Explain to your reader why you made a decision to research this topic, problem, or issue, and why research that is such needed. Explain any “gaps” in the current research on this topic, and explain how your quest contributes to closing that gap.

Whilst not always required, the literature review can be an important part of your introduction. It gives an overview of relevant research in your discipline. Its goal would be to provide a scholarly context for your research question, and explain how your own research fits into that context. A literature review is certainly not merely a summary of the sources you’ve found for the paper—it should synthesize the information gathered from those sources so that you can demonstrate that work still should be done.

Explain your selection criteria early on—why do you choose all of your sources? The literature review should only make reference to work that affects your unique question.Læs mere→