Literature review assignments

Before you continue, reflect on your previous writing experiences and the feedback you have received. How would you rate your ability in the following skills? Rate your ability from ‘good’ to ‘needs development’.

Reflect on your answers. Congratulations if you feel confident about your skills. You may find it helpful to review the materials on this page to confirm your knowledge and possibly learn more. Don't worry if you don't feel confident. Work through these materials to build your skills.

Learn more about literature reviews as an assignment by watching this video: 

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Reflect on what you have learned in the video about literature reviews as an assignment. Select the best sentence out of each pair to create a summary of the main points. 

What's the difference between an essay and a literature review? 

• An essay examines a topic: you discuss the topic and the literature is used as evidence to support your ideas.

• A literature review examines the literature of a topic: you discuss what has been published on that topic. In fact, we can say that the literature is the topic. 

Before you begin your literature review, you should try to understand the purpose of the task.  

1. Read the instructions carefully.  

2. Consider how the task helps you meet the unit learning outcomes. 

3. Consider how the task might help you to build your knowledge or complete later assessments. 

Reflect: Why do you think your lecturer has set the literature review task? Is it:

• a stand-alone assignment? Lecturers create these tasks to help you get to know the important literature in your field. 

• a step in a long project? Lecturers create these tasks to ensure you have understood the literature that you will need for a longer or more complex project later.

In brief, when writing a literature review, you must show your understanding of the literature.  

The following steps can guide you through the process of writing a literature review. You could download this PDF so you can tick off each step as you finish it.

One way to organise your notes is to use a spreadsheet. The advantages of spreadsheets are that you can: 

1. choose your headings and refine them as you learn more about the topic 
2. use the search function to identify key words from common ideas in the texts 
3. include hyperlinks to the original documents. 

Read these notes on a student spreadsheet for a literature review on attitudes to bottled water. Click on the hotspots to identify where the student has: 

• included the citations for each source 

• created columns to note important information such as method, findings and conclusions 

• included initial critiques of sources 

• noted where references share similar or contradictory ideas 

• started to note common concepts that can be used to categorise the references 

Note-taking is quite personal; that is, you need to devise a method that works best for you. If you use spreadsheets, you may adapt your spreadsheet to the requirements of each assignment. Here is a spreadsheet that you can download and adapt:

When you are storing your notes, you could also experiment with visual organisers. These can help you to categorise and compare the literature. For example, you could use:  

Venn diagrams 

Notice how some of the citations from the spreadsheet for the literature review on bottled water are categorised in this venn diagram. 

Tree charts 

Notice how some of the citations from the spreadsheet for the literature review on bottled water are categorised in this tree chart. 

Imagine you have found another source for a literature review on bottled water. Where would you put this source in the visual organisers?

Other visual organisers include flowcharts, time lines and mind maps. 

Visual organisers are quite personal; that is, you need to devise a method that works best for you. If you use visual organisers, you should adapt them for each assignment. 

One way to find links between the papers you read is to make notes in a table or matrix. You can learn more about using a note-taking matrix from The Thesis Whisperer.

One student has researched the topic of success in post-graduate studies. They have created a matrix for storing their notes. A matrix is organised in this way:

• Each column is for an article that the student has read.
• Each row is for a sub-topic or idea.

In this matrix, the student has put notes about attrition (drop out rates) in row one. In row two, the student has put notes on peer support for students. 

When the student wrote about attrition, they first read along the row. They compared the information, and noted how the different sources agreed or disagreed with each other. Then, they synthesised this information to create their paragraphs.

Over to you:

Here is a matrix that you can download and adapt:

Note taking matrix spreadsheet.xlsx

What do you know about writing introductions? Test your knowledge here: 

Now, analyse this sample introduction.

If you need to review effective introductions, visit the Essays page. 

Students who are new to literature reviews may write the body like a list of summaries.  A list of summaries makes your review look like a shopping list of sources.

Remember: a literature review is not a list of summaries!  You need to categorise, organise and synthesise the literature to write a coherent text that draws links between the research. 

If you would like to learn more about this, visit the blog patter by Pat Thomson. 

Some common organisational methods include: 

Remember: these are not the only ways you can organise your literature review. You may combine these organisational methods or create a new method of your own. 

This task contains images of content pages used in longer literature reviews, such as a thesis chapter. Your assignments will be shorter, but these images provide examples of different ways you could categorise and organise the literature in your review.

When you write the body of your literature review, you will use a range of skills and techniques.  

What do you know about writing conclusions? Test your knowledge here: 

Now read this sample conclusion to identify the elements.

If you need to review effective conclusions, visit the Essays page. 

An important skill for writing literature reviews is the ability to critically evaluate sources. If you are unsure how to do this, ask yourself a series of questions to guide your thinking.  

Over to you:

Review a text  you have selected for your own literature review.

• Does it pass the CRAAP test?
• How would you evaluate the quality of the research?

Some students feel concerned about critiquing literature. They confuse critique with criticism and think they don’t know enough to criticise published experts.  

However, critiquing the literature is more than criticism. It involves strategies such as: 

• identifying important researchers or research papers 

• comparing and contrasting the research 

• identifying research with similar findings (or generalising) 

• identifying strengths or limitations in the research 

• showing how a research paper contributes to our knowledge 

• identifying gaps in our knowledge of a topic. 

Read these literature review extracts and identify the critique strategy the student has used.  Drag the number of the critique strategy next to the most appropriate extract.

This document has some useful language that may help you express these strategies in your own literature review. Download it and put it on the wall near your desk while you are writing.

When you are describing the strengths and limitations of a research paper, you must use appropriate adjectives and verbs. You should also consider their strength. 

Imagine you want to select an adjective to complete this sentence: 

In this ________ study on dolphins, Smith (2022) attempted to... 

Categorise these adjectives according to their strength. 

Now, imagine you want to select a verb to complete this sentence: 

However, Smith’s study __________ the link between dolphin mortality and pollution (2022).   

Categorise these verbs according to their strength. 

Remember, you may make strong language choices, but you must:

• be careful to match the strength of the language with the strength of the praise or criticism
• always maintain a respectful tone.

Pay close attention to the language choices in published literature reviews in your discipline.

When you cite the research in your literature review, you may use two citation types: 

• In general, research prominent citations are most used. This is because our focus is on the research, not on who did the research.  
• We use researcher prominent citations when we wish to mention the researcher. This may be because their work is particularly noteworthy, or it is important for your assignment.  Researcher prominent citations are more common in the Humanities and Social Sciences than in the STEM disciplines. 

If you use researcher prominent citations, you will use a reporting verb. These verbs describe: 

You may notice that some of the example verbs (like state) perform more than one function. 

Your choice of reporting verbs can help you demonstrate your critique of the research.  Read these two sentences. Which one shows most confidence in the results of the research? 

• The study by Anderson et al. (2017b) suggests the reduced distribution of humpback dolphins is due to habitat degradation. 

• Anderson et al. (2017b) state that the reduced distribution of humpback dolphins is due to habitat degradation. 

Many readers would feel that b. shows the most confidence.  

Read the following sentences and pay attention to the verb in bold. Can you identify the function and the level of confidence? 

If you want more revision on reporting verbing, visit Useful language for annotated bibliographies.

GenAI has several limitations when writing literature reviews, which require careful analysis and critical engagement with existing research. Unlike simpler writing tasks, literature reviews need a deep understanding of the research context, methodologies, and scholarly debates—areas where AI may struggle. While GenAI can produce text that seems coherent, it often lacks the nuanced analysis and scholarly judgement needed for a meaningful literature review. This can lead to reviews that feel superficial or disconnected from current academic discussions, risking misrepresentation of the field and the student's academic voice.

Have a look at the task below, its marking rubric, and the sample provided. Do you think the sample addresses the task requirements and the elements in the rubric?  

Now answer questions 1-4 below.   

Click on the hotspots below to see all the issues with the AI-generated essay. Then compare it with a sample written by a student.  

Prompt engineering is a pivotal skill in leveraging AI effectively for academic and professional purposes. Clear and specific prompts, such as those focusing on outlines or research plans rather than final products, foster deeper engagement with the subject matter and uphold academic integrity.  

See below some prompts to help you get started with your next literature review.  

We also encourage you to review our study skills page “Using AI tools at university” and download the GenAI Quick Tips sheet to learn more about how to use GenAI effectively and ethically.  

When you write a literature review assignment, you may have some challenges. Common challenges include:

• not knowing how to get started 

• feeling overwhelmed by the amount of reading you need to do

• finding too much or not enough literature in your searches.

• keeping track of the literature you find 

• not knowing how broad or how narrow to make your review 

• knowing which texts are relevant to the topic 

• knowing which researchers and texts are important in the field 

• not knowing how to organise the literature review 

• not understanding complex research articles.

Read this advice to help you manage your literature review successfully. 

Advice for success 

1. Review the task instructions and reread your lecture notes. 
2. Visit the relevant subject guides in the library website. 
3. Consult a librarian about search techniques. 
4. Start by reading tertiary sources (like textbooks) for an overview before searching for primary sources (like journal articles). 
5. Create a spreadsheet to store notes and categorise the literature. 
6. Create an online filing system to store the articles you download. 
7. Create an organisation plan or mind map and then refine it as you learn more. 
8. Use a bibliographic management tool, like Endnote. 
9. Review texts by reading the abstract, key words and headings before deciding to read them. 
10. Use appropriate reading skills, like skimming and scanning, before reading intensively. 
11. Check how often the research articles you find have been cited by others. 
12. Write the aim and scope of the review, put it on the wall near your desk and refer to it often to keep yourself on track 
13. Remember that while you do the literature review, your understanding will improve and change; as your knowledge grows, it is normal to reread articles for new understanding. 

Now, imagine you are facing these challenges. Match each challenge with the most helpful strategies.

If you would like more support, visit the Language and Learning Advisors page.