00 Title page
Page one carries three lines and nothing else.
- Proposed title of the review
- Your name
- Literature Review
01 Abstract
A quick summary — a teaser for what the reader should expect. It appears first and gets written last.
Cover, briefly
- The topic being reviewed
- Why it is important
- How the review was conducted (Google Scholar, PubMed)
- The scope of the review
- The major themes discussed
- The overall conclusions drawn from the literature
- Including detailed explanations of your literature review
- Citing sources in the abstract
- Writing more than one paragraph, or more than 150–250 words
- Introducing information that does not appear elsewhere in the paper
Keywords
End the abstract with a keyword line.
Keywords: Snow-melt runoff, Agriculture, Neurodegenerative disease
Write your abstract last. Once the introduction, literature review, methodology, and conclusion are finished, you understand your own project well enough to summarize it accurately in one paragraph.
02 Introduction
Establish the focus and purpose of the review, define your topic, and set your scope. This is where your thesis statement lives. Anything you are deliberately leaving out gets mentioned here too.
Background and context
Lead the reader into the topic, then explain why it matters.
Stress affects people.
Chronic stress is increasingly recognized as a major public health concern, affecting millions of adolescents worldwide. During adolescence the brain undergoes rapid structural and functional development, making this period particularly vulnerable to prolonged activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest chronic stress may alter the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, potentially leading to long-term cognitive and emotional consequences.
Use subheadings for structure
1. Introduction
1.1 What is chronic stress?
- Definition
- Biological stress response
- Difference between acute and chronic stress
1.2 Implications of chronic stress during adolescence
- Why adolescence is a sensitive period
- Brain regions undergoing development
- Prevalence among teenagers
1.3 Research problem
- Describe what is known and what remains unknown
1.4 Research question and objectives
- Present your research question, hypothesis, and objectives
1.5 Significance of the study
- Why it is worth studying
Scope of the review
Explain exactly what the review will focus on.
This review examines studies investigating the effects of chronic stress on adolescent brain development, with particular attention to structural brain changes and sex-specific differences.
Purpose
Explain why and how the review is being conducted.
The purpose of this review is to synthesize current findings, identify areas of agreement and disagreement, and highlight gaps requiring further investigation, using sources such as Google Scholar and PubMed.
03 Literature review
Summarize, compare, and critique the most relevant scholarly sources on your topic. There are many ways to structure this section, but it should always explore three things.
Key concepts, theories, and studies
- Compare, contrast, and establish the theories and concepts most important to your project
- Imply why these concepts matter for your experimental design
Key debates and controversies
- Identify points of conflict and situate your own position — your opinions, and the factors that influenced your choice of methodology
Gaps in existing knowledge
- Show what is missing and how your project fits in
- State this clearly — it is what justifies a research proposal
Organize by theme, not by paper
- Study A found…
- Study B found…
- Study C found…
Group findings under thematic subheadings and compare studies inside each one.
2.1 Renewable energy adoption
- Compare studies examining factors influencing the adoption of renewable energy technologies
2.2 Government policies
- Compare different policy approaches and their effectiveness
2.3 Remaining gaps and future challenges
- Explain what researchers still do not know, and the unresolved questions around implementation and long-term sustainability
Introduction vs. literature review
These two sections are often confused. They do different jobs.
| Introduction | Literature review |
|---|---|
| Introduces the reader to the topic | Critically analyzes previous research |
| Broad overview | In-depth discussion |
| Explains why the topic matters | Explains what researchers have found, where they disagree, and what remains unknown |
| Ends with the research question | Ends with the research gap that justifies your study |
Use APA 7 for references and in-text citations, and cite every piece of information you take from a source.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit (Smith et al., 2024).
04 Discussion
The discussion brings the literature together. It does not introduce new studies.
Discuss
- Overall trends
- Agreements among researchers
- Conflicting findings
- Strengths and weaknesses of existing evidence
- What these findings collectively suggest
When you are handling a lot of data or information, a table compiles it visually and keeps the section organized.
05 Conclusion
Your last chance to summarize the major findings of the review, without introducing anything new.
A strong conclusion answers
- What does the literature tell us overall?
- What gaps remain?
- Why do those gaps matter?
- What are the implications, applications, or future research directions?
- Introducing entirely new evidence or sources
- Repeating the introduction word for word
- Listing findings without explaining their importance
06 References
Always APA 7.
- Only include sources you actually cited
- In-text citations are required throughout the proposal itself
Keegan, J. (1999). The First World War. Alfred A. Knopf.
07 Pro tips
Don't write one paragraph per article
Compare multiple studies within each section instead.
Focus on synthesis, not summary
Your job is to explain what the research collectively shows.
Use transitions to connect studies
Similarly. In contrast. However. Conversely.
Connect every section back to your purpose
If a paragraph doesn't serve your research question, it doesn't belong.
08 Checklist
Run through this before you submit. Your ticks are saved in this browser.