What a review of related literature is, and how to build one

A review of related literature (RRL) sums up what's already known about your question and shows where your own work fits. It isn't a list of summaries. It's an argument about the state of the research: what's settled, what's disputed, and what hasn't been studied yet.

What it's for

• Showing that you know the main work on your topic
• Explaining the ideas and methods your study builds on
• Pointing out the gap your study fills

From papers to a draft

Start by collecting more papers than you need, then narrow down to the ones that bear directly on your question. For each, note what it asked, how it was done, what it found, and how it relates to the others.

Next, group them. Papers that answer the same part of your question belong together, whatever order you found them in. Each group becomes a section. Within a section, compare the papers: where they agree, where they don't, and why.

End each section, and the review as a whole, with what's still missing. That gap is the bridge to your own study.

Common mistakes

• Describing papers one by one instead of comparing them
• Leaving out studies that disagree with you
• Citing a paper for a claim it doesn't make
• Stopping at a summary without naming the gap