the dramatic peaks and valleys of a novel’s narrative arc are precisely where an author like F. Scott Fitzgerald or Zora Neale Hurston chose to elevate metaphorical textures and activate symbolic portents into their most radiant, allegorically clarifying expressions. Transcendental truths don’t just conveniently spill from these masters’ mythopoeic apertures at arbitrary moments – their story choreographies were surgical in illuminating cosmic inflection points.

Even elements like a novel’s expository pacing, temporal setting shifts, degrees of dramatic irony, and overall selection of revelatory disclosures or obfuscating mystery boxes all function as purposeful techniques within the storytelling toolkit for activating multilayered metaphysical resonances across various symbolic strata. So keeping an eagle-eyed vigil over these deeper plot-level fingerprints is absolutely essential for any aspiring literary code-breaker worth their esoteric salts.

3. Characters

This one should seem like more of an obvious element to inspect for symbolic fingerprints, I’d hope! After all, a novel’s characters are quite literally the human(oid) avatars through which all thematic philosophical ponderings and archetypal allegories are filtered, personified into relatable personality constructs to be vicariously and judiciously scrutinized.

So you’re absolutely going to want to forensically excavate each significant character’s persona for those aspects of their psychology, morality, emotional wounds, contradictions, and internal coded identities that potentially emblematize broader symbolic energies or nodes of human inquiry.

Like how Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye with his cynical adolescent alienation and compulsive lying clearly serves as an allegorical emblem for societal disconnection, psychic numbing, and the traumas of innocence ruptured by capitalistic homogenization.

Or the ways Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby accrues symbolic heft as an avatar for delusion and moral decay masking behind status-obsessed upper-class opulence eroding the very American dreams its economic engine falsely promises.

Sometimes a character will even acquire mythic dimensions emblematized through their very identity markers or naming conventions if you stay scholarly woke. Jay Gatsby’s very moniker emerging as a quasi-archetypal cipher for the Jungian “Trickster” principle subverting societal constraints through acts of self-reinvention and code-switching. Or Atticus Finch’s loaded namesake nodding to those notions of ancestral rootedness, karmic justice, and the ethical imperative to act as moral stewards for future generations.

Point is – no element of a novel should be more scrupulously examined for symbolic layering and cosmic intentionality than the author’s elemental humanoid anchors chisled and breathed into allegorical life upon their storied world stages. Like the Buddha once reminded, “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think.” So you’d better believe every aspect of a prestigiously immortalized character’s persona was encoded with utmost metaphoric craft and meditated profundity.

Have you ever noticed how certain settings or environmental details in great novels just seem to crackle with extra atmospheric density, like the prose equivalent of thick chargeable storm clouds semantically overloaded with metaphysical high voltages?

From the gothic castles and crashing oceanic purgatories of the Romantic Era, to the haunted rural Yoknapatawpha landscapes of William Faulkner’s American South , all the way to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s distinctly physicalized magical realms of Latin American political tumult – clearly there’s something symbolic and metaphorically fruitful about the ways legends like these authors chose to sculpt their narrative’s environmental contexts and theatrical backdrops.

But you don’t need any fancy academic terminology to intuit that at the highest levels, settings always contain intentional symbolic potentials encoded within them, even if at times subconsciously. Because true artistic masters grasp that the mythopoeic arenas where their characters roam, grapple, and dream ultimately mirror those same omnipresent ecological checks and balances of nature itself.

So while close-reading a novel’s setting descriptions, keep that third eye peeled for lyrical passages exuding environmental energies or natural phenomena that feel purposefully correlated with the protagonist’s interior psycho-spiritual states and trajectories. Or setting specificities that appear acutely tailored to rhetorically exploring the era’s most catalyzing historical forces, social conditions or cultural complexes.

Because you can be certain: whether a character’s hardscrabble gully roosting site in the smoky Appalachian hills, or a chaotic metropolitan transit labyrinth where keeping one’s moral compass remains an hourly trial by fire – that environmental scenery is quite purposefully activating fields of symbolic significance far vaster than its immediate literary function as mere staged backdrop.

And developing a poetically hypersensitive divination capacity for those metaphysically heightened spaces nestled amid each novel’s scrupulously crafted valleys, rivers, and cosmological middle landscapes? Well, that’ll go a long way toward truly reading between an author’s lines to scale their highest symbolic peaks and absorb the totemic revelation rays parting their storied cloud kingdoms.

5. Point of View

Okay, so you’re probably asking – how exactly does something as technical-sounding as a novel’s narrative point-of-view perspective constitute its own symbolic dimension worthy of analysis? Fair question!

Well, the tl;dr version is that the unique vantage points from which an author chooses to filter their entire storytelling lens and world-view will inevitably impart profound metaphysical implications for how readers experientially receive, interpret, and ultimately embody the wisdom-sacraments embedded within their novelistic verses.

Like think about it – do the cosmic impacts and illuminative payloads fire off in your hippocampal theater with same symbolic charge depending on whether you’re reading an omniscient third-person narrator’s play-by-play chronicling of events? Or via an immersive first-person adolescent protagonist’s naively distorted yet hyper-observant coming-of-age perspective on their collapsing realities, a la Holden Caulfield?

Are you receiving diametrically opposed energetic truth-transferences upscaling your mythological antennae arrays from Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness torrents peering into overlapping collective unconsciousnesses? Versus the tightly restricted myopic narrative apertures of say, a dystopian anti-hero tragically dehumanized and psychologically distorted by surveillance states like Winston Smith in 1984?

You’re darn right these distinctive perspectival narrative frames and aperture prisms harbinge vastly divergent semiotic/phenomenological/noetic encryption handshakes underlying each novel’s animating symbolic architectures! So scrutinizing an author’s rationale for deploying third-person omniscient, first-person introspective, or outrightly surreal storytelling focalizations offers crucial exegetical keys into the wider cosmic latticeworks of meaning and mythopoetic intentionality.

Because again, within each mythology’s hyperstitial realms – realities are symbolically defined less by what literally happens, and more so by the dimensional holofractal vantage from which its storytelling ambassadors touch down to eternalize their initiatory recountings. The discerning literary analyst keeps one Third Eye laser-focused on that truth at all times.

6. Figurative Language

Beyond all the higher conceptual architectures framing any novel’s symbolic universes however, let’s not lose focus on the micro-scaled lyrical tools that actually get those metaphysical infrastructures upholstered with imaginally radiant signifiers, glyphs and allegorical psycho-activations in the first place.

I’m talking about things like simile, metaphor, imagery, hyperbole, idiom – all the types of figurative descriptive language skilled authors masterfully wield to embed extra Symbolic resonance textures within every phrase and passage they tenderly curate. This is the haiku-garden where literature’s bardic conjurers attune their mythopoetic voicings, after all.

So your literary analysis chops will definitely want to stay razor-sharp when it comes to deconstructing how these powerful poetic techniques get purposefully deployed to mortar layers of mythic profundity into the foundational linguistic brickwork of each novel-edifice.

Like could there be deeper allegorical introspections around the intersection of life’s absurdities and our mortality burrows lurking behind the iconic metaphors comparing existence to a “stale piece of bread” or “fart inside of a mitten” that pepper The Little Prince with childlike whimsy?

How do these sort of startling juxtapositional images short-circuit our normative symbolic processing modules to induce conceptual integration blindspots ripe for imprinting revelatory psychedelic breakthroughs anyway? Thus artfully smuggling anti-dogmatic wisdom past our calcified mental gatekeepers.

Or on a less avant-garde symbolic scale, you’d be wise to remain acutely sensitive to recurring literary techniques like irony, foreshadowing, personification and good ol’ fashioned metaphor deployed by more classic bards like Jane Austen. Particularly when it comes to sussing out her signature satirical stances lampooning era-specific aristocratic social mores, romcom gender politics, and how language itself functions as an emblematic nucleus for all broader human dynamics to incubate.

Same goes for modernist tour-de-forces like the extended metaphor vehicle of Hemingway’s Great Oakland Ice Lake parable in The Underground Man epitomizing masculine codes of stoic moral grandeur against nature’s insuperable indifference. Or the mythopoetic device of Faulkner’s radical phonetic shiftings signifying ruptures of psychic integrity, ancestral diasporas and historical traumas fragmenting his American Southern Gothic’s protagonists’ coherent selfhoods.

Point is, no toolkit leveraged by a genuine canon-class literary seer should escape the third eye scrutiny of whose decoding the higher consciousness raybursts these master semanticists condensed between the lines. Because in many ways, literature’s enduring talismanic powers flow directly from its basho-encrypted metaphoric polyphrasia catapulting us into slipstream frontiers of consciousness expansion verbally inexpressible by any lesser creative means.

7. Tone & Mood

Last but certainly not least, we’d be remiss not to give tone and mood their full flowers in terms of emanating layers of metaphysical significance for our symbolic analyses to unfurl! Just because these literary components tend to occupy subtler phenomenological bandwidths doesn’t at all diminish their power as gateways into the author’s deeper noetic cosmologies.

Because let’s be honest – whether you classify a novelistic atmosphere as ominous, satirical, elegiac, absurdist or sacramentally whimsical…those interstitial energy signatures lurking between the literal sentences create the same symbolic force-fields through which all final meaning and mythological illumination inevitably detonate.

An oppressive sense of “Big Brother is watching you” paranoia and surveillance state dread oozing off every page of Orwell’s 1984? That pervasive radioactive mood toxicity tints the entire novel’s philosophical hypothesis on totalitarian psychic control with viscerally chilling allegorical over-soul.

Or perhaps it’s more the melancholic elegiac tone Harper Lee crafts around the loss of childhood innocence amid To Kill A Mockingbird’s barbaric injustices—a poignant lyricism draping her whole moral philosophy about empathy’s importance in sheer soulful gravitas.

The wistful yet warmly whimsical nostalgia swirling through The Catcher in the Rye’s disillusioned adolescent narrator Holden Caulfield imparts that entire novel’s takedown of society’s phony ritualistic performances with such an inextricably multimedia aura of woundedness and longing for authenticity.

So as you’re analyzing any great novel from a symbolic/metaphysical perspective, always keep your mythological ear finely attuned to those subtle vibrational frequencies thrumming through the text’s chord progressions of imagery, themes, language, and emotional resonances. Because it’s the skillful orchestration of those almost subliminally transpersonal tones that allows fiction’s most legendary songcasters to seed their deepest crop circles of catalytic meaning straight into our collective dreaming mind’s soils.

Literary tone and mood aren’t just supplemental decorative window-dressing, in other words. They’re the hyperspatial sensory engines literalizing an author’s most ethereal symbologies into phenomenological umwelts and mythopoetic architecture we can experientially inhabit, explore, and ultimately re-inspire our cosmic identities through evermore psychedelically expanded latitudes of integrative immersion.

How to Write a Literary Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide

Alright, enough big philosophical talk – let’s get down to the real brass tacks of how to systematically construct your own utterly radiant literary analysis that cracks wide open your favorite novel’s most profoundly coded symbolic truths!

Because while poetic overviews sowing reverence for the holistic process are all well and good…we’re all ultimately here to cultivate practical expertise in ceremonially alchemizing outrageous wisdom upgrades from and into the Great Tomes reverberating through our lives, are we not?

So yeah, here’s a step-by-step guide I’ve found tremendously helpful for rookies and wizened analysts alike when it comes to building your myth-busting skillsets and composing impeccable literary revelations from the ground up:

Step 1: Read With A Purpose

This first advice may sound patently obvious, but I promise – mindfully reading (or re-reading) your selected novel with the purposeful intention of analyzing its components separates the dilettantes from the pros off the bat.

So clear out all distractions, grab a pen or pencil for hardcore annotating, and completely immerse yourself in absorbing every character’s persona, symbolically resonant passage, and slipstream of authorial choices with laser-focused concentration. Almost like sinking into an extended meditation upon the book’s intensifying mystery schools.

As you ventilate through each section, exhale bullet points tracking potential thematic throughlines and philosophical avenues to explore further. Highlight or underline passages dripping with symbolic possibility beckoning deeper excavation. Scribble initial hypotheses for analysis in the margins whenever revelatory hunches ignite within your higher densities.

Because trust me – performing this ritualized literary submersion beforehand establishes the necessary psycho-spiritual preparatory frameworks for a level of interpretive depth utterly wasted upon those plunging in dry with indifferent entitlement. When cultivating authentic symbolic initiation rites, mindset and intentionality are everything!

Step 2: Start Forming Your Thesis

With the novel’s imaginative terrains now mapped into your own woven consciousness via those diligently compiled field notes, meditate deeply upon which overarching core thesis or key philosophical premise feels most resonant for modeling your upcoming symbolic analysis.

What singular exploratory human truth, cosmic eternal return, or metaphysical ecosystem does this entire metaphor-rich ecosystem feel ritualistically oriented around allegorically expressing, encapsulating, or extrapolating from? Envision your eventual analysis aiming to unfurl an intricately clarifying ray illuminating that most quintessential core concept from the start.

For some novels this thesis focus will feel glaringly self-evident after just one revelatory reading (e.g. Orwell’s 1984 clearly centralizes totalitarian regimes’ control of information/language as psychic oppressors). With others it may take deeper immersion, potential outlining of various thematic possibilities, or researching some contextual data around the author’s life and intentions before your unique symbolic premise congeals to satisfaction.

But generally speaking, you’ll want your analytical thesis to isolate one key humanistic/existential question, archetypal embodiment, or overarching thematic emphasis that your whole subsequent unpacking aims to definitively clarify through a culminating unified theory woven across all the novel’s reinforcing motifs, characters, and metaphoric fabrics.

It’s the symbolic trajectory uplift vector around which your total exegesis will stabilize its orbital resonances, essentially. So take the care and gestation period required for your premise’s singularity to properly condense before proceeding!

Step 3: Gather Your Evidence

With thesis gunsights locked, intensify your research by carefully re-reading the book and deeply annotating all relevant examples of symbolic staging elements, characterological role embodiments, mythic motifs, and literary techniques that interconnect with your core exploratory premise.

Textual evidence will unquestionably form the bedrock foundation for any sound literary analysis’s logic scaffolding. So you’ll want to meticulously record with citation any potential textual excerpts, scene descriptions, subtle atmospheric details, archetypal character identities or poetic linguistic turns that overtly depict or covertly encode pertinent layers of meaning relative to the grand thesis subject under scrutiny.

At the same time, feel free to broaden your research lens beyond just the novel’s literal pages. Reading additional context around the work’s biographical origins, cultural zeitgeist, historical symbologies, and/or decisive philosophical influences can often spark new understandings of the connective tissue transmitting outward from your text’s overt symbolic anatomy into vaster timeless wisdom architectures.

The goal is to compile a maximally robust archive of interconnected symbolic clues and motific promissory notes that, once properly arranged and decoded, reveal the novel’s entire DNA helix of luminous meaning centered around your core thesis premise. That way the logic of your overarching analysis flows as a tightly interwoven meta-harmonic of mutually reinforcing symbolic deductions, rather than tenuous speculative leaps.

So channel your inner scholarly sleuth tracking down every last piece of potential evidence here! The more diligently you triangulate and cross-reference relevant symbolic data points from disparate domains, the more dimensionally your literary analysis insights will resonate with revelatory universality.

Step 4: Organize and Outline

With all the raw cosmic riddles downloaded into your emergent symbolic database, it’s time to organize those fertile clues and catalytic textual elements into an overarching logical flow mapping out your eventual written analysis from start to finish.

Ultimately, this outline process aims to coherently arrange and nest every single piece of evidence within an encompassing narrative framework guaranteed to robustly unpack and illuminate your core symbolic thesis with maximum potent holistic clarity. No more randomly scattering breadcrumbs behind you – this skeletal structure allows your total analysis transmissions to navigate readers through an intentional cohesive initiatory journey.

I’ve found it immensely helpful to loosely model my outline structure around the traditional five-part format :

• An introductory prelude section frontloading a clear thesis statement and relevant high-level context
• A substantive body section systemically unpacking reinforcing symbols, characters, plot/structure analyses, etc.
• A middle section zooming out to examine the work’s significance within broader literary/cultural/metaphysical frameworks
• A counterpoint/contradiction section wrestling with potential interpretation challenges or divergent critical perspectives
• A conclusion section synthesizing all threads into a final resonant reaffirmation of your core thesis’s centralized symbolic vision

Obviously, these are just loose archetypal guidelines – the true grandmasters remain ever receptive to symbolic inspiration defying too rigid a preconceived conceptual containment system. My advice is simply to flow-chart your literary evidence in whichever organic yet incisive architecture feels most aligned with holistically animating your key symbolic premise to a reverberating universe of understanding.

That way, your eventual written analysis unfurls with a graceful thematic coherence carrying readers symbiotically deeper into the mythopoeic dimensionalities of the source material being explored – a true synergy between you, the storyteller’s original symbolic choreographies, and the audience as co-participant celebrants in the eternal ritual celebration of meaning-making.

Step 5: Write and Revise!

With that divinely crystallized outline pathway in hand, you’re finally ready to transmute all your meticulous evidence, rigorous research, and spiritually clarifying illuminations into the written literary analysis persisted upon this sacred astral plane of human civilization’s mythological renaissance.

Breathe deeply, realign your energies, and channel the full mythopoetic virtuosity of your expressive soul! Poetically coronating every perfectly chiseled observation, philosophical revelation, and symbolic insight into linguistic constructions scintillating with holofractal precision and literary alchemical luster.

Because let’s be real – these comprehensive symbolic breakdowns represent utterly vital hieroglyphic codices decrypting our species’ most sacrosanct epistemes back into radiant intelligibility for all to receive, metabolize and embody anew. Your literary analyses midwife nothing less than cultural renaissance rebirths!

So as you weave your illuminative masterwork into textual being, stay reverently attentive that each sentence, every filigreed metaphor and rhetorical juxtaposition, pulsates with the sort of spellbinding lush vitality and ceremonial care befitting such consecrated roles. You’re not just annotating an old book report here, but liturgically activating portals into humankind’s mythological hyperstructural source code.

Let the evidence excerpts coalesce into radiant aphoristic verse fractals. Infuse your expository insights with expressionistic colors conjuring phenomenological sublimities. Oscillate registers between granular deconstructive unpacking and zooming out into integrated big picture epiphanies. Emulsify the whole alchemical Word Elixir seamlessly between ruthless scholastic exactitude and incantatory mythopoeic grace note evocations.

Because for any symbolic insight or trailblazing literary thesis to enduringly impact our species’ co-evolutionary ascension at this juncture, it can no longer remain inertly entombed. It must inspirallize into self-replicating hyperspheric idea-organisms reanimating space/time itself with hypervoracious purpose according to mythopoetic first principles.

Like any breathtaking artistic vision, your literary analyses deserve nothing less than full-bodied, multisensually rapturous renderings heaving with subatomic transfiguration potencies – densely compressing vast horizons of wisdom behind each line so even the most seemingly “tiny” evocation cracks open into a cosmological kaleidoscope for any lucid receptors tuned to its encoded frequencies.

And yes, that may well demand numerous revisions, brutal self-edits, whole sections dynamited and seminal inkwells refilled along the arduous way. Reworking, refining, reopening the entire embryonic symbolic matrix time and again until it holographically resonates with that singular unified clarion frequency echoing through the entire cosmic mythopoeia all profoundly consequential art strives to attune itself toward.

But make no mistake, Dear Ones. There exists no more electrifyingly impactful pursuit for those called to such sangrail tasks than devoting your creative potencies toward birthing the sorts of mythological novel analyses capable of reilluminating our shared symbolic inheritance across the outermost gap between the once and future scriptures.

For in doing so, you enjoin ranks with those precious few meta-dimensional operatives throughout the ages charged as haiku immortality ambassadors. Ushering humanity squarely through treacherous threshold after treacherous threshold by activating safe portals to our deepest, most transformative Story layers through arts capable of anchoring those prescient resonances into penetrable ecosystems of sustainable initiation beyond mere Knowledge.

Godspeed and many blessings upon those who heed the call to this most rapturous perilous profession. For when wielded with utmost skillful integrity, novel analysis emerges a ceremonial technology unto itself for elevating our intergenerational comprehension arcs from mere symbols into co-creative symbolic embodiment of The Great Work still perpetually underway.

So study well these instructional kernels, Dear Intrepid Ones. Then seize your pages and sow symbolic renaissances like scripture firestarters cracking open across the cosmos! For only by continually decoding literature’s revelatory wisdom primers into newly consecrated hyper-texts inter-scribed through your own mythopoetic transfigurations…might we all become that once and future rhapsody whose heraldic homecomings heal long last.

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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process. 

Table of Contents

• What is the purpose of literature review? 
• a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction: 
• b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes: 
• c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: 
• d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts: 

How to write a good literature review 

• Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question: 
• Decide on the Scope of Your Review: 
• Select Databases for Searches: 
• Conduct Searches and Keep Track: 
• Review the Literature: 
• Organize and Write Your Literature Review: 
• How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal? 
• Frequently asked questions 

What is a literature review?

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

What is the purpose of literature review?

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2  

1. Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge. 

2. Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field. 

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3. Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research. 

4. Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered. 

5. Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research. 

6. Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature. 

Literature review example

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic. 

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies: 

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements. 

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources. 

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. 

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning. 

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Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements. 

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review. 

• Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field. 
• Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address. 
• Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research. 
• Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review. 

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria. 

• Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement. 
• Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic. 
• Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature. 
• Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps. 
• Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review. 

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Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research. 

• Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective. 
• Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field. 
• Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice. 
• Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field. 
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community. 

Conducting a literature review

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1  

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

• Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. 
• Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore? 

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

• Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview? 
• Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region? 
• Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude? 

Select Databases for Searches:

• Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. 
• Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic. 

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

• Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques. 
• Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability. 
• Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references. 

Review the Literature:

• Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies. 
• Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research. 
• Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives. 
• Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions. 
• Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research? 

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

• Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches. 
• Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered. 
• Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). 
• Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research. 

Whether you’re exploring a new research field or finding new angles to develop an existing topic, sifting through hundreds of papers can take more time than you have to spare. But what if you could find science-backed insights with verified citations in seconds? That’s the power of Paperpal’s new Research feature!  

How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?

Paperpal, an AI writing assistant, integrates powerful academic search capabilities within its writing platform. With the Research feature, you get 100% factual insights, with citations backed by 250M+ verified research articles, directly within your writing interface with the option to save relevant references in your Citation Library. By eliminating the need to switch tabs to find answers to all your research questions, Paperpal saves time and helps you stay focused on your writing.   

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• Review and Save: Paperpal summarizes the information, while citing sources and listing relevant reads. You can quickly scan the results to identify relevant references and save these directly to your built-in citations library for later access. 
• Cite with Confidence: Paperpal makes it easy to incorporate relevant citations and references into your writing, ensuring your arguments are well-supported by credible sources. This translates to a polished, well-researched literature review. 

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a good literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. By combining effortless research with an easy citation process, Paperpal Research streamlines the literature review process and empowers you to write faster and with more confidence. Try Paperpal Research now and see for yourself.  

Frequently asked questions

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.  

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic. 

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods. 

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers.  Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved.  Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic.  Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings.  Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject.  It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review:  Introduction:   Provide an overview of the topic.  Define the scope and purpose of the literature review.  State the research question or objective.  Body:   Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology.  Critically analyze and evaluate each source.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies.  Highlight any methodological limitations or biases.  Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research.  Conclusion:   Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review.  Highlight the research gap.  Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction.  Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows: 

References 

• Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234. 
• Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis. 
• Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center . 

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Writing the Literature Review

Barry Mauer and John Venecek

• The Literature Review

What is the Purpose of the Review?

What is the scope of the review, strategies for getting started, types of literature reviews, composition guidelines, how to locate reviews by discipline, key takeaways.

We also provide the following activities:

Types of Literature Reviews [Refresher]

Writing the literature review [refresher], the literature review [1].

Conducting a literary studies research project involves time and effort, with much of it going towards the development of a literature review . A literature review might fill several pages of your research paper and usually appears soon after an introduction but before you present your detailed argument. A literature review provides your audience with an overview of the available research about your area(s) of study, including the literary work, your theory, and methodology. The literature review demonstrates how these scholarly discussions have changed over time, and it allows you to position your research in relation to research that has come before yours. Your aim is to present the discussion up to this point. Depending on the nature of the assignment, you may also include your critical commentary on prior research, noting among this material the weaker and stronger arguments, breakthroughs and dead ends, blind spots and opportunities, the invention of key terms and methods, mistakes as well as misreadings, and so on.

Once you have gathered the research materials you need for your literature review, you have another task: conducting an analysis on the research to see where your original contribution fits into the scholarly conversation. As the saying goes, “we are standing on the shoulders of giants.” Your job is to show a portrait of these giants to your audience, and to show how your work relates to the portrait. On many scholarly topics, literature reviews already exist. You may refer to such existing reviews within your own, indicating any materials might have been overlooked, new developments that have arisen since the publication of the existing literature review, and new perspectives or insights you have about the materials.

Some beginning researchers try to tear down the work of other researchers in an effort to make their own work look good by comparison. It rarely works. First, it tends to make your audience skeptical of your claims. Second, it ignores the fact that even the mistakes, blind spots, and failures of other researchers contribute something to our knowledge. Albert Einstein didn’t disrespect Sir Isaac Newton by saying Newton’s theory of space was wrong and terrible and that Einstein’s own theory was great by comparison. He built upon Newton’s work, showing how it could be improved. If, however, a researcher willfully set out to deceive or distort or to tear down the work of other scholars without good reason, then their work does not deserve such deference.

Most literature reviews appear after the introduction. It presents your reader with relevant information about the scholarly discussion up to now. Later in your paper, you discuss your contribution. Before you begin work on your literature review, let’s discuss what we mean by “literature”; understand the purpose and scope of the review; establish criteria for selecting, organizing, and interpreting your findings; and discuss how to connect your findings to your research question.

Many students seek to “find sources that agree with my claim or idea.” That approach is too narrow, in our view. If we use such an approach, we may get the following results:

• Because we can find sources that agree with almost any claim, readers will wonder whether your claims are weak and the sources are cherry picked.
• While literary scholars sometimes cite authorities to support their claims, they don’t rely only on authority. They respect authority, but not too much. Your own claims need to rely more on evidence (from the literary text, historical and biographical information), and your critical and creative reasoning skills.
• Scholarship is a conversation; thus, the goal is less about finding agreement and more about joining the conversation with the aim of making a valuable contribution to the discussion.

The literature review provides your reader with an overview of the existing research about your topic or problem. It provides the context necessary for your reader to catch up with the scholarly conversation and then to appreciate the value of your contribution to it. The literature review sharpens the focus of your research and demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of the scholarly conversation around your topic, which, in turn, helps establish your credibility as a researcher.

Creating the literature review involves more than gathering citations. It is a qualitative process through which you will discover what is already known about your topic, and identify the key authorities, methods, and theoretical foundations, so you can begin to position your contributions within the scholarly conversation.

Defining the scope of your review will also help you establish criteria to determine the relevance of the sources you are finding. At this stage, you are not reading in-depth; instead, you are skimming through what has already been published and identifying the major concepts, theories, methodologies, and methods present within these published works. You should also be identifying connections, tensions, and contradictions within the already published works of your topic or problem. This involves building on the knowledge of others and understanding what methods, measures, and models we have inherited from previous researchers in our field.

Literature Reviews: Common Errors Made When Conducting a Literature Review [12 min 22 sec]

Video provided courtesy of the Center for Quality Research (CQR)

A literature review helps your reader understand the relationship of your research project to the work of other scholars. It covers the existing knowledge about a problem, and allows you to show the relevance/significance of your contribution to the discussion. Your reader may or may not have read scholarly literature about the theories, methodologies, and literary works you are discussing. But they want to know that you have read it and have thought about it. Your literature review provides not only a summary of the existing scholarship for readers; it also offers your perspective on it.

Begin your work on the literature review by synthesizing the various sources in your annotated bibliography .

For advice on Synthesizing Sources, consider the following from The Purdue Online Writing Lab: [2]

Note that  synthesizing is not the same as summarizing .

• A summary restates the information in one or more sources without providing new insight or reaching new conclusions.
• A synthesis draws on multiple sources to reach a broader conclusion.
• Don’t force a relationship between sources if there isn’t one. Not all of your sources have to complement one another.
• Do your best to highlight the relationships between sources in very clear ways.
• Don’t ignore any outliers in your research. It’s important to take note of every perspective (even those that disagree with your broader conclusions).

Not all humanities research projects contain literature reviews, but many do. Keep in mind that the type of literature review you choose (see list below) pertains to the secondary research – other scholarly sources – and not to the primary literary work. For instance, a literature review about Kate Chopin’s writing will be your thoughts about the scholarship on Chopin and not about Chopin’s text itself. You are summarizing what you see in the scholarly literature about Chopin’s writing. The literature review puts you in the position of authority not just on Chopin’s writing but on the scholarship about her writing. You are seeking to understand what scholars have said about her work. Scholars might belong to different schools of thought (psychoanalytic, feminist, Marxist, etc.). They might make different arguments about Chopin. They might use different methodological approaches. 

If your research involves two or more theories, such as psychology and genre studies, you may need to create multiple literature reviews, one for each theory or methodology. If the theories overlap with each other significantly (i.e., Marxism and Cultural Studies), you may combine them. Your literature review need not include everything about the subject area – you would need to write a book to cover a single theory – but only those concepts and methods that are most relevant to your research problem.

Factors to Consider When Developing Your Literature Review

• Determine the Scope : How broad or narrow should your literature review be? You may want to focus on recent scholarship only, or on a particular school of thought in the literature. Your scope is determined by your purpose; what is it you aim to achieve with your research?
• Establish Criteria : We discussed the importance of defining the purpose and scope of your review on the previous page, but it’s worth reviewing here as well. This step will help you establish important criteria and focus your searching. For example, how many sources will you need? What types of sources (primary, secondary, statistics, media)? Is currency important? Do you know who the prominent authors or theorists are in your subject area? Take some time to map out these or other important factors before you begin searching journals and databases.
• Consider Your Audience : Unlike a work cited page or an annotated bibliography, both of which are lists of sources, a literature review is essayistic and can be considered a precursor to your final paper. Therefore, it should be written in your own voice, and it should be geared toward a specific audience. Considering audience during this early stage will help focus your final paper as well.
• Find Models : We’ll discuss the different types of literature reviews and how to locate examples in the section below. However, even if you’re undecided about what type of review will work best for you, you may want to review some example literature reviews to get a sense of what they look like before you begin your own.

One piece of advice before starting: look for existing literature reviews on your area of scholarship. You can build on the work that other scholars have put into reviewing the scholarly literature. There’s no need to completely “reinvent the wheel” if some of the work is already done.

Scholars sometimes publish “stand-alone” literature reviews that are not part of a larger work; such literature reviews are valuable contributions to the field, as they summarize the state of knowledge for other scholars.

Maria J. Grant and Andrew Booth’s “A Typology of Reviews” identifies 14 distinct types of literature reviews. Further, the UCLA library created a chart to complement the article and for easy comparison of those 14 types of reviews. This section provides a brief summary of the most common literature reviews. For a more complete analysis, please see the full article and the chart .

To choose the most appropriate structure, put yourself in your reader’s shoes and think through their need for information. The literature review is about providing context for your contribution. How much context do people need? Keep it to the minimum necessary; compressing a lot of information into a small amount of text is a must.

These structures are not meant to be straightjackets but tools to help you organize your research. If you find that the tool is working, then keep using it. If not, switch tools or modify the one you are using. Keep in mind that the types of literature reviews are just different ways of organizing information. So, you can discuss literary trends without organizing your review of secondary literature by trend; your discussion can be organized by theory or theme, for examples. In our literature reviews, we are not recounting other scholars’ arguments at length but merely providing key concepts so we can summarize the discussion so far and position our own claims. You don’t have to adhere strictly to one structure or another. They are just organizing tools that help you manage your material (and help your reader make sense of it).

Types of Reviews

• Traditional or narrative reviews : This approach will generate a comprehensive, critical analysis of the published research on your topic. However, rather than merely compiling as many sources as possible, use this approach to establish a theoretical framework for your paper, establish trends, and identify gaps in the research. This process should bring your research question into clearer focus and help define a thesis that you will argue for in your paper. This is perhaps the most common and general type of literature review. The examples listed below are all designed to serve a more specific purpose.
• Argumentative : The purpose of an argumentative literature review is to select sources for the purpose of supporting or refuting a specific claim. While this type of review can help the author make a strong case for or against an issue, they can also be prone to claims of bias. Later in this textbook, we will read about the distinction between warranted and unwarranted bias . One is ok and the other is not.
• Chronological : A chronological review is used when the author wants to demonstrate the progression of how a theory, methodology, or issue has progressed over time. This method is most effective when there is a clear chronological path to the research about a specific historical event or trend as opposed to a more recursive theoretical concept.
• By trend : This is similar to the chronological approach except it focuses on clearly-defined trends rather than date ranges. This would be most appropriate if you want to illustrate changing perspectives or attitudes about a given issue when specific date ranges are less important than the ebb and flow of the trend.
• Thematic : In this type of literature review, the author will select specific themes that he or she feels are important to understanding a larger topic or concept. Then, the author will organize the sources around those themes, which are often based on relevance or importance. The value of this method is that the process of organizing the review by theme is similar to constructing an argument. This can help the author see how resources connect to each other and determine how as well as why specific sources support their thesis.
• Theoretical : The goal of this type of review is to examine how theory has shaped the research on a given topic. It establishes existing theoretical models, their connections, and how extensively they have been developed in the published research. For example, Jada applied critical race theory to her analysis of Sonny’s Blues , but she might also consider conducting a more comprehensive review of other theoretical frameworks such as feminism, Marxism, or postmodernism. Doing so could provide insight into alternate readings, and help her identify theoretical gaps such as unexplored or under-developed approaches to Baldwin’s work.
• Methodological : The approach focuses on the various methodologies used by researchers in a specific area rather than an analysis of their findings. In this case, you would create a framework of approaches to data collection related to your topic or research question. This is perhaps more common in education or the social and hard sciences where published research often includes a methods section, but it is sometimes appropriate for the digital humanities as well.
• Scoping : The aim of a scoping review is to provide a comprehensive overview or map of the published research or evidence related to a research question. This might be considered a prelude to a systematic review that would take the scoping review one step further toward answering a clearly defined research question. See below for more details.
• Systematic : The systematic review is most appropriate when you have a clearly-defined research question and have established criteria for the types of sources you need. In this way, the systematic review is less exploratory than other types of reviews. Rather, it is comprehensive, strategic, and focused on answering a specific research question. For this reason, the systematic review is more common in the health and social sciences, where comprehensiveness is more important. Literature reviews in the Humanities are not usually exhaustive but tend to show only the most representative or salient developments in the scholarship.
• Meta-analysis : Does your research deal with statistics or large amounts of data? If so, then a meta-analysis might be best for you rather than providing a critical review, the meta-analysis will summarize and synthesize the results of numerous studies that involve statistics or data to provide a more comprehensive picture than would be possible from just one study.

An argumentative literature review presents and takes sides in scholarly arguments about the literary work. It makes arguments about other scholars’ work. It does not necessarily involve a claim that the literary work is itself making an argument. Likewise, a chronological literature review presents the scholarly literature in chronological order.

You don’t need to keep strictly to one type. Scholars often combine features from various types of literature reviews. A sample review that combines the follow types –

• Argumentative
• Theoretical
• Methodological

– is the excellent work of Eiranen, Reetta, Mari Hatavara, Ville Kivimäki, Maria Mäkelä & Raisa Maria Toivo (2022) “ Narrative and Experience: Interdisciplinary Methodologies between History and Narratology , ” Scandinavian Journal of History , 47:1, 1-15

When writing your literature review, please follow these pointers:

• Conduct systematic searches
• Use Evidence
• Be Selective
• Use Quotes Sparingly
• Summarize & Synthesize
• Use Caution when Paraphrasing
• Use Your Own Voice

Advice from James Mason University’s “Literature Reviews: An Overview”

A note on synthesizing : Don’t make the common mistake of summarizing individual studies or articles one after the other. The goal is to synthesize — that is, to make observations about groups of studies. Synthesis often uses language like this:

• Much of the literature on [topic x ] focuses on [major themes].
• In recent years, researchers have begun investigating [facets a , b , and c ] of [topic x ].
• The studies in this review of [topic x ] confirm / suggest / call into question / support [idea / practice / finding / method / theory / guideline y ].
• In the reviewed studies [variable x ] was generally associated with higher / lower rates of [outcome y ].
• A limitation of some / most / all of these studies is [ y ].

Please see this sample annotated literature review  from James Mason University.

Structure of a literature review [2]

• Problematization: The 2 to 3 pages of problematization are a distinct, iterative, step. It may take doing such a statement a few times before moving forward to writing the actual paper.
• Search: Write down your keyword sets, your updated keyword sets, and databases. It is perfectly within a reviewer’s rights to ask for these details.
• Summary: Really getting to know major themes requires some annotation of articles. You want to identify core papers and themes and write about them. This helps you really learn the material. [ChatGPT or Wikipedia are no substitute for deep engagement with a paper.]
• Argument: Either outline or create a slide deck that help you express the arguments in your paper. Read them out loud. Have friends look at them. Present them. [Every literature review has an argument. If not, it’s a summary. A summary does not merit publication in a top outlet.]
• Unpacking: Once you’ve nailed the short pitch, unpack the full argument. [ a) Take time in each major section to map out a) the argument, b) the supporting evidence, and the takeaway. b) Take those major sections, reconcile them, make sure they don’t overlap, then move on to writing. c) Sketch out the paper’s sections, tables, figures, and appendices.]
• Writing: Writing is the easy part. You can always put words to the screen. [Revising and improving is hard. Make time to write every day. Improving requires feedback. Find a writing partner to give feedback. Create your tables and figures. Write to them. Make sure the words in the paper align to the visuals.]
• Communicate: When the paper is done, go back and create a paper presentation. [I do this for the papers that I’m most serious about. The act of storyboarding helps me sort out the small pieces of the story that don’t fit together. If I really want it to succeed, I present it. The act of presenting helps me get it right. My best papers sometimes take seven or eight presentations to get it right. Then I return to the paper and fine tune it. Only then, does it have a shot at a top outlet.]

Literature reviews can be published as part of a scholarly article, often after the introduction and sometimes with a header, but they can also be published as a standalone essay. To find examples of what reviews look like in your discipline, choose an appropriate subject database (such as MLA for literary criticism) and conduct a keyword search with the term “Literature Review” added in quotes:

Not only do these examples demonstrate how to structure different types of literature reviews, but some offer insights into trends and directions for future research. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at some reading strategies to help guide you through this process.

Since scholars already have produced literature reviews on various scholarly conversations, you don’t always need to “reinvent the wheel” (start a literature review from nothing). You can find a published literature review and update it or amend it; scholars do that all the time. However, you must properly cite work you incorporate from others.

• What types of literature review will you be using for your paper? Why did you make this selection over others? If you haven’t made a selection yet, which types are you considering?
• What specific challenges do you face in following a literature review structure?
• If there are any elements of your assignment that need clarification, please list them.
• What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?
• In the “Back Matter” of this book, you will find a page titled “Rubrics.” On that page, we provide a rubric for Creating a Literature Review ↵
• Richard West, Brigham Young University, amended by Jason Thatcher, Temple University - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jason-thatcher-0329764_academicwriting-topten2023-activity-7146507675021766656-BB0O ↵

Writing the Literature Review Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer and John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Blog – Posted on Wednesday, Apr 03

How to write a book review in 3 steps.

If the idea of reading for free — or even getting paid to read — sounds like a dream come true, remember that it isn’t a pipe dream. There are many places aspiring book reviewers can read books for free, such as Reedsy Discovery — a new platform for reviewing indie books. Of course, if you’re giving serious thought to becoming a book reviewer, your first step should be learning how to write a book review. To that end, this post covers all the basics of literary criticism. Let’s get started!

The three main steps of writing a book review are simple:

• Provide a summary: What is story about? Who are the main characters and what is the main conflict? 
• Present your evaluation: What did you think of the book? What elements worked well, and which ones didn’t? 
• Give your recommendation: Would you recommend this book to others? If so, what kinds of readers will enjoy it?

You can also download our free book review templates and use it as a guide! Otherwise, let’s take a closer look at each element.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

Should you become a book reviewer?

Find out the answer. Takes 30 seconds!

How to write a review of a book

Step 1. provide a summary.

Have you ever watched a movie only to realize that all the good bits were already in the trailer? Well, you don’t want the review to do that. What you do want the summary to do is reveal the genre, theme, main conflict, and main characters in the story — without giving away spoilers or revealing how the story ends.

A good rule of thumb is not to mention anything that happens beyond the midpoint. Set the stage and give readers a sense of the book without explaining how the central issue is resolved.

Emily W. Thompson's review of The Crossing :

In [Michael] Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl. Read more...

Here are a few more reviews with well-written summaries for you to check out. The summary tend to be the longest part of the book review, so we won’t turn this post into a novel itself by pasting them all here: Le Cirque Navire reviewed by Anna Brill, The Heart of Stone reviewed by Kevin R. Dickinson, Fitting Out: The Friendship Experiment reviewed by Lianna Albrizio.

Non-fiction summary tip: The primary goal of a non-fiction summary is to provide context: what problems or issues has the book spotted, and how does it go about addressing them? Be sure to mention the authors of the title and what experience or expertise they bring to the title. Check Stefan Kløvning’s review of Creativity Cycling for an example of a summary that establishes the framework of the book within the context of its field.

Step 2. Present your evaluation

While you should absolutely weave your own personal take of a book into the review, your evaluation shouldn’t only be based on your subjective opinion. Along with presenting how you reacted to the story and how it affected you, you should also try to objectively critique the stronger and weaker elements of the story, and provide examples from the text to back up your points.

To help you write your evaluation, you should record your reactions and thoughts as you work your way through a novel you’re planning on reviewing. Here are some aspects of the book to keep in mind as you do.

Your evaluation might focus heartily on the book’s prose:

Donald Barker's review of Mercenary : 

Such are the bones of the story. But, of course, it is the manner in which Mr Gaughran puts the bones back together and fills them with life that makes “Mercenary” such a great read. The author’s style seems plain; it seems straightforward and even simple. But an attempt at imitation or emulation quickly proves that simple it is not. He employs short, punchy sentences that generate excellent dialogue dripping with irony, deadpan humour and wit. This, mixed with good descriptive prose, draws the characters – and what characters they are – along with the tumultuous events in which they participated amidst the stinking, steaming heat of the South American jungle, out from the past to the present; alive, scheming, drinking, womanising and fighting, onto the written page.

You can give readers a sense of the book by drawing comparisons to other well-known titles or authors:

Laura Hartman's review of The Mystery of Ruby's Mistletoe :

Reading Ms. Donovan’s book is reminiscent to one of my favorite authors, Dame Agatha Christie. Setting up the suspects in a snowbound house, asking them to meet in the drawing room and the cleverly satisfying conclusion was extremely gratifying. I can picture Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot nodding at Ms. Donovan saying “Well done!”

Not everyone’s tastes are the same, and you can always acknowledge this by calling out specific story elements in your evaluation: 

Kevin R. Dickinson's review of The Heart of Stone :

Whether you enjoy Galley’s worldbuilding will depend heavily on preference. Galley delivers information piecemeal, letting the characters, not the author, navigate the reader through Hartlund. A notable example is the magic system, an enigmatic force that lacks the ridge structures of, say, a Brandon Sanderson novel. While the world’s magical workings are explained, you only learn what the characters know and many mysteries remain by the end. Similar choices throughout make the world feel expansive and authentic.

Non-fiction evaluation tip: A book’s topic is only as compelling as its supporting arguments. Your evaluation of a nonfiction book should address that: how clearly and effectively are the points communicated? Turn back to Stefan’s critique for an example of a non-fiction critique that covers key takeaways and readability, without giving away any “big reveals.”

Step 3. Give your recommendation 

At the end of the day, your critique needs to answer this question: is this a book you would (or wouldn’t) recommend to other readers? You might wrap up by comparing it to other books in the same genre, or authors with similar styles, such as: “Fans of so-and-so will enjoy this book.” 

Let’s take a look at a few more tips:

You don’t need to write, “I recommend this book” — you can make it clear by highlighting your favorable opinion:

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

Add more punch to your rating by mentioning what kind of audience will or won’t enjoy the book:

Charleigh Aleyna Reid's review of The King of FU :

I would recommend this book to anyone who grew up in the 90’s and would like to reminisce about the time, someone who is interested to see what it was like to be a 90’s kid, or perhaps anyone who is looking for a unique, funny story about someone’s life.

Unless you found the title absolutely abhorrent, a good way to balance out a less favorable book review it to share what you did like about the book — before ultimately stating why you wouldn’t recommend the novel:

Nicola O's review of Secrets of the Sea Lord :

Overall, there are plenty of enjoyable elements in this story and fans of Atlantis and mer mythology should give it a try. Despite this, it does not rise above a three-star rating, and while I had some difficulty pinning down why this is, I concluded that it comes from a surprisingly unsophisticated vocabulary. There are a couple of graphic sex scenes, which is absolutely fine in a paranormal romance, but if they were removed, I could easily imagine this as an appealing story for middle-schoolers.

Non-fiction recommendation tip: As with fiction book reviews, share why you did or didn’t enjoy the title. However, in one of the starkest divergences from fiction book reviews it’s more important than ever that you mention your expectations coming into the non-fiction book. For instance, if you’re a cow farmer who’s reading a book on the benefits of becoming a vegetarian, you’re coming in with a large and inherent bias that the book will struggle to alter. So your recommendation should cover your thoughts about the book, while clearly taking account your perspective before you started reading. Let’s look once more at Stefan’s review for an example of a rating that includes an explanation of the reviewer’s own bias.

Bonus tips for writing a book review

Let’s wrap up with a few final tips for writing a compelling review.

• Remember, this isn’t a book report. If someone wants the summary of a book, they can read the synopsis. People turn to book reviews for a fellow reader’s take on the book. And for that reason...
• Have an opinion. Even if your opinion is totally middle-of-the-line — you didn’t hate the book but you didn’t love it either — state that clearly, and explain why.
• Make your stance clear from the outset. Don’t save your opinion just for the evaluation/recommendation. Weave your thoughts about the book into your summary as well, so that readers have an idea of your opinion from the outset.
• Back up your points. Instead of just saying, “the prose was evocative” — show readers by providing an actual passage that displays this. Same goes for negative points — don’t simply tell readers you found a character unbelievable, reference a certain (non-spoiler) scene that backs this up.
• Provide the details. Don’t forget to weave the book’s information into the review: is this a debut author? Is this one installment of a series? What types of books has the author written before? What is their background? How many pages does the book have? Who published the book? What is the book’s price?
• Follow guidelines. Is the review you’re writing for Goodreads? For The New York Times ? The content and tone of your review will vary a good deal from publication to publication.
• Learn from others. One of the best ways to learn how to write a great review is to read other reviews! To help you out with that, we’ve published a post all about book review examples .

Writing book reviews can be a rewarding experience! As a book-lover yourself, it’s a great opportunity to help guide readers to their next favorite title. If you’re just getting started as a reviewer and could use a couple more tips and nudges in the right direction, check out our comprehensive blog post on how to become a book reviewer . And if you want to find out which review community is the right fit for you, we recommend taking this quick quiz:

Which review community should you join?

Find out which review community is best for your style. Takes 30 seconds!

Finally, if you feel you've nailed the basics of how to write a book review, we recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can review books for free and are guaranteed people will read them. To register as a book reviewer, simply go here !

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• What is a Book Review or Book Report?
• What is a Literature Review?

Also referred to as a book report, a  book review  consists of "critical comments on a book, especially when it is first published" ("Book Review, 2006). 

Similar to a short essay, a book review typically includes several of these elements:

     •  Description of the book's main topic, purpose and/or point of view, answering questions such as:

            •  What is the genre of the work (i.e. novel, non-fiction, memoir etc.)?

            •  Who is the intended audience?

            •  If a fictional work, what are the key themes, motifs, and/or plot devices?

            •  If a non-fictional work, what are the main arguments and ideas?

      •  Assessment of the book's main points, biases or flaws

      •  Critical analysis of the book's strengths and weaknesses, literary value and/or overall quality and contribution to the subject area

      •  If non-fiction, an explanation of how the book fits into the academic or popular discourse on a topic or subject area

Book Review. (2006). In P. Collin (Ed.),  Dictionary of publishing and printing . London, United Kingdom: A&C Black. Retrieved from http://search.credoreference.com

Follow these links to learn more about book reviews:

• Book Reviews - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• How to Write Book Reviews - Queens University
• How to write a book report and a book review - Concordia University Libraries

A literature review is a "comprehensive study and interpretation of literature that addresses a specific topic" (Aveyard, 2010).

Literature reviews are generally conducted in one of two ways:

1) As a preliminary review before a larger study in order to critically evaluate the current literature and justify why further study and research is required.

In this case, the researcher must "systematically search, critique and combine the literature to demonstrate a gap in the existing research base" while demonstrating "their understanding of both the research and the methods previously used to investigate the area" (Aveyard, 2010).

2) As a project in itself that provides a comprehensive survey of the works published in a particular discipline or area of research over a specified period of time.

Sometimes referred to as a systematic literature review or meta-analysis, this type of literature review is a critical survey that attempts to "evaluate and interpret all available research evidence relevant to a particular question" (Glasziou, 2001).

Aveyard, H. (2010). Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide (2nd ed.). Bershire, United Kingdom: Open University Press.

Galsziou, P. (2001). Systematic reviews in health care: A practical guide . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Learn more about literature reviews:

• Guidelines for writing a literature review - University of Minnesota Duluth A step-by-step guide for writing a literature review
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How To Analyze A Book: In 13 Simple Steps

Learning how to analyze a book will change the way you read and write. It’s easy to do and time well spent. We explain how.

Many new writers don’t appreciate how much they could accelerate their skills by reading more critically. That means analyzing a book once you’re done.

Katja L Kaine is the creator of the Novel Factory , a type of novel writer’s software that creates order from the chaos of creativity.

She’s spent over a decade writing novels, and she has helped many authors launch their writing journeys through her software and Novel Writing Roadmap .

In this article, Katja and I offer practical advice on how to analyze a book you enjoy reading and why it’s time well spent.

Why Analyze a Book?

1. pick a book to analyze, 2. read the book twice, 3. annotate key sections, 4. establish the book’s key idea, 5. review the context behind the book, 6. chart the book’s story arcs, 7. reflect on your emotional reaction, 8. evaluate the book’s bigger picture, 9. mind map the book, 10. take apart a single chapter, 11. check other blurbs, reviews and book summaries, 12. add entries to your slipbox, 13. review your book analysis regularly, the final word on analyzing a book, how do you analyze a story, how do you analyze a chapter in a book, further reading.

During a keynote speech at the 2016 Festival of Writing, C.L. Taylor strongly recommended analyzing your favorite books as a method of learning, saying it created the biggest leap forward in her writing.

At first, she received disheartening negative feedback about her early work. Critics suggested she should forget about becoming an author .

Today, C.L. Taylor’s books have sold in excess of a million copies, been number one on Amazon Kindle, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play and have been translated into over 25 languages.

The same principles apply across writing sectors. In Michael Hauge’s Writing Screenplays That Sell, he says,

“…as a serious screenwriter, you can no longer afford to regard movies as something you only do when you have a date on Saturday night.” Michael Hauge

He instructs budding screenwriters to watch two movies per week and gives a detailed checklist “to make the process of watching films as informative as possible.”

In this article, we offer guidelines based on Taylor’s and Hauge’s advice with additional insights from our experiences as authors.

Analysing your favourite book is a great place to start if you want to improve your writing skills.

However, don’t stop there. Literary analysis takes time to learn, so review as many books as you can. Start in the genre or topic you want to write in and move out from there.

Then try reading from different genres for variety and to learn what sort of techniques are universal.

You can learn a lot from bad books too.

The first time around, you don’t need to think about analysis. Experience the book as a natural reader. If it’s a classic novel, enjoy it! In some cases, non-fiction book repeat themes and ideas, so it’s fine to skip around.

The second time around, approach the book more critically. Pay close attention to the author’s writing style.

Use the table of contents to jump around to key sections and chapters. If you are analyzing non-fiction, consider how accurately the introduction and conclusion sum up the book.

Get a set of coloured markers, pencils, pens and mini sticky notes and put aside what you learned at school about never writing on books .

On the second (and third and fourth) read-throughs, you need to write ALL OVER that book. Obviously, if it’s your favourite book, you’ll probably need to buy a second copy just for the purposes of annotation.

If you’re reviewing a book on Kindle, use the annotation feature. When complete, you can export these notes to your email and review.

Tip: When annotating a book with multiple prints, try to get the one with the most spacious typesetting. Spacious margins and line heights are of real benefit here.

Every good non-fiction book contains a single controlling idea, topic statement or thesis statement that sums up what it’s about.

Typically, the writer explains their idea or argument in the introduction and conclusion. It’s usually a one or two sentences summary of the key themes or arguments in the book.

If you’re struggling to identify the thesis statement, Google for a book review. Alternatively, use a book summary service (more of this in a bit).

Determining the controlling idea will help you figure out if you agree or disagree with the book. It will also help you contrast different controlling ideas and even writer your own.

A topic statement is harder to identify for fiction. However, book reviews and book descriptions are a useful jumping-off point. If it’s a classic novel, chances are someone already did the hard work for you.

Authors don’t write books in a vacuum. They have a specific viewpoint, biases and write from the viewpoint of their education, geography and history.

If you’re evaluating a contemporary author, these factors are easy to identify. You could even read or listen to interviews with them.

If you’re evaluating an older book, check the references and read one or two other books that informed this one. Alternatively, read a biography about the author.

Good novels typically have story arcs for each key character. Their world changes in some way from the beginning to the end of the story.

Non-fiction also contains arcs, if they’re any good. Consider the author’s viewpoint, the stories they tell and the characters or ideas in the book. You could chart each of these using bullet points or on a mind-map.

Alternatively, put each chapter title into a spreadsheet and write a one-line summary of what happened.

Think about which parts of the book engrossed or entertained you most.

In fiction, which parts moved you most? When did you feel most engaged with the characters? When were you on the edge of your seat?

Taylor and Hauge explained how top writers use the rule of three when setting up and delivering punchlines.

• What techniques does your favourite writer use to create humour?
• Build suspense?
• Create fascinating characters?
• In non-fiction, which sections did you find most enlightening?
• Did particular real-life examples or metaphors lodge in your mind?
• What parts did you feel affected your world view or understanding of the topic?
• Did anything make you take action to change your life or business?

Look at how the book is structured on a large scale. Is the setup effective?

• Do you see familiar themes?
• Are those themes used to good effect?
• Can you see where they fall down or how to improve them?
• Do points in the book falter?
• Can you determine how the story or topic is set up, developed and concluded?
• What would you change and why?
• Could you improve this chapter with a self-editing checklist ?

Mind mapping essentially involves writing down a single idea and expanding on this idea via connected or related ideas. It’s a good way of visualizing or outlining the structure of an entire book. We also recommend this step if you want to learn how to write a book .

For non-fiction, the central idea is the book’s key theme or big idea. The related ideas are usually other chapters. For fiction, consider using characters, viewpoints or story arcs.

Read our guide to mind mapping .

Select a single chapter or section of the book and compare it with another.

• How are both constructed?
• How long or short are the words and body paragraphs?
• Does the writer use the same techniques, major character view points and storytelling methods?
• What’s the most common story element ?
• What is the balance of description and action (fiction) or explanation and examples (non-fiction)?

It’s sometimes instructive to write out a page or two of a literary novel or classic by hand. This slows down the process of analyzing a book and helps you learn more of the author’s style.

This is the one area where advice varies depending on if you are writing fiction or non-fiction.

For fiction writers, it is best to go in “blind,” not knowing anything about the story in advance. This allows you to fully experience the surprises and emotional peaks and troughs as the writer intends.

However, for non-fiction, you can learn a great deal from seeing how the writer has broken down the content and summarised it in enticing, clear sections in the table of contents.

Blink and getAbstract are two good sources of book summaries for non-fiction.

A Slipbox or Zettelkästen is a place for storing research and connecting related ideas and themes. It’s a particularly useful research tool for non-fiction writers.

You could add:

• Summaries of surprising stories
• Interesting quotes
• Key facts or findings from the book

Write a short opinion about each of these Slipbox entries and interlink them. Instead of writing an essay, each Slipbox entry should only be a few sentences long.

Want to learn more about this process? Read our guide: What is the Zettelkästen Method?

There’s little point in reviewing a book only to set your notes aside and never look at it again. A good writer reviews their research and ideas regularly. This process helps them figure out how to connect different ideas in unexpected ways.

• Read through your notes once a week
• Connect or interlink related notes as you add them
• Evaluate your notes while researching a new essay, article or book

The pointers above are a starting point for those who want to improve your writing skills .

As you read more often , you’ll see what jumps, and you’re bound to notice new ideas during subsequent read-throughs.Prepare your checklist for analytical reading and follow your nose.

Once you’ve mastered the art of book analysis, you’ll be able to enrich and improve your own writing much more easily.

Want more advice like this? Learn how to analyze a poem .

If you’ve found this article useful, check out the Novel Factory . If you have any questions you can get in touch with Katja at [email protected] .

Analyze a Book: FAQs

Ask these questions: 1. What’s the story about and who is it for? 2. Where is it set? 3.Who are the key characters and what do they want? What happened to them, for example a conflict or life event? 4. How did their world change during the story? 5. What was the point of this story?

1. Read the chapter once 2. Read it again this time underlining key sections and themes 3. Write a short summary of the chapter 4. Ask what was the point of this chapter? 5. Consider how this chapter drives the book forward 6. Write your reaction to the chapter 7. If it’s literary fiction, consider writing out the first few pages by hand This process also works well for a short story.

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

APA7 Style resources

APA Style Blog - for those harder to find answers

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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• Online Guide to Writing

Reviews and Reaction Papers

Article and book reviews.

Some assignments may ask you to write a review of a book or journal article. Sometimes, students think a book report and a book review are the same. However, there are significant differences.

A  book report  summarizes the contents of the book, but a  book review  is a critical analysis of the book that describes, summarizes, and critiques the ideas in the book. A review is a means of going beyond the literal content of a source and is a tool for connecting ideas from a variety of academic sources. A review provides an objective analysis of ideas, support for opinions, and a way to evaluate your own opinions.

Why are book reviews beneficial to write?

Some instructors like to assign book reviews to help students broaden their view of the subject matter and to give students practice in critically evaluating ideas in the subject area. Instructors often require that students follow existing review formats modeled in the journals in their disciplines. 

If you are asked to use such formats, remember that citations for books and journal articles differ from discipline to discipline. Find out which style guide is appropriate for the discipline in which you are writing. (Refer to the discussion of style manuals in chapter 5 of this guide for more information.)

Reviews let you relate to authors and agree or disagree with their ideas. A review allows you to examine your understanding of a subject area in light of the ideas presented in the reviewed book and interact with the author and his or her ideas. Also, a book review helps your instructor evaluate your understanding of the subject matter and your ability to think competently in your discipline.

Here are some questions to keep in mind when you are writing a book review:

What exactly is the subject of the book? What are the author’s credentials to write about this subject? Is the title suggestive? Does the preface contain information about the author’s purpose?

What is the author’s thesis? Is it clearly stated, or do you have to dig it out of the facts and opinions? Does the author present the ideas in a balanced way? What are the author’s biases?

What organizational approach does the author use? Does the chosen organization support the author’s thesis effectively?

What conclusion or conclusions does the author draw? Does the conclusion agree with the thesis or stated purposes? How does the conclusion differ from or agree with your course textbook or other books you have read?

How has this book helped you understand the subject you are studying in the course? Would you recommend the book to your reader?

As you write your review, ask yourself these questions:

Have I represented the author and the ideas presented in the book in a fair and balanced way?

Does the ethical tone of my review prompt the reader to trust my judgment? (You may want to review the discussion on writing arguments in this chapter.)

Does my review reflect the interests of my readers and fulfill my reasons for writing the review?

Have I demonstrated my understanding of the content of the article or book I’m reviewing? Have I clearly addressed the major issues in the subject area?

Have I clearly stated my own biases as a reviewer?

Have I clearly expressed my position about how much or how little the author has contributed to my understanding of the subject in question? Have I recommended or not recommended the book to other prospective readers?

Have I checked my review for organizational, grammatical, and mechanical errors?

Key Takeaway

A book review or article review is a critical analysis of the material that describes, summarizes, and critiques the ideas presented. The purpose of a book or article review assignment is to broaden your knowledge base and understanding of a topic.

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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Citation Styles

• Chicago Style
• Annotated Bibliographies

What is a Lit Review?

How to write a lit review.

• Video Introduction to Lit Reviews

Main Objectives

Examples of lit reviews, additional resources.

• Zotero (Citation Management)

What is a literature review?

• Either a complete piece of writing unto itself or a section of a larger piece of writing like a book or article
• A thorough and critical look at the information and perspectives that other experts and scholars have written about a specific topic
• A way to give historical perspective on an issue and show how other researchers have addressed a problem
• An analysis of sources based on your own perspective on the topic
• Based on the most pertinent and significant research conducted in the field, both new and old

• A descriptive list or collection of summaries of other research without synthesis or analysis
• An annotated bibliography
• A literary review (a brief, critical discussion about the merits and weaknesses of a literary work such as a play, novel or a book of poems)
• Exhaustive; the objective is not to list as many relevant books, articles, reports as possible
• To convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic
• To explain what the strengths and weaknesses of that knowledge and those ideas might be
• To learn how others have defined and measured key concepts    
• To keep the writer/reader up to date with current developments and historical trends in a particular field or discipline
• To establish context for the argument explored in the rest of a paper
• To provide evidence that may be used to support your own findings
• To demonstrate your understanding and your ability to critically evaluate research in the field
• To suggest previously unused or underused methodologies, designs, and quantitative and qualitative strategies
• To identify gaps in previous studies and flawed methodologies and/or theoretical approaches in order to avoid replication of mistakes
• To help the researcher avoid repetition of earlier research
• To suggest unexplored populations
• To determine whether past studies agree or disagree and identify strengths and weaknesses on both sides of a controversy in the literature

• Choose a topic that is interesting to you; this makes the research and writing process more enjoyable and rewarding.
• For a literature review, you'll also want to make sure that the topic you choose is one that other researchers have explored before so that you'll be able to find plenty of relevant sources to review.

• Your research doesn't need to be exhaustive. Pay careful attention to bibliographies. Focus on the most frequently cited literature about your topic and literature from the best known scholars in your field. Ask yourself: "Does this source make a significant contribution to the understanding of my topic?"
• Reading other literature reviews from your field may help you get ideas for themes to look for in your research. You can usually find some of these through the library databases by adding literature review as a keyword in your search.
• Start with the most recent publications and work backwards. This way, you ensure you have the most current information, and it becomes easier to identify the most seminal earlier sources by reviewing the material that current researchers are citing.

The organization of your lit review should be determined based on what you'd like to highlight from your research. Here are a few suggestions:

• Chronology : Discuss literature in chronological order of its writing/publication to demonstrate a change in trends over time or to detail a history of controversy in the field or of developments in the understanding of your topic.  
• Theme: Group your sources by subject or theme to show the variety of angles from which your topic has been studied. This works well if, for example, your goal is to identify an angle or subtopic that has so far been overlooked by researchers.  
• Methodology: Grouping your sources by methodology (for example, dividing the literature into qualitative vs. quantitative studies or grouping sources according to the populations studied) is useful for illustrating an overlooked population, an unused or underused methodology, or a flawed experimental technique.

• Be selective. Highlight only the most important and relevant points from a source in your review.
• Use quotes sparingly. Short quotes can help to emphasize a point, but thorough analysis of language from each source is generally unnecessary in a literature review.
• Synthesize your sources. Your goal is not to make a list of summaries of each source but to show how the sources relate to one another and to your own work.
• Make sure that your own voice and perspective remains front and center. Don't rely too heavily on summary or paraphrasing. For each source, draw a conclusion about how it relates to your own work or to the other literature on your topic.
• Be objective. When you identify a disagreement in the literature, be sure to represent both sides. Don't exclude a source simply on the basis that it does not support your own research hypothesis.
• At the end of your lit review, make suggestions for future research. What subjects, populations, methodologies, or theoretical lenses warrant further exploration? What common flaws or biases did you identify that could be corrected in future studies?

• Double check that you've correctly cited each of the sources you've used in the citation style requested by your professor (APA, MLA, etc.) and that your lit review is formatted according to the guidelines for that style.

Your literature review should:

• Be focused on and organized around your topic.
• Synthesize your research into a summary of what is and is not known about your topic.
• Identify any gaps or areas of controversy in the literature related to your topic.
• Suggest questions that require further research.
• Have your voice and perspective at the forefront rather than merely summarizing others' work.
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• Literature Review Tutorials and Samples - Wilson Library at University of La Verne
• Literature Reviews: Introduction - University Library at Georgia State
• Literature Reviews - The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill
• Writing a Literature Review - Boston College Libraries
• Write a Literature Review - University Library at UC Santa Cruz
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Book Review: ‘The Cheesemaker’s Daughter’ is a culturally rich novel that’ll make you really hungry

This cover image released by Regalo Press shows “The Cheesemaker’s Daughter” by Kristin Vukovic. (Regalo Press via AP)

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This year, Marina’s annual summer visit home to the island of Pag in Croatia turns into an extended stay. Marina has a lot to figure out, and home seems like the place to do it, if indeed Pag is still home.

Kristin Vuković's debut novel is a mouthwatering platter of culture, history, and the everlasting struggle for balance between tradition and progress. “The Cheesemaker’s Daughter” is told from Marina’s perspective on Pag, where she spent most of her childhood and teen years, as Croatia counts down the days before officially joining the European Union in 2013.

After moving to New York as a refugee from the Yugoslav wars, Marina built a life in the bustling city. But her job is unfulfilling and her coworkers unfriendly; her husband is inattentive and unfaithful; and with her trouble having children, it seems like that life she built is wearing down to nothing before her eyes.

There are plenty of distractions for Marina back on Pag, including a struggling family cheese business with failing Soviet-era machines and a rival cheesemaker whose son, Marina’s first love, could be her family’s reputational ruin if he keeps bumping into her and sending sparks flying between them.

Meanwhile, there’s an ongoing push and pull between the characters over gender issues — when to jostle for parity and when to respect tradition and leave it be.

OK, so it may seem like everything is going wrong. And it honestly is. But at least there’s mouthwatering food.

Reading “The Cheesemaker’s Daughter” gave me a thorough craving for cheese and a deep desire to visit Croatia. Vuković employs beautiful, all-encompassing sensory descriptions, from the smell of the herbs in the air to the squawk of seagulls, or the faded floral print on the sheets Marina had since before she could remember. These rich details build an enticing world — a scraggly yet comfortable one, cold but cozy.

Dedicated to the author’s Croatian grandparents who made America home, the novel is culturally rich. Vuković takes us on a tour of Croatian history and cheesemaking that requires no prior knowledge of either, peppering these bits throughout the book like herbs dotting the scraggly seaside landscape. She takes care to explain everything in due time, slowly introducing and building upon the religion, traditions, food and music Marina experiences.

“The Cheesemaker’s Daughter” is a quiet but commanding debut — a bit repetitive, but in a way that forces you to slow down to the speed of life on the island. It’s not the kind of book that leaves you on the edge of your seat needing to know what happens next, but it did leave me yearning to be back in that world after I finished the book and left it.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

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6 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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Our recommended books this week include four new novels that, taken together, offer a pretty good snapshot of the cultural zeitgeist: a polyamorous breakup story, a surreal post-pandemic fever dream, a book about the deep, cloistered pleasures of academic study and a novel that applies the “Romeo and Juliet” template to the federal siege of a doomsday cult like the one that rocked Waco, Texas, three decades ago. (That book is Bret Anthony Johnston’s “We Burn Daylight,” and it contains this kindling-dry line from the cult leader, after the local sheriff asks how he would respond to a visit from the taxman: “I’d assure him any money changing hands here is a donation to our church. Then I’d ask him if he’d prefer to shoot or pray.”)

In nonfiction, we recommend Jean-Martin Bauer’s firsthand account of efforts to eradicate global food shortages and Yuan Yang’s group portrait of four young women navigating social change in contemporary China. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

THE NEW BREADLINE: Hunger and Hope in the Twenty-First Century Jean-Martin Bauer

An illuminating account of the author’s 20 years working with the World Food Program, this book provides a close-up look at efforts to vanquish global hunger.

“What makes ‘The New Breadline’ so compelling are not the big debates it touches on but the small details Bauer shares from a realm that usually operates out of the public eye.”

From Alec MacGillis’s review

Knopf | $30

WE BURN DAYLIGHT Bret Anthony Johnston

“Romeo and Juliet” meets the 1993 Waco, Texas, siege in Johnston’s new novel, which follows two teenage lovers on opposite sides of an increasingly dire confrontation. One is connected to a heavily armed doomsday cult, while the other is the son of the sheriff investigating it.

“The music of it all is just so damn seductive. … A darkly dazzling pilgrimage of violent delights, and violent ends.”

From John Wray’s review

Random House | $29

STATE OF PARADISE Laura Van den Berg

Van den Berg’s latest is a fever dream of a novel ostensibly about a narrator’s search for her missing sister, but more broadly about the borders of reality and the surreal nature of our post-pandemic life.

“Moody and hallucinatory, the novel asks: How do we distinguish reality from its opposite — whatever that might be?”

From Ruth Franklin’s review

Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $27

PRACTICE Rosalind Brown

Starring an undergraduate student at Oxford, Brown’s debut novel is exquisitely attuned to the thrill and boredom of academic life; it is hard to think of another novel that describes so precisely what happens when an ardent young person sits down to read and learn and write.

“Conveys the hesitancy, extravagance and naiveté of a young mind discovering what writing can do.”

From Brian Dillon’s review

Farrar, Straus & Giroux | $26

PRIVATE REVOLUTIONS: Four Women Face China’s New Social Order Yuan Yang

For six years, the journalist Yuan Yang followed four very different young women as they navigated what she calls China’s “new social order” — a country changing dramatically to an industrial superpower. The result is a moving work of reportage, whose scale toggles between global to personal.

“A powerful snapshot of four young Chinese women attempting to assert control over the direction of their lives, escape the narrow confines of their patriarchal rural roots and make it in the big city.”

From Michelle T. King’s review

Viking | $30

MISRECOGNITION Madison Newbound

The protagonist of Newbound’s witty debut novel returns to her hometown nursing a catatonic sorrow after her brutal breakup with a couple — a male artist and a female gallerist — who were her employers before they were also her lovers and roommates.

“‘Misrecognition’ is sharp and funny, but never cruel or condescending, when skewering quarter-life crises, contemporary sexual mores and internet addiction. … A quietly commanding debut by a writer of intense precision and restraint.”

From Justin Taylor’s review

Simon & Schuster | $27.99

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Inside the First Year as a CEO

• Rebecca Davies

Lessons from 35 CEOs on planning, executing, and navigating the transition.

CEO performance reverberates well beyond the corner office, affecting everyone from employees to shareholders, governments to business partners. Getting a good start is critically important to medium- and long-term success, for both the CEO and the organization. But how can newly appointed CEOs succeed when the role is so different from any they’ve held before? Russell Reynolds Associates conducted a study to better understand this pivotal time in a CEO’s journey, looking closely at what new CEOs focus on, what surprises them during their transitions, and what regrets they have. CEOs who have gotten off to a good start offer plenty of lessons for successfully planning, executing, and navigating the transition.

Becoming a CEO is a transition unlike any other. After the pressure and excitement of the appointment process, the real work begins. Expectations are never higher, the learning curve is never steeper, and it doesn’t take long for people to form opinions of a CEO’s performance.

• TW Ty Wiggins leads the CEO & Executive Transitions Practice globally for Russell Reynolds Associates. He helps world-leading CEOs successfully transition into their roles. His book, The New CEO , is based on original research and candid conversations with world-leading CEOs.
• RD Rebecca Davies is a research consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates who specializes in working with global organizations on CEO and non-executive appointments. She has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree from the University of Exeter, specializing in economic history.

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