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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.   

Here’s how to use the Research feature:  

• Ask a question: Get started with a new document on paperpal.com. Click on the “Research” feature and type your question in plain English. Paperpal will scour over 250 million research articles, including conference papers and preprints, to provide you with accurate insights and citations. 
• 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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• What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

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.

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 summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

Why write 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, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will 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 scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

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 objectives and questions .

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. 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 if 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 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 use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

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.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

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?
• How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
• 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 find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

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’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference 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.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

To begin organising your literature review’s argument and structure, you need to 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 organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

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 summarising sources in order.

Try to analyse 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 organise 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.

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

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, make sure to follow these tips:

• Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
• Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations, 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 transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

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

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

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 dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

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

• To familiarise 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  dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

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Literature Reviews

• Getting started

What is a literature review?

Why conduct a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these books.

• Types of reviews
• 1. Define your research question
• 2. Plan your search
• 3. Search the literature
• 4. Organize your results
• 5. Synthesize your findings
• 6. Write the review
• Artificial intelligence (AI) tools
• Thompson Writing Studio This link opens in a new window
• Need to write a systematic review? This link opens in a new window

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Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing scholarly research on a specific topic or subject.

Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge within a particular field.

Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature.

Identifying Gaps: Aims to pinpoint areas where there is a lack of research or unresolved questions, highlighting opportunities for further investigation.

Contextualization: Enables researchers to understand how their work fits into the broader academic conversation and contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

tl;dr  A literature review critically examines and synthesizes existing scholarly research and publications on a specific topic to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge in the field.

What is a literature review NOT?

❌ An annotated bibliography

❌ Original research

❌ A summary

❌ Something to be conducted at the end of your research

❌ An opinion piece

❌ A chronological compilation of studies

The reason for conducting a literature review is to:

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

While this 9-minute video from NCSU is geared toward graduate students, it is useful for anyone conducting a literature review.

Writing the literature review: A practical guide

Available 3rd floor of Perkins

Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences

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So, you have to write a literature review: A guided workbook for engineers

Telling a research story: Writing a literature review

The literature review: Six steps to success

Systematic approaches to a successful literature review

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How to write an undergraduate university dissertation

Writing a dissertation is a daunting task, but these tips will help you prepare for all the common challenges students face before deadline day.

Grace McCabe

Writing a dissertation is one of the most challenging aspects of university. However, it is the chance for students to demonstrate what they have learned during their degree and to explore a topic in depth.

In this article, we look at 10 top tips for writing a successful dissertation and break down how to write each section of a dissertation in detail.

10 tips for writing an undergraduate dissertation

1. Select an engaging topic Choose a subject that aligns with your interests and allows you to showcase the skills and knowledge you have acquired through your degree.

2. Research your supervisor Undergraduate students will often be assigned a supervisor based on their research specialisms. Do some research on your supervisor and make sure that they align with your dissertation goals.

3. Understand the dissertation structure Familiarise yourself with the structure (introduction, review of existing research, methodology, findings, results and conclusion). This will vary based on your subject.

4. Write a schedule As soon as you have finalised your topic and looked over the deadline, create a rough plan of how much work you have to do and create mini-deadlines along the way to make sure don’t find yourself having to write your entire dissertation in the final few weeks.

5. Determine requirements Ensure that you know which format your dissertation should be presented in. Check the word count and the referencing style.

6. Organise references from the beginning Maintain an alphabetically arranged reference list or bibliography in the designated style as you do your reading. This will make it a lot easier to finalise your references at the end.

7. Create a detailed plan Once you have done your initial research and have an idea of the shape your dissertation will take, write a detailed essay plan outlining your research questions, SMART objectives and dissertation structure.

8. Keep a dissertation journal Track your progress, record your research and your reading, and document challenges. This will be helpful as you discuss your work with your supervisor and organise your notes.

9. Schedule regular check-ins with your supervisor Make sure you stay in touch with your supervisor throughout the process, scheduling regular meetings and keeping good notes so you can update them on your progress.

10. Employ effective proofreading techniques Ask friends and family to help you proofread your work or use different fonts to help make the text look different. This will help you check for missing sections, grammatical mistakes and typos.

What is a dissertation?

A dissertation is a long piece of academic writing or a research project that you have to write as part of your undergraduate university degree.

It’s usually a long essay in which you explore your chosen topic, present your ideas and show that you understand and can apply what you’ve learned during your studies. Informally, the terms “dissertation” and “thesis” are often used interchangeably.

How do I select a dissertation topic?

First, choose a topic that you find interesting. You will be working on your dissertation for several months, so finding a research topic that you are passionate about and that demonstrates your strength in your subject is best. You want your topic to show all the skills you have developed during your degree. It would be a bonus if you can link your work to your chosen career path, but it’s not necessary.

Second, begin by exploring relevant literature in your field, including academic journals, books and articles. This will help you identify gaps in existing knowledge and areas that may need further exploration. You may not be able to think of a truly original piece of research, but it’s always good to know what has already been written about your chosen topic.

Consider the practical aspects of your chosen topic, ensuring that it is possible within the time frame and available resources. Assess the availability of data, research materials and the overall practicality of conducting the research.

When picking a dissertation topic, you also want to try to choose something that adds new ideas or perspectives to what’s already known in your field. As you narrow your focus, remember that a more targeted approach usually leads to a dissertation that’s easier to manage and has a bigger impact. Be ready to change your plans based on feedback and new information you discover during your research.

How to work with your dissertation supervisor?

Your supervisor is there to provide guidance on your chosen topic, direct your research efforts, and offer assistance and suggestions when you have queries. It’s crucial to establish a comfortable and open line of communication with them throughout the process. Their knowledge can greatly benefit your work. Keep them informed about your progress, seek their advice, and don’t hesitate to ask questions.

1. Keep them updated Regularly tell your supervisor how your work is going and if you’re having any problems. You can do this through emails, meetings or progress reports.

2. Plan meetings Schedule regular meetings with your supervisor. These can be in person or online. These are your time to discuss your progress and ask for help.

3. Share your writing Give your supervisor parts of your writing or an outline. This helps them see what you’re thinking so they can advise you on how to develop it.

5. Ask specific questions When you need help, ask specific questions instead of general ones. This makes it easier for your supervisor to help you.

6. Listen to feedback Be open to what your supervisor says. If they suggest changes, try to make them. It makes your dissertation better and shows you can work together.

7. Talk about problems If something is hard or you’re worried, talk to your supervisor about it. They can give you advice or tell you where to find help.

8. Take charge Be responsible for your work. Let your supervisor know if your plans change, and don’t wait if you need help urgently.

Remember, talking openly with your supervisor helps you both understand each other better, improves your dissertation and ensures that you get the support you need.

How to write a successful research piece at university How to choose a topic for your dissertation Tips for writing a convincing thesis

How do I plan my dissertation?

It’s important to start with a detailed plan that will serve as your road map throughout the entire process of writing your dissertation. As Jumana Labib, a master’s student at the University of Manchester  studying digital media, culture and society, suggests: “Pace yourself – definitely don’t leave the entire thing for the last few days or weeks.”

Decide what your research question or questions will be for your chosen topic.

Break that down into smaller SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objectives.

Speak to your supervisor about any overlooked areas.

Create a breakdown of chapters using the structure listed below (for example, a methodology chapter).

Define objectives, key points and evidence for each chapter.

Define your research approach (qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods).

Outline your research methods and analysis techniques.

Develop a timeline with regular moments for review and feedback.

Allocate time for revision, editing and breaks.

Consider any ethical considerations related to your research.

Stay organised and add to your references and bibliography throughout the process.

Remain flexible to possible reviews or changes as you go along.

A well thought-out plan not only makes the writing process more manageable but also increases the likelihood of producing a high-quality piece of research.

How to structure a dissertation?

The structure can depend on your field of study, but this is a rough outline for science and social science dissertations:

Introduce your topic.

Complete a source or literature review.

Describe your research methodology (including the methods for gathering and filtering information, analysis techniques, materials, tools or resources used, limitations of your method, and any considerations of reliability).

Summarise your findings.

Discuss the results and what they mean.

Conclude your point and explain how your work contributes to your field.

On the other hand, humanities and arts dissertations often take the form of an extended essay. This involves constructing an argument or exploring a particular theory or analysis through the analysis of primary and secondary sources. Your essay will be structured through chapters arranged around themes or case studies.

All dissertations include a title page, an abstract and a reference list. Some may also need a table of contents at the beginning. Always check with your university department for its dissertation guidelines, and check with your supervisor as you begin to plan your structure to ensure that you have the right layout.

How long is an undergraduate dissertation?

The length of an undergraduate dissertation can vary depending on the specific guidelines provided by your university and your subject department. However, in many cases, undergraduate dissertations are typically about 8,000 to 12,000 words in length.

“Eat away at it; try to write for at least 30 minutes every day, even if it feels relatively unproductive to you in the moment,” Jumana advises.

How do I add references to my dissertation?

References are the section of your dissertation where you acknowledge the sources you have quoted or referred to in your writing. It’s a way of supporting your ideas, evidencing what research you have used and avoiding plagiarism (claiming someone else’s work as your own), and giving credit to the original authors.

Referencing typically includes in-text citations and a reference list or bibliography with full source details. Different referencing styles exist, such as Harvard, APA and MLA, each favoured in specific fields. Your university will tell you the preferred style.

Using tools and guides provided by universities can make the referencing process more manageable, but be sure they are approved by your university before using any.

How do I write a bibliography or list my references for my dissertation?

The requirement of a bibliography depends on the style of referencing you need to use. Styles such as OSCOLA or Chicago may not require a separate bibliography. In these styles, full source information is often incorporated into footnotes throughout the piece, doing away with the need for a separate bibliography section.

Typically, reference lists or bibliographies are organised alphabetically based on the author’s last name. They usually include essential details about each source, providing a quick overview for readers who want more information. Some styles ask that you include references that you didn’t use in your final piece as they were still a part of the overall research.

It is important to maintain this list as soon as you start your research. As you complete your research, you can add more sources to your bibliography to ensure that you have a comprehensive list throughout the dissertation process.

How to proofread an undergraduate dissertation?

Throughout your dissertation writing, attention to detail will be your greatest asset. The best way to avoid making mistakes is to continuously proofread and edit your work.

Proofreading is a great way to catch any missing sections, grammatical errors or typos. There are many tips to help you proofread:

Ask someone to read your piece and highlight any mistakes they find.

Change the font so you notice any mistakes.

Format your piece as you go, headings and sections will make it easier to spot any problems.

Separate editing and proofreading. Editing is your chance to rewrite sections, add more detail or change any points. Proofreading should be where you get into the final touches, really polish what you have and make sure it’s ready to be submitted.

Stick to your citation style and make sure every resource listed in your dissertation is cited in the reference list or bibliography.

How to write a conclusion for my dissertation?

Writing a dissertation conclusion is your chance to leave the reader impressed by your work.

Start by summarising your findings, highlighting your key points and the outcome of your research. Refer back to the original research question or hypotheses to provide context to your conclusion.

You can then delve into whether you achieved the goals you set at the beginning and reflect on whether your research addressed the topic as expected. Make sure you link your findings to existing literature or sources you have included throughout your work and how your own research could contribute to your field.

Be honest about any limitations or issues you faced during your research and consider any questions that went unanswered that you would consider in the future. Make sure that your conclusion is clear and concise, and sum up the overall impact and importance of your work.

Remember, keep the tone confident and authoritative, avoiding the introduction of new information. This should simply be a summary of everything you have already said throughout the dissertation.

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Literature reviews

Writing a literature review.

The following guide has been created for you by the  Student Learning Advisory Service . For more detailed guidance and to speak to one of our advisers, please book an  appointment  or join one of our  workshops . Alternatively, have a look at our  SkillBuilder  skills videos.   

Preparing a literature review involves:

• Searching for reliable, accurate and up-to-date material on a topic or subject
• Reading and summarising the key points from this literature
• Synthesising these key ideas, theories and concepts into a summary of what is known
• Discussing and evaluating these ideas, theories and concepts
• Identifying particular areas of debate or controversy
• Preparing the ground for the application of these ideas to new research

Finding and choosing material

Ensure you are clear on what you are looking for. ask yourself:.

• What is the specific question, topic or focus of my assignment?
• What kind of material do I need (e.g. theory, policy, empirical data)?
• What type of literature is available (e.g. journals, books, government documents)?

What kind of literature is particularly authoritative in this academic discipline (e.g. psychology, sociology, pharmacy)?

How much do you need?

This will depend on the length of the dissertation, the nature of the subject, and the level of study (undergraduate, Masters, PhD). As a very rough rule of thumb – you may choose 8-10 significant pieces (books and/or articles) for an 8,000 word dissertation, up to 20 major pieces of work for 12-15,000 words, and so on. Bear in mind that if your dissertation is based mainly around an interaction with existing scholarship you will need a longer literature review than if it is there as a prelude to new empirical research. Use your judgement or ask your supervisor for guidance.

Where to find suitable material

Your literature review should include a balance between substantial academic books, journal articles and other scholarly publications. All these sources should be as up-to-date as possible, with the exception of ‘classic texts’ such as major works written by leading scholars setting out formative ideas and theories central to your subject. There are several ways to locate suitable material:

Module bibliography: for undergraduate dissertations, look first at the bibliography provided with the module documentation. Choose one or two likely looking books or articles and then scan through the bibliographies provided by these authors. Skim read some of this material looking for clues: can you use these leads to identify key theories and authors or track down other appropriate material?

Library catalogue search engine: enter a few key words to capture a range of items, but avoid over-generalisations; if you type in something as broad as ‘social theory’ you are likely to get several thousand results. Be more specific: for example, ‘Heidegger, existentialism’. Ideally, you should narrow the field to obtain just a few dozen results. Skim through these quickly to identity texts which are most likely to contribute to your study.

Library bookshelves: browse the library shelves in the relevant subject area and examine the books that catch your eye. Check the contents and index pages, or skim through the introductions (or abstracts, in the case of journal articles) to see if they contain relevant material, and replace them if not. Don’t be afraid to ask one of the subject librarians for further help. Your supervisor may also be able to point you in the direction of some of the important literature , but remember this is your literature search, not theirs.

Online: for recent journal articles you will almost certainly need to use one of the online search engines. These can be found on the ‘Indexing Services’ button on the Templeman Library website. Kent students based at Medway still need to use the Templeman pages to access online journals, although you can get to these pages through the Drill Hall Library catalogue. Take a look as well at the Subject Guides on both the Templeman and DHL websites.

Check that you have made the right selection by asking:

• Has my search been wide enough to ensure that I have identified all the relevant material, but narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material?
• Is there a good enough sample of literature for the level (PhD, Masters, undergraduate) of my dissertation or thesis?
• Have I considered as many alternative points of view as possible?
• Will the reader find my literature review relevant and useful?

Assessing the literature

Read the material you have chosen carefully, considering the following:

• The key point discussed by the author: is this clearly defined
• What evidence has the author produced to support this central idea?
• How convincing are the reasons given for the author’s point of view?
• Could the evidence be interpreted in other ways?
• What is the author's research method (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, experimental, etc.)?
• What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g. psychological, developmental, feminist)?
• What is the relationship assumed by the author between theory and practice?
• Has the author critically evaluated the other literature in the field?
• Does the author include literature opposing their point of view?
• Is the research data based on a reliable method and accurate information?
• Can you ‘deconstruct’ the argument – identify the gaps or jumps in the logic?
• What are the strengths and limitations of this study?
• What does this book or article contribute to the field or topic?
• What does this book or article contribute to my own topic or thesis?

As you note down the key content of each book or journal article (together with the reference details of each source) record your responses to these questions. You will then be able to summarise each piece of material from two perspectives:     

Content: a brief description of the content of the book or article. Remember, an author will often make just one key point; so, what is the point they are making, and how does it relate to your own research project or assignment?

Critical analysis: an assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the evidence used, and the arguments presented. Has anything conveniently been left out or skated over? Is there a counter-argument, and has the author dealt with this adequately? Can the evidence presented be interpreted another way? Does the author demonstrate any obvious bias which could affect their reliability? Overall, based on the above analysis of the author’s work, how do you evaluate its contribution to the scholarly understanding and knowledge surrounding the topic?    

Structuring the literature review

In a PhD thesis, the literature review typically comprises one chapter (perhaps 8-10,000 words), for a Masters dissertation it may be around 2-3,000 words, and for an undergraduate dissertation it may be no more than 2,000 words. In each case the word count can vary depending on a range of factors and it is always best, if in doubt, to ask your supervisor.

The overall structure of the section or chapter should be like any other: it should have a beginning, middle and end. You will need to guide the reader through the literature review, outlining the strategy you have adopted for selecting the books or articles, presenting the topic theme for the review, then using most of the word limit to analyse the chosen books or articles thoroughly before pulling everything together briefly in the conclusion.

Some people prefer a less linear approach. Instead of simply working through a list of 8-20 items on your book review list, you might want to try a thematic approach, grouping key ideas, facts, concepts or approaches together and then bouncing the ideas off each other. This is a slightly more creative (and interesting) way of producing the review, but a little more risky as it is harder to establish coherence and logical sequencing.

Whichever approach you adopt, make sure everything flows smoothly – that one idea or book leads neatly to the next. Take your reader effortlessly through a sequence of thought that is clear, accurate, precise and interesting. 

Writing up your literature review

As with essays generally, only attempt to write up the literature review when you have completed all the reading and note-taking, and carefully planned its content and structure. Find an appropriate way of introducing the review, then guide the reader through the material clearly and directly, bearing in mind the following:

• Be selective in the number of points you draw out from each piece of literature; remember that one of your objectives is to demonstrate that you can use your judgement to identify what is central and what is secondary.
• Summarise and synthesise – use your own words to sum up what you think is important or controversial about the book or article.
• Never claim more than the evidence will support. Too many dissertations and theses are let down by sweeping generalisations. Be tentative and careful in the way you interpret the evidence.
• Keep your own voice – you are entitled to your own point of view provided it is based on evidence and clear argument.
• At the same time, aim to project an objective and tentative tone by using the 3rd person, (for example, ‘this tends to suggest’, ‘it could be argued’ and so on).
• Even with a literature review you should avoid using too many, or overlong, quotes. Summarise material in your own words as much as possible. Save the quotes for ‘punch-lines’ to drive a particular point home.
• Revise, revise, revise: refine and edit the draft as much as you can. Check for fluency, structure, evidence, criticality and referencing, and don’t forget the basics of good grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Enter Search Terms

Filter search..., search help.

Use the search box to search the library's information resources. To limit your search to journals, articles etc., click the dropdown menu and select one of the options

Articles: Your search is limited to articles from journals. From your search results you can further drill down the results by using the facets in the left menu such as peer-review and online availability.

Books: This option retrieves e-books and printed books only.

Journals: Use this option if you are looking for a specific journal. The majority of our journals are available online. You can narrow your search results by using the facets in the left menu. If you prefer to search for journal titles in an alphabetically sorted list, please use the Journals A-Z .

Databases : Enter words from the database title. In the Database search you may browse by name, subject areas or type of content.

ePrints & eThesis : Choose this filter to search for Maynooth University theses .

Need more help? Go to search services to find search tips and additional links.

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How can this guide help me?

This section of the guide is designed to help and support students undertaking an undergraduate thesis by providing them with guidance, information and resources that will help them to successfully complete their thesis. Undertaking a large piece of writing can be daunting, but it also presents a great opportunity for students to contribute to their field of study and share their recommendations and findings to the wider academic community. 

Take a look at our suggested sources for finding high quality academic information, our tools for organising and managing your information, and our top tips for successfully writing your thesis!

Finding Academic Information and Quality Sources

No matter what you are searching for, the ability to distinguish between primary and secondary source material is essential.

Primary sources are documents, images or items that provide a first-hand account or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. Primary sources allow you to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.

Secondary sources are documents written after an event has happened. They provide second-hand accounts of that event, person, or topic. Secondary sources offer different perspectives, analysis, and conclusions of those primary accounts.

Examples of Primary v Secondary Sources

Primary Source Databases

Examples of Primary Source Database

ARTstor - A digital library of approximately 700,000 images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.

British Periodicals I - IV - Access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

Gale Primary Sources -  Search together, any combination of: British Library Newspapers, Dublin Castle Records, Economist Historical Archive, 1843- , Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926, Northern Ireland: A Divided Community, Times Digital Archive.

Proquest Primary Sources Collections The areas covered include Anthropology; Film and Media Studies; Global Studies; History; Philosophy and Religion; and Women and Gender Studies.

Use this link to see a list of all of our databases. Use the dropdown menu labelled "All Subjects" to sort by a specific subject. 

Secondary Source Databases

Secondary Source Database Examples

Academic Search Complete - Multidisciplinary database covering a large range of material in the social sciences and humanities. It includes over 21,000 journals and other publications.

JSTOR - Journal Storage Database - full text archival database covering over 2,500 scholarly journals in the areas of arts & humanities, social sciences and scienceAccess to the following collections: Ireland Collection, Arts and Sciences I to VIII, and the Life Sciences Collection.

Taylor & Francis Journals - Full-text electronic access to over 1000 Taylor & Francis titles. This is a multidisciplinary resource including arts, humanities, science and social sciences.

The Writing Process: Our Top Tips!

Setting Writing Deadlines

When beginning a lengthy piece of writing, it can be difficult to manage your time and stay on track. Therefore, it can be helpful to set small deadlines throughout the writing process and focus on individual sections. Deadlines can provide you with a sense of reassurance by allowing you to plan your level of productivity and manage your time efficiently. Setting deadlines also ensures that you spend an equal amount of time on each section as opposed to dedicating too much time to one over another. 

Using headings / Sub-headings in a logical format

As your thesis is a much longer piece of writing than a standard essay, it is recommended that you use headings and sub-headings to help structure and organise your writing and make your arguments clear and coherent for the reader. Headings can be anything from a theme you identified in the literature, to a pattern of results recognised in your own research. Sub-themes are used to elaborate or broaden the scope of a particular topic, but it is recommended that you refrain from using too many as it can become confusing for both the reader and writer. 

Thematic structuring: Identifying key themes or patterns within the literature 

Throughout the literature review process, various themes, patterns, and concepts emerge from the literature around your specific research topic. Themes can also emerge from your findings if you have used a methodology to investigate your topic further. In either case, reoccurring themes can help you to structure the body of your thesis and formulate logical and cohesive arguments when writing. 

Compare & contrast: Illustrate critical analysis and avoid summarising

One of the most important elements of a thesis is to synthesise your arguments as opposed to summarising them. To synthesise is to compare and contrast the various views evident within the body of literature in order to formulate your own opinions or stance on a particular subject. If opposing views and arguments are evident in your writing, it shows that a broad scope of literature has been consulted and an in-depth and critical analysis has been carried out on your research topic. Making strong comparisons between studies and findings illustrates to the reader that you have evaluated the literature thoroughly to develop your own findings or conclusions on the research topic. 

Using your voice: Supporting your arguments with evidence / references

While your thesis is compromised of past and current literature, it should also contain your our own voice and views with supported evidence and references. As your ideas can often develop from reading an extensive amount of literature on your research topic, if can become unclear whether an idea or view is one of your own or one presented in the literature. In this case, we recommend that you cite when you are in doubt! 

Concluding; Your contributions, findings and recommendations

When writing the concluding section of your thesis, make sure you re-visit the key points discussed in the introductory section, the observations you have made throughout the thesis, and outline clearly your own assessment of the literature, research and findings. 

• What you intended to find out / investigate 
• Your findings / results 
• Your own assessment of the findings and literature (Your contribution & recommendations)

Your concluding paragraph also offers you a great opportunity to share your knowledge of the field with the academic community and contribute to the current body of research. Presenting your own findings and proposing recommendations on your research topic means that you are taking part in the 'scholarly debate' and participating in the ongoing scholarly conversation within the field. 

References & appendices 

While bibliographies and references are not usually included as part of the word count of your thesis, in-text citations are included. It is extremely important that all references (in-text and within the bibliography) are cited correctly and in the correct format/style of your department. If you are including live links or doi's, it is important that each one works correctly in case the reader would like to locate a particular reference. See Saving and Managing your Sources section  for additional information. 

Lastly, the appendices can be used to share additional work or supplementary information that supports your overall thesis. This can be interview transcripts, maps, photographs or any kind of content carried out throughout the research process. 

Saving and Managing your References

Reasons to reference

Referencing is a crucial aspect of your thesis and therefore an essential part of the writing process. Your thesis should reflect that you can conduct research, locate suitable sources, analyse and critically review the findings and reference them appropriately. 

Academic writing & referencing

Good academic writing requires students to use their own voice to critically analyse/argue their viewpoint, with supporting evidence from the literature and by using referencing. Referencing helps you to avoid plagiarism, shows your understanding of the topic, gives evidence for what you are saying in your writing and allows others to see what sources you used. Find more information here on academic writing  and referencing .

Reference Management Tools

Reference Management Software

Reference management software gathers, stores & formats your references, creates in-text citations/footnotes for you. The Library provides access to the following reference management software: Refworks , Endnote Online and Endnote Desktop . There are other software products freely available such as Zotero and Mendeley . Find out more about these products and others here . Find links to our training videos below:

Endnote Online

Endnote Desktop

Your objective in writing a thesis is to create a piece of original and scholarly research to add to the body of knowledge in your subject area. A good place to start, is to find out what has been written in other theses. You can see what has been written, the writing style, how it was structured, research methods, and which references were used.

You can do this by searching for theses like your proposed topic in several places. The Find a Thesis guide will advise on how to search theses from Maynooth University, UK & Ireland and International sites.

Do you need further support?

If you are looking for further help or support with your undergraduate thesis, you can contact one of our Teaching Librarians from the Teaching & Research Development Team Guide here . 

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The Literature Review: A Guide for Undergraduates

This guide provides undergraduate students with an introduction to writing a literature review. It will explain several things: what a literature review is, what it includes and how you should approach researching and writing it. As you have probably not had to write one before, you may be asking yourself: what is a literature review? Don’t panic! Think of it as a writing task with a specific objective and purpose: to show your tutor or lecturer that you have read, synthesised and understood the scholarly writings on a particular topic. To introduce you to the task, you may be asked to write a literature review as a separate assignment. Developing your skills in this area is an important part of your academic career: if you go on to do an Honours or postgraduate degree, the literature review will form a vital part of your research.

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review outlines and evaluates the available literature that has been produced on a given topic or theme by scholars and researchers. A literature review differs from similar exercises (such as annotated bibliographies or critical analyses of primary and secondary sources) in several ways.

The literature review does not just describe a text or an academic’s body of work: it examines and evaluates that work critically in relation to other works on the same topic. The focus of a literature review is governed and guided by an overarching research question, theme, argument or topic.

By synthesising the body of work that is relevant to a particular topic in this way, the literature review establishes the available knowledge on a topic, defines the strengths and weaknesses of different works, and can help you to identify the main scholarly arguments, debates, research gaps and approaches relevant to the topic.

What Sources Are Included in a Literature Review?

The literature reviewed can include (but is not limited to) academic journal articles, books and book chapters, monographs, conference proceedings, scientific reports and theses (dissertations). For undergraduate literature reviews, you would usually only be expected to read journal articles, books and book chapters. For a literature review assignment, you may be asked to read between three to seven scholarly texts (or more, if you are a third-year student).

It is vital that the literature included in a review is of an academic standard. This means that the text has been written by an academic. The texts you choose to assess normally should have been through a peer-review process , because peer-reviewed academic sources are even higher-quality than other academic sources, and it will have been made available through a reputable academic publisher.

Although many academic journals and digital versions of scholarly books are now available online, information available on general websites and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, for example, is not considered appropriate material for academic research.

In some disciplines—such as science or computer technology—it will be important to include only contemporary or relatively recent research; in other disciplines—such as ancient history or philosophy—the relevant literature may encompass much earlier texts.

Researching Your Literature Review

First steps.

The first step in your research is to determine the specific question, topic or problem that your literature review will focus on (if a topic or question hasn’t been provided to you by your lecturer or tutor). This will help you undertake relevant keyword searches in the databases available through your university’s library or other appropriate sources. You can also use the reference lists in your course readings to locate relevant source material.

An important second step, even before you begin your research, is to write a rough plan, much like you would for a research essay. Identify some key themes or concepts that you can use to structure your review. This might involve writing subheadings ordered in a logical manner. This outline can then be used to structure the review. List each relevant text (including the bibliographic information) under each subheading and write a topic sentence for each group. Some texts may be included under several subheadings. You’ll develop this rough plan as you research and will finalise it before you begin writing.

Research Strategies and Tasks

When you are ready to read the literature you have collected, do so with some specific strategies (different types of academic reading) and questions in mind, and keep notes as you read.

Skim Reading

Skim reading is useful for identifying the relevance of an article or book to your research. For an article, read the abstract, introduction and conclusion and then skim over the headings and subheadings to get an impression of the article’s focus. With a book, you may need to read the introductory chapter, as well as skimming over the contents.

Focused Reading

Once you have determined that a text is suitable for your literature review, you can then read it more thoroughly—this is focused reading—and take systematic notes (including the bibliographic information) as you do this. This is when you read with particular questions in your mind. What question has the author posed? What issue has the author identified? How has the author established the scope and relevance of their particular work? Does the author have a particular theoretical perspective or research methodology? In what historical and social context is the author writing? What information has the author included or omitted? Is the author’s writing clear and the arguments well structured?

Note-Taking

Make sure you take effective notes while reading: information on note-taking strategies is available online, and you will need to use the one you are most comfortable with. We recommend that you always use a research document when making notes, so that your research will be well organised and in an easy-to-use format when you begin writing your literature review. Our guide to essay writing explains how to organise and use a research document .

Writing the Literature Review

Remember that the literature review does not just summarise the texts you have chosen. Instead, it offers a critical analysis of the texts, which is a vital element of academic debate. Writing an effective critical analysis of the scholarly literature involves several steps and academic skills.

Finalise Your Plan

The form of your literature review will depend—to some extent—on why you are writing one. For undergraduates, you may have been asked to write a standalone literature review to establish your knowledge and understanding of a particular topic or field of enquiry. A standalone literature review should be structured like a standard research essay , with an introduction, discussion paragraphs and a conclusion. You can organise the literature review in several ways: chronologically, thematically or from the most to the least important works. When compiling the works to include in your literature review, make sure that you record all the relevant bibliographic information for later reference.

Once you’ve completed your research, you can refine and finalise your rough plan into a full and detailed plan to follow while writing your literature review. Use the plan you have developed to help you write in an organised and methodical way. The plan can operate as a checklist so that you do not omit any important texts or ideas you wish to include.

Where to Begin Writing?

Begin your writing by reviewing your notes, identifying key concepts and any direct quotations that you think are important enough to include. As you review your notes, paraphrase the main ideas and arguments from each text, writing out sentences. List the key concepts, direct quotations and paraphrasing under the subheadings (with topic statements) in your plan. By building up a detailed plan (one that resembles a database), you are actually creating the framework for your writing.

Write up your critical and synthesised analysis of the texts listed under each subheading, incorporating your paraphrasing and direct quotations. Remember to use citations where required. Also remember that this first part of writing is called a ‘draft’. Don’t worry too much about perfect grammar, spelling or sentence structure at this point. This phase of writing needs to flow, and you have already created a framework to scaffold your flow of ideas.

Reviewing, Rewriting and Editing

Once you have written a first draft in the way outlined above, you can then review what you have written (after a short break). Compare the draft to your plan and your notes. Have you discussed everything you wanted to? Is there any unnecessary repetition? Have you engaged in an appropriate level of critical analysis of the texts? Do you need to create more synthesis in your analysis?

At this point, you can rewrite the first draft and focus on your sentence structures, the logical flow of your arguments both within and between paragraphs (and across the review overall), your use of citations and your written expression. Be critical of your own writing and argumentation, and analyse your own strengths and weaknesses. The final step is to edit your literature review, looking at grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation, the use of tenses and other elements. Remember that this final editing stage is vital for producing written work that is polished, readable and of a high academic standard.

Skills You Will Develop from Undertaking a Literature Review

Producing a literature review will help you to develop some vital academic skills and demonstrate these skills to your tutor or lecturer. These include:

• Searching the literature for relevant material . This is an important skill required across disciplines. The ability to identify and select appropriate texts efficiently and effectively is a sound basis for all research.
• Critical analysis. This is another vital component of academic research. By critically appraising the texts you include in a literature review, you are showing several things: that you can discern an argument’s flaws or strengths, how effectively an author has used the evidence in making his or her arguments and how valid a particular work may be.
• Focused research. This is required for a literature review, as you would normally be reviewing the material related to a specific question or topic. This type of research requires you to determine what literature is relevant to your topic, so that your approach is specific rather than general. By drilling into the particular focus of your topic, you will be able to explore it in depth, gaining a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding as a result.

We hope that this guide has given you a broad understanding of the literature review and how you research and write one. Please see the other resources available on the Capstone Editing website, along with those available through your university’s library or academic skills services.

Other guides you may be interested in

Essay writing: everything you need to know and nothing you don&rsquo;t&mdash;part 1: how to begin.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about how to organise, research and write an argumentative essay.

Essay Writing Part 2: How to Organise Your Research

Organising your research effectively is a crucial and often overlooked step to successful essay writing.

Located in northeastern New South Wales 200 kilometres south of Brisbane, Lismore offers students a good study–play balance, in a gorgeous sub-tropical climate.

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The administrative hub for Central Queensland, Rockhampton is a popular tourist attraction due to its many national parks and proximity to Great Keppel Island.

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Undergraduate Research

• Literature Review
• The Research Process
• Finding Information
• Evaluating Information
• Citing Your Sources
• Library Liaison Program

What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review is intended to provide an overview of the previous research that has been done on a topic. This research then serves as the basis for you to develop your own hypothesis. A primary reason for conducting a literature review is to ensure that your hypothesis or thesis has not already been completed.This page will provide more information and techniques to guide you through the process of conducting your own literature review. 

Literature Reviews Handout:

This guide is provided by the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hil

Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco Puatasso, in  Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review , sets out some practical guidelines for the literature review:

• Define a topic and audience
• Search and re-search the literature
• Take notes while reading
• Choose the type of review you wish to write
• Keep the review focused, but make it of broad interest
• Be critical and consistent
• Find a logical structure
• Make use of feedback
• Include your own relevant research, but be objective
• Be up-to-date, but do not forget older studies

Pautasso, M. (2013, July). Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. PLoS Computational Biology. pp. 1-4. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003149.

Literature Review Scoring Rubric

This is an example of a method for evaluating the scholarly literature you find, taken from "Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation" by David N. Boote and Penny Beile Educational Researcher 2005 vol 34 issue 3

• Literature Review Scoring Rubrci

What is a Literature Review?

While you should always refer to your instructor's specific assignment guidelines when doing a literature review, you are safe to assume the following are true. A literature review ...

• Summarizes of the major literature on a specific topic showing relationships between theories, studies
• Produces unique observations and flows like any other original academic paper
• Contains central ideas and presents themes with supportive evidence
• It is NOT just a list of articles with summaries, that is an annotated bibliography

A Video Overview of the Literature Review

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Undergraduate Thesis

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Thesis Writing Guides

Getting Started - Topic Selection

Check out our Thesis Finding Aid to see topics previous students have chosen. 

Brainstorm for ideas - what problem(s) might you address through design.

• choose a topic that will enable you to read and understand the literature
• ensure that the topic is manageable and that material is available
• make a list of keywords
• be flexible
• define your topic as a focused research question
• research and read more about your topic
• use your question to formulate a thesis statement

For more ideas check out our guide on How to Write an Academic Paper

Types of Architectural Research

There are many types of research in architecture but they all share the same goal to create new architectural knowledge. The books on this page provide more information on conducting research. Depending on your thesis topic you may choose to apply any research methods, but each thesis includes at a minimum the following:

• Literature Review - A summary and analysis of published sources on the thesis topic that brings the reader up to date with current thinking.
• Case Studies - Built projects relevant to the thesis topic which are analyzed for ideas and inspiration. Usually include images, data, drawings, and description and analysis of the project. 
• Physical model - A scale model physical representation of the design solution intended to demonstrate the space and communicate design ideas. 

Some other approaches include questionnaires, surveys, interviews, site analysis, demographics, digital models, materials research, performativity tests, consumer research, or financial viability. They are all valid. The type of research you do will be determined by your research question. 

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Honors Theses

What this handout is about.

Writing a senior honors thesis, or any major research essay, can seem daunting at first. A thesis requires a reflective, multi-stage writing process. This handout will walk you through those stages. It is targeted at students in the humanities and social sciences, since their theses tend to involve more writing than projects in the hard sciences. Yet all thesis writers may find the organizational strategies helpful.

Introduction

What is an honors thesis.

That depends quite a bit on your field of study. However, all honors theses have at least two things in common:

• They are based on students’ original research.
• They take the form of a written manuscript, which presents the findings of that research. In the humanities, theses average 50-75 pages in length and consist of two or more chapters. In the social sciences, the manuscript may be shorter, depending on whether the project involves more quantitative than qualitative research. In the hard sciences, the manuscript may be shorter still, often taking the form of a sophisticated laboratory report.

Who can write an honors thesis?

In general, students who are at the end of their junior year, have an overall 3.2 GPA, and meet their departmental requirements can write a senior thesis. For information about your eligibility, contact:

• UNC Honors Program
• Your departmental administrators of undergraduate studies/honors

Why write an honors thesis?

Satisfy your intellectual curiosity This is the most compelling reason to write a thesis. Whether it’s the short stories of Flannery O’Connor or the challenges of urban poverty, you’ve studied topics in college that really piqued your interest. Now’s your chance to follow your passions, explore further, and contribute some original ideas and research in your field.

Develop transferable skills Whether you choose to stay in your field of study or not, the process of developing and crafting a feasible research project will hone skills that will serve you well in almost any future job. After all, most jobs require some form of problem solving and oral and written communication. Writing an honors thesis requires that you:

• ask smart questions
• acquire the investigative instincts needed to find answers
• navigate libraries, laboratories, archives, databases, and other research venues
• develop the flexibility to redirect your research if your initial plan flops
• master the art of time management
• hone your argumentation skills
• organize a lengthy piece of writing
• polish your oral communication skills by presenting and defending your project to faculty and peers

Work closely with faculty mentors At large research universities like Carolina, you’ve likely taken classes where you barely got to know your instructor. Writing a thesis offers the opportunity to work one-on-one with a with faculty adviser. Such mentors can enrich your intellectual development and later serve as invaluable references for graduate school and employment.

Open windows into future professions An honors thesis will give you a taste of what it’s like to do research in your field. Even if you’re a sociology major, you may not really know what it’s like to be a sociologist. Writing a sociology thesis would open a window into that world. It also might help you decide whether to pursue that field in graduate school or in your future career.

How do you write an honors thesis?

Get an idea of what’s expected.

It’s a good idea to review some of the honors theses other students have submitted to get a sense of what an honors thesis might look like and what kinds of things might be appropriate topics. Look for examples from the previous year in the Carolina Digital Repository. You may also be able to find past theses collected in your major department or at the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. Pay special attention to theses written by students who share your major.

Choose a topic

Ideally, you should start thinking about topics early in your junior year, so you can begin your research and writing quickly during your senior year. (Many departments require that you submit a proposal for an honors thesis project during the spring of your junior year.)

How should you choose a topic?

• Read widely in the fields that interest you. Make a habit of browsing professional journals to survey the “hot” areas of research and to familiarize yourself with your field’s stylistic conventions. (You’ll find the most recent issues of the major professional journals in the periodicals reading room on the first floor of Davis Library).
• Set up appointments to talk with faculty in your field. This is a good idea, since you’ll eventually need to select an advisor and a second reader. Faculty also can help you start narrowing down potential topics.
• Look at honors theses from the past. The North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library holds UNC honors theses. To get a sense of the typical scope of a thesis, take a look at a sampling from your field.

What makes a good topic?

• It’s fascinating. Above all, choose something that grips your imagination. If you don’t, the chances are good that you’ll struggle to finish.
• It’s doable. Even if a topic interests you, it won’t work out unless you have access to the materials you need to research it. Also be sure that your topic is narrow enough. Let’s take an example: Say you’re interested in the efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and early 1980s. That’s a big topic that probably can’t be adequately covered in a single thesis. You need to find a case study within that larger topic. For example, maybe you’re particularly interested in the states that did not ratify the ERA. Of those states, perhaps you’ll select North Carolina, since you’ll have ready access to local research materials. And maybe you want to focus primarily on the ERA’s opponents. Beyond that, maybe you’re particularly interested in female opponents of the ERA. Now you’ve got a much more manageable topic: Women in North Carolina Who Opposed the ERA in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It contains a question. There’s a big difference between having a topic and having a guiding research question. Taking the above topic, perhaps your main question is: Why did some women in North Carolina oppose the ERA? You will, of course, generate other questions: Who were the most outspoken opponents? White women? Middle-class women? How did they oppose the ERA? Public protests? Legislative petitions? etc. etc. Yet it’s good to start with a guiding question that will focus your research.

Goal-setting and time management

The senior year is an exceptionally busy time for college students. In addition to the usual load of courses and jobs, seniors have the daunting task of applying for jobs and/or graduate school. These demands are angst producing and time consuming If that scenario sounds familiar, don’t panic! Do start strategizing about how to make a time for your thesis. You may need to take a lighter course load or eliminate extracurricular activities. Even if the thesis is the only thing on your plate, you still need to make a systematic schedule for yourself. Most departments require that you take a class that guides you through the honors project, so deadlines likely will be set for you. Still, you should set your own goals for meeting those deadlines. Here are a few suggestions for goal setting and time management:

Start early. Keep in mind that many departments will require that you turn in your thesis sometime in early April, so don’t count on having the entire spring semester to finish your work. Ideally, you’ll start the research process the semester or summer before your senior year so that the writing process can begin early in the fall. Some goal-setting will be done for you if you are taking a required class that guides you through the honors project. But any substantive research project requires a clear timetable.

Set clear goals in making a timetable. Find out the final deadline for turning in your project to your department. Working backwards from that deadline, figure out how much time you can allow for the various stages of production.

Here is a sample timetable. Use it, however, with two caveats in mind:

• The timetable for your thesis might look very different depending on your departmental requirements.
• You may not wish to proceed through these stages in a linear fashion. You may want to revise chapter one before you write chapter two. Or you might want to write your introduction last, not first. This sample is designed simply to help you start thinking about how to customize your own schedule.

Sample timetable

Avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. Once you’ve set goals for yourself, stick to them! For some tips on how to do this, see our handout on procrastination .

Consistent production

It’s a good idea to try to squeeze in a bit of thesis work every day—even if it’s just fifteen minutes of journaling or brainstorming about your topic. Or maybe you’ll spend that fifteen minutes taking notes on a book. The important thing is to accomplish a bit of active production (i.e., putting words on paper) for your thesis every day. That way, you develop good writing habits that will help you keep your project moving forward.

Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself

Since most of you will be taking a required thesis seminar, you will have deadlines. Yet you might want to form a writing group or enlist a peer reader, some person or people who can help you stick to your goals. Moreover, if your advisor encourages you to work mostly independently, don’t be afraid to ask them to set up periodic meetings at which you’ll turn in installments of your project.

Brainstorming and freewriting

One of the biggest challenges of a lengthy writing project is keeping the creative juices flowing. Here’s where freewriting can help. Try keeping a small notebook handy where you jot down stray ideas that pop into your head. Or schedule time to freewrite. You may find that such exercises “free” you up to articulate your argument and generate new ideas. Here are some questions to stimulate freewriting.

Questions for basic brainstorming at the beginning of your project:

• What do I already know about this topic?
• Why do I care about this topic?
• Why is this topic important to people other than myself
• What more do I want to learn about this topic?
• What is the main question that I am trying to answer?
• Where can I look for additional information?
• Who is my audience and how can I reach them?
• How will my work inform my larger field of study?
• What’s the main goal of my research project?

Questions for reflection throughout your project:

• What’s my main argument? How has it changed since I began the project?
• What’s the most important evidence that I have in support of my “big point”?
• What questions do my sources not answer?
• How does my case study inform or challenge my field writ large?
• Does my project reinforce or contradict noted scholars in my field? How?
• What is the most surprising finding of my research?
• What is the most frustrating part of this project?
• What is the most rewarding part of this project?
• What will be my work’s most important contribution?

Research and note-taking

In conducting research, you will need to find both primary sources (“firsthand” sources that come directly from the period/events/people you are studying) and secondary sources (“secondhand” sources that are filtered through the interpretations of experts in your field.) The nature of your research will vary tremendously, depending on what field you’re in. For some general suggestions on finding sources, consult the UNC Libraries tutorials . Whatever the exact nature of the research you’re conducting, you’ll be taking lots of notes and should reflect critically on how you do that. Too often it’s assumed that the research phase of a project involves very little substantive writing (i.e., writing that involves thinking). We sit down with our research materials and plunder them for basic facts and useful quotations. That mechanical type of information-recording is important. But a more thoughtful type of writing and analytical thinking is also essential at this stage. Some general guidelines for note-taking:

First of all, develop a research system. There are lots of ways to take and organize your notes. Whether you choose to use note cards, computer databases, or notebooks, follow two cardinal rules:

• Make careful distinctions between direct quotations and your paraphrasing! This is critical if you want to be sure to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone else’s work. For more on this, see our handout on plagiarism .
• Record full citations for each source. Don’t get lazy here! It will be far more difficult to find the proper citation later than to write it down now.

Keeping those rules in mind, here’s a template for the types of information that your note cards/legal pad sheets/computer files should include for each of your sources:

Abbreviated subject heading: Include two or three words to remind you of what this sources is about (this shorthand categorization is essential for the later sorting of your sources).

Complete bibliographic citation:

• author, title, publisher, copyright date, and page numbers for published works
• box and folder numbers and document descriptions for archival sources
• complete web page title, author, address, and date accessed for online sources

Notes on facts, quotations, and arguments: Depending on the type of source you’re using, the content of your notes will vary. If, for example, you’re using US Census data, then you’ll mainly be writing down statistics and numbers. If you’re looking at someone else’s diary, you might jot down a number of quotations that illustrate the subject’s feelings and perspectives. If you’re looking at a secondary source, you’ll want to make note not just of factual information provided by the author but also of their key arguments.

Your interpretation of the source: This is the most important part of note-taking. Don’t just record facts. Go ahead and take a stab at interpreting them. As historians Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff insist, “A note is a thought.” So what do these thoughts entail? Ask yourself questions about the context and significance of each source.

Interpreting the context of a source:

• Who wrote/created the source?
• When, and under what circumstances, was it written/created?
• Why was it written/created? What was the agenda behind the source?
• How was it written/created?
• If using a secondary source: How does it speak to other scholarship in the field?

Interpreting the significance of a source:

• How does this source answer (or complicate) my guiding research questions?
• Does it pose new questions for my project? What are they?
• Does it challenge my fundamental argument? If so, how?
• Given the source’s context, how reliable is it?

You don’t need to answer all of these questions for each source, but you should set a goal of engaging in at least one or two sentences of thoughtful, interpretative writing for each source. If you do so, you’ll make much easier the next task that awaits you: drafting.

The dread of drafting

Why do we often dread drafting? We dread drafting because it requires synthesis, one of the more difficult forms of thinking and interpretation. If you’ve been free-writing and taking thoughtful notes during the research phase of your project, then the drafting should be far less painful. Here are some tips on how to get started:

Sort your “evidence” or research into analytical categories:

• Some people file note cards into categories.
• The technologically-oriented among us take notes using computer database programs that have built-in sorting mechanisms.
• Others cut and paste evidence into detailed outlines on their computer.
• Still others stack books, notes, and photocopies into topically-arranged piles.There is not a single right way, but this step—in some form or fashion—is essential!

If you’ve been forcing yourself to put subject headings on your notes as you go along, you’ll have generated a number of important analytical categories. Now, you need to refine those categories and sort your evidence. Everyone has a different “sorting style.”

Formulate working arguments for your entire thesis and individual chapters. Once you’ve sorted your evidence, you need to spend some time thinking about your project’s “big picture.” You need to be able to answer two questions in specific terms:

• What is the overall argument of my thesis?
• What are the sub-arguments of each chapter and how do they relate to my main argument?

Keep in mind that “working arguments” may change after you start writing. But a senior thesis is big and potentially unwieldy. If you leave this business of argument to chance, you may end up with a tangle of ideas. See our handout on arguments and handout on thesis statements for some general advice on formulating arguments.

Divide your thesis into manageable chunks. The surest road to frustration at this stage is getting obsessed with the big picture. What? Didn’t we just say that you needed to focus on the big picture? Yes, by all means, yes. You do need to focus on the big picture in order to get a conceptual handle on your project, but you also need to break your thesis down into manageable chunks of writing. For example, take a small stack of note cards and flesh them out on paper. Or write through one point on a chapter outline. Those small bits of prose will add up quickly.

Just start! Even if it’s not at the beginning. Are you having trouble writing those first few pages of your chapter? Sometimes the introduction is the toughest place to start. You should have a rough idea of your overall argument before you begin writing one of the main chapters, but you might find it easier to start writing in the middle of a chapter of somewhere other than word one. Grab hold where you evidence is strongest and your ideas are clearest.

Keep up the momentum! Assuming the first draft won’t be your last draft, try to get your thoughts on paper without spending too much time fussing over minor stylistic concerns. At the drafting stage, it’s all about getting those ideas on paper. Once that task is done, you can turn your attention to revising.

Peter Elbow, in Writing With Power, suggests that writing is difficult because it requires two conflicting tasks: creating and criticizing. While these two tasks are intimately intertwined, the drafting stage focuses on creating, while revising requires criticizing. If you leave your revising to the last minute, then you’ve left out a crucial stage of the writing process. See our handout for some general tips on revising . The challenges of revising an honors thesis may include:

Juggling feedback from multiple readers

A senior thesis may mark the first time that you have had to juggle feedback from a wide range of readers:

• your adviser
• a second (and sometimes third) faculty reader
• the professor and students in your honors thesis seminar

You may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of incorporating all this advice. Keep in mind that some advice is better than others. You will probably want to take most seriously the advice of your adviser since they carry the most weight in giving your project a stamp of approval. But sometimes your adviser may give you more advice than you can digest. If so, don’t be afraid to approach them—in a polite and cooperative spirit, of course—and ask for some help in prioritizing that advice. See our handout for some tips on getting and receiving feedback .

Refining your argument

It’s especially easy in writing a lengthy work to lose sight of your main ideas. So spend some time after you’ve drafted to go back and clarify your overall argument and the individual chapter arguments and make sure they match the evidence you present.

Organizing and reorganizing

Again, in writing a 50-75 page thesis, things can get jumbled. You may find it particularly helpful to make a “reverse outline” of each of your chapters. That will help you to see the big sections in your work and move things around so there’s a logical flow of ideas. See our handout on  organization  for more organizational suggestions and tips on making a reverse outline

Plugging in holes in your evidence

It’s unlikely that you anticipated everything you needed to look up before you drafted your thesis. Save some time at the revising stage to plug in the holes in your research. Make sure that you have both primary and secondary evidence to support and contextualize your main ideas.

Saving time for the small stuff

Even though your argument, evidence, and organization are most important, leave plenty of time to polish your prose. At this point, you’ve spent a very long time on your thesis. Don’t let minor blemishes (misspellings and incorrect grammar) distract your readers!

Formatting and final touches

You’re almost done! You’ve researched, drafted, and revised your thesis; now you need to take care of those pesky little formatting matters. An honors thesis should replicate—on a smaller scale—the appearance of a dissertation or master’s thesis. So, you need to include the “trappings” of a formal piece of academic work. For specific questions on formatting matters, check with your department to see if it has a style guide that you should use. For general formatting guidelines, consult the Graduate School’s Guide to Dissertations and Theses . Keeping in mind the caveat that you should always check with your department first about its stylistic guidelines, here’s a brief overview of the final “finishing touches” that you’ll need to put on your honors thesis:

• Honors Thesis
• Name of Department
• University of North Carolina
• These parts of the thesis will vary in format depending on whether your discipline uses MLA, APA, CBE, or Chicago (also known in its shortened version as Turabian) style. Whichever style you’re using, stick to the rules and be consistent. It might be helpful to buy an appropriate style guide. Or consult the UNC LibrariesYear Citations/footnotes and works cited/reference pages  citation tutorial
• In addition, in the bottom left corner, you need to leave space for your adviser and faculty readers to sign their names. For example:

Approved by: _____________________

Adviser: Prof. Jane Doe

• This is not a required component of an honors thesis. However, if you want to thank particular librarians, archivists, interviewees, and advisers, here’s the place to do it. You should include an acknowledgments page if you received a grant from the university or an outside agency that supported your research. It’s a good idea to acknowledge folks who helped you with a major project, but do not feel the need to go overboard with copious and flowery expressions of gratitude. You can—and should—always write additional thank-you notes to people who gave you assistance.
• Formatted much like the table of contents.
• You’ll need to save this until the end, because it needs to reflect your final pagination. Once you’ve made all changes to the body of the thesis, then type up your table of contents with the titles of each section aligned on the left and the page numbers on which those sections begin flush right.
• Each page of your thesis needs a number, although not all page numbers are displayed. All pages that precede the first page of the main text (i.e., your introduction or chapter one) are numbered with small roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages thereafter use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.).
• Your text should be double spaced (except, in some cases, long excerpts of quoted material), in a 12 point font and a standard font style (e.g., Times New Roman). An honors thesis isn’t the place to experiment with funky fonts—they won’t enhance your work, they’ll only distract your readers.
• In general, leave a one-inch inch margin on all sides. However, for the copy of your thesis that will be bound by the library, you need to leave a 1.25-inch margin on the left.

How do I defend my honors thesis?

Graciously, enthusiastically, and confidently. The term defense is scary and misleading—it conjures up images of a military exercise or an athletic maneuver. An academic defense ideally shouldn’t be a combative scene but a congenial conversation about the work’s merits and weaknesses. That said, the defense probably won’t be like the average conversation that you have with your friends. You’ll be the center of attention. And you may get some challenging questions. Thus, it’s a good idea to spend some time preparing yourself. First of all, you’ll want to prepare 5-10 minutes of opening comments. Here’s a good time to preempt some criticisms by frankly acknowledging what you think your work’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are. Then you may be asked some typical questions:

• What is the main argument of your thesis?
• How does it fit in with the work of Ms. Famous Scholar?
• Have you read the work of Mr. Important Author?

NOTE: Don’t get too flustered if you haven’t! Most scholars have their favorite authors and books and may bring one or more of them up, even if the person or book is only tangentially related to the topic at hand. Should you get this question, answer honestly and simply jot down the title or the author’s name for future reference. No one expects you to have read everything that’s out there.

• Why did you choose this particular case study to explore your topic?
• If you were to expand this project in graduate school, how would you do so?

Should you get some biting criticism of your work, try not to get defensive. Yes, this is a defense, but you’ll probably only fan the flames if you lose your cool. Keep in mind that all academic work has flaws or weaknesses, and you can be sure that your professors have received criticisms of their own work. It’s part of the academic enterprise. Accept criticism graciously and learn from it. If you receive criticism that is unfair, stand up for yourself confidently, but in a good spirit. Above all, try to have fun! A defense is a rare opportunity to have eminent scholars in your field focus on YOU and your ideas and work. And the defense marks the end of a long and arduous journey. You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments!

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.

Atchity, Kenneth. 1986. A Writer’s Time: A Guide to the Creative Process from Vision Through Revision . New York: W.W. Norton.

Barzun, Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. 2012. The Modern Researcher , 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. 2014. “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing , 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

Lamott, Anne. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . New York: Pantheon.

Lasch, Christopher. 2002. Plain Style: A Guide to Written English. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Turabian, Kate. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, Dissertations , 9th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago 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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Thesis Preparation: Literature Review

• Books about writing a thesis
• Literature Review
• Bibliography & Referencing
• Writing your thesis
• Your thesis in UL's Research Repository
• Research Services Guide This link opens in a new window

Conducting your literature review

Your literature review is 

• an in-depth evaluation of research already undertaken on a specific topic
• the part of your thesis where you demonstrate your ability to identify relevant information and to synthesise existing knowledge
• the chapter where you identify the gap in the research that your work will address
• the part of your thesis where you describe and defend the rationale for your own research.

You should use the library's collections of books and academic journals, past theses or conference proceedings when  looking  for material for your  literature review.  Primary source material in UL's Special Collections and Archives is also an option to consider depending on your research topic. Within niche research areas it may sometimes be necessary to go beyond UL's collections to source material for your thesis.  The library can arrange for borrowing of books and sourcing of articles from other libraries too, please visit the Inter Library Loan webpage for information on how to access this service  https://www.ul.ie/library/use-library/visiting-other-libraries/borrowing-other-libraries  

When you have defined your topic you will need to begin searching for and evaluating the information you find. The information on this page will guide you as you develop your research question and begin to familiarise your with the resources the library provides for your literature searching. Recorded lectures from our librarians, links to videos from SAGE Research Methods and some advice on effective searching are all useful resources for you when preparing  your literature review. If you need to talk to a librarian in order to advance your literature review, please email [email protected] to make an appointment. 

The  Library Search  allows you to search for physical items in the Library but also searches most of the library's electronic resources as well as publications in the ULIR.

Developing your research question

Smarter search techniques.

Finding Information for your thesis

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How to Craft Your Ideal Thesis Research Topic

Table of contents

Catherine Miller

Writing your undergraduate thesis is probably one of the most interesting parts of studying, especially because you get to choose your area of study. But as both a student and a teacher who’s helped countless students develop their research topics, I know this freedom can be just as intimidating as it is liberating.

Fortunately, there’a a step-by-step process you can follow that will help make the whole process a lot easier. In this article, I’ll show you how to choose a unique, specific thesis topic that’s true to your passions and interests, while making a contribution to your field.

Choose a topic that you’re interested in

First things first: double-check with your teachers or supervisor if there are any constraints on your research topic. Once your parameters are clear, it’s time to identify what lights you up — after all, you’re going to be spending a lot of time thinking about it.

Within your field of study, you probably already have some topics that have grabbed your attention more than others. This can be a great place to start. Additionally, consider using the rest of your academic and extra-curricular interests as a source of ideas. At this stage, you only need a broad topic before you narrow it down to a specific question. 

If you’re feeling stuck, here are some things to try:

• Look back through old course notes to remind yourself of topics you previously covered. Do any of these inspire you?
• Talk to potential supervisors about your ideas, as they can point you toward areas you might not have considered.
• Think about the things you enjoy in everyday life — whether that’s cycling, cinema, cooking, or fashion — then consider if there are any overlaps with your field of study.
• Imagine you have been asked to give a presentation or record a podcast in the next three days. What topics would you feel confident discussing?
• Watch a selection of existing lectures or explainer videos, or listen to podcasts by experts in your field. Note which topics you feel curious to explore further.
• Discuss your field of study with teachers friends and family, some with existing knowledge and some without. Which aspects do you enjoy talking about? 

By doing all this, you might uncover some unusual and exciting avenues for research. For example, when writing my Master’s dissertation, I decided to combine my field of study (English teaching methodology) with one of my passions outside work (creative writing). In my undergraduate course, a friend drew on her lived experience of disability to look into the literary portrayal of disability in the ancient world. 

Do your research

Once you’ve chosen your topic of interest, it’s time to dive into research. This is a really important part of this early process because it allows you to:

• See what other people have written about the topic — you don’t want to cover the same old ground as everyone else.
• Gain perspective on the big questions surrounding the topic. 
• Go deeper into the parts that interest you to help you decide where to focus.
• Start building your bibliography and a bank of interesting quotations. 

A great way to start is to visit your library for an introductory book. For example, the “A Very Short Introduction” series from the Oxford University Press provides overviews of a range of themes. Similar types of overviews may have the title “ A Companion to [Subject]” or “[Subject] A Student Companion”. Ask your librarian or teacher if you’re not sure where to begin. 

Your introductory volume can spark ideas for further research, and the bibliography can give you some pointers about where to go next. You can also use keywords to research online via academic sites like JStor or Google Scholar. Check which subscriptions are available via your institution.

At this stage, you may not wish to read every single paper you come across in full — this could take a very long time and not everything will be relevant. Summarizing software like Wordtune could be very useful here.

Just upload a PDF or link to an online article using Wordtune, and it will produce a summary of the whole paper with a list of key points. This helps you to quickly sift through papers to grasp their central ideas and identify which ones to read in full. 

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

You can also use Wordtune for semantic search. In this case, the tool focuses its summary around your chosen search term, making it even easier to get what you need from the paper.

As you go, make sure you keep organized notes of what you’ve read, including the author and publication information and the page number of any citations you want to use. 

Some people are happy to do this process with pen and paper, but if you prefer a digital method, there are several software options, including Zotero , EndNote , and Mendeley . Your institution may have an existing subscription so check before you sign up.

Narrowing down your thesis research topic

Now you’ve read around the topic, it’s time to narrow down your ideas so you can craft your final question. For example, when it came to my undergraduate thesis, I knew I wanted to write about Ancient Greek religion and I was interested in the topic of goddesses. So, I:

• Did some wide reading around the topic of goddesses
• Learned that the goddess Hera was not as well researched as others and that there were some fascinating aspects I wanted to explore
• Decided (with my supervisor’s support) to focus on her temples in the Argive region of Greece

As part of this process, it can be helpful to consider the “5 Ws”: why, what, who, when, and where, as you move from the bigger picture to something more precise. 

Why did you choose this research topic?

Come back to the reasons you originally chose your theme. What grabbed you? Why is this topic important to you — or to the wider world? In my example, I knew I wanted to write about goddesses because, as a woman, I was interested in how a society in which female lives were often highly controlled dealt with having powerful female deities. My research highlighted Hera as one of the most powerful goddesses, tying into my key interest.

What are some of the big questions about your topic?

During your research, you’ll probably run into the same themes time and time again. Some of the questions that arise may not have been answered yet or might benefit from a fresh look. 

Equally, there may be questions that haven’t yet been asked, especially if you are approaching the topic from a modern perspective or combining research that hasn’t been considered before. This might include taking a post-colonial, feminist, or queer approach to older texts or bringing in research using new scientific methods.

In my example, I knew there were still controversies about why so many temples to the goddess Hera were built in a certain region, and was keen to explore these further.

Who is the research topic relevant to?

Considering the “who” might help you open up new avenues. Is there a particular audience you want to reach? What might they be interested in? Is this a new audience for this field? Are there people out there who might be affected by the outcome of this research — for example, people with a particular medical condition — who might be able to use your conclusions?

Which period will you focus on?

Depending on the nature of your field, you might be able to choose a timeframe, which can help narrow the topic down. For example, you might focus on historical events that took place over a handful of years, look at the impact of a work of literature at a certain point after its publication, or review scientific progress over the last five years. 

With my thesis, I decided to focus on the time when the temples were built rather than considering the hundreds of years for which they have existed, which would have taken me far too long.

Where does your topic relate to?

Place can be another means of narrowing down the topic. For example, consider the impact of your topic on a particular neighborhood, city, or country, rather than trying to process a global question. 

In my example, I chose to focus my research on one area of Greece, where there were lots of temples to Hera. This meant skipping other important locations, but including these would have made the thesis too wide-ranging.

Create an outline and get feedback

Once you have an idea of what you are going to write about, create an outline or summary and get feedback from your teacher(s). It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how you’re going to answer your thesis question yet, but based on your research you should have a rough plan of the key points you want to cover. So, for me, the outline was as follows:

• Context: who was the goddess Hera?
• Overview of her sanctuaries in the Argive region
• Their initial development 
• Political and cultural influences
• The importance of the mythical past

In the final thesis, I took a strong view on why the goddess was so important in this region, but it took more research, writing, and discussion with my supervisor to pin down my argument.

To choose a thesis research topic, find something you’re passionate about, research widely to get the big picture, and then move to a more focused view. Bringing a fresh perspective to a popular theme, finding an underserved audience who could benefit from your research, or answering a controversial question can make your thesis stand out from the crowd.

For tips on how to start writing your thesis, don’t miss our advice on writing a great research abstract and a stellar literature review . And don’t forget that Wordtune can also support you with proofreading, making it even easier to submit a polished thesis.

How do you come up with a research topic for a thesis?

To help you find a thesis topic, speak to your professor, look through your old course notes, think about what you already enjoy in everyday life, talk about your field of study with friends and family, and research podcasts and videos to find a topic that is interesting for you. It’s a good idea to refine your topic so that it’s not too general or broad.  

Do you choose your own thesis topic?

Yes, you usually choose your own thesis topic. You can get help from your professor(s), friends, and family to figure out which research topic is interesting to you. 

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Welcome to the Undergraduate Thesis & Capstone Online Submission System

We are currently processing undergraduate theses for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences ONLY . If you are a student in another department, please use the process as outlined by your department for 2024.

Please review the LAS Senior Thesis Submission Guide for specific details including formatting guidelines. Complete the Thesis Certification Form with signatures from the “Instructor in Charge” and “Head of Department Academic Unit” according to their senior thesis deadline.

Please review the   Guide to Online Theses and Capstone Projects Submission System before submitting your Bachelor’s thesis to the Illinois Theses and Capstone Projects Submission System.

If you have additional questions or need help with the Illinois Theses and Capstone Projects Submission System, please reach out to [email protected]. Regarding LAS Honor’s related questions, please contact LAS Honors at [email protected] or 217.333.1158. For the Spring 2024 semester and prior, all undergraduate theses and capstone projects will be collected for processing and archival purposes only with access being granted only to the LAS Honors Program, your home department, and the University Library.

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The Undergraduate Law Review at UC San Diego

The purpose of Undergraduate Law Review at UC San Diego shall be to offer an accessible platform for students interested in legal literature and argumentation. The journal aims to publish exemplary works submitted by undergraduate students on relevant and impactful issues, with emphasis on legal scholarship. Through publication, resources and encouragement will be provided to students interested in a legal or academic career.

• Volume 2, Issue 1, 2024
• Volume 1, Issue 1, 2022

UCSD Undergraduate Law Review

• Rincker, Theresa

Volume II of the Undergraduate Law Review at UC San Diego

The Wrongful Arrest Theory: Justice For Individuals With Diabetes In Criminal Law Procedure

• McChesney, Rachel

This paper discusses the vulnerability of diabetic individuals when they are subjected to arrest procedures in criminal law. It analyzes the wrongful arrest theory as a device for individuals with disabilities to bring claims against law enforcement when their rights under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are violated. Individuals with diabetes constitute more than 10% of the United States population, meaning that many individuals are at risk for police misconduct because of their disability. The symptoms that come about with having diabetes, such as fruity-smelling breath and loss of coordination, can be mistaken for illegal activity leading to a wrongful arrest. No case involving ADA Title II violation claims against law enforcement relying on the wrongful arrest theory has been brought by an individual with diabetes. This paper explores the possibility of its potential success. To accomplish this, this paper first defines disability under the law, including diabetes. It then conducts a thorough analysis of the wrongful arrest theory in various case studies consisting of non-diabetic and diabetic plaintiffs. In a final case study, I apply the wrongful arrest theory to a case hypothetically to illustrate the plaintiff's potential success if he claims a wrongful arrest. Lastly, I explore some of the theory’s limitations and propose a potential solution. I hope that my findings will emphasize the lack of discourse surrounding individuals with diabetes in disability law and encourage further research and education on the wrongful arrest theory as a successful claim against Title II violations committed by law enforcement.

HIPAA: A Demand to Modernize Health Legislation

• Sadri, Mehri

In the 21st-century digital age, health data privacy remains a crucial concern. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. More specifically, it demonstrates a need for a unified federal framework in the U.S. that aligns with General Data Protection Regulation’s protections to address modern-day cybersecurity threats better. This article argues that in an era of increased globalization, the United States should confront the task of reforming its healthcare data protection law to align with current cybersecurity risks. 

We begin by examining landmark legislation across American states to reveal inconsistencies between state and federal protective rulings. Later, we uncover the reactive nature of HIPAA, in contrast to GDPR’s proactive and citizen-centric approach. Through evaluating past lawsuits related to patient protection noncompliance, this paper depicts significant differences in the purpose, coverage, and execution of data protection laws between the United States and the European Union. It highlights GDPR’s effectiveness in granting individuals greater control over their data. Furthermore, this article proposes the adoption of newfound systems for standardized risk analysis and enhanced security across healthcare providers.

As healthcare becomes more accessible to the American public, the amount of data in this system increases. This nationwide surge in data underscores the critical need to assess whether privacy laws established in the 1990s remain sufficient. Therefore, updates to healthcare legislation are essential to establishing stringent patient protections in response to the significant rise in data breach incidents within the healthcare network. 

Inconsistent Solutions Don’t Fix Persistent Problems: How Affirmative and Enthusiastic Consent Undermine Consent Laws Within Universities

• Younk, Lauren

This article critically examines sexual misconduct reporting on university campuses, emphasizing the inherent flaws in how consent is defined and implemented within policy frameworks. While acknowledging the value of clarity, it argues against adding modifiers like enthusiastic and affirmative, which can obscure and over-generalize consent definitions. Analyzing current policies and relevant cases underscores the urgent need for prompt changes in university and federal settings. More specifically, it focuses on the problems arising from schools having autonomy in setting their definitions of consent, leading to issues such as policy ineffectiveness. This article proposes a comprehensive definition of consent, incorporating key factors like culpability and verbal and nonverbal cues to promote safer campus environments. Thus, it advocates for the release of guidance documents by the OCR to push schools to adopt a standardized definition of consent, ensuring a more uniform approach to addressing sexual misconduct on university campuses.

Balancing Acts: Navigating the Ethical and Legal Challenges of Genomic Medicine in Healthcare

• Kong, Eugene

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between the evolving field of genomic medicine and healthcare providers' legal and ethical responsibilities, with a particular focus on the duty to warn in the context of genetic risks. Through a critical examination of landmark cases such as Pate v. Threlkel and Safer v. Estate of Pack, this study underscores the expanding scope of healthcare providers' duties to include not just the patient but potentially at-risk family members as well. It highlights the legal, ethical, and practical challenges that arise when balancing patient confidentiality with the need to prevent harm through the disclosure of genetic information. The descriptive portion of the paper outlines the current legal precedents and the ambiguity surrounding healthcare providers' responsibilities. The prescriptive portion proposes the establishment of comprehensive, clear guidelines to support healthcare providers, particularly genomic counselors, in navigating these complexities. This includes recommendations for policy changes and the development of protocols that respect patient autonomy while addressing the preventive potential of genomic medicine. Through an analysis of legal frameworks and ethical considerations, this paper argues for a nuanced approach that equitably balances individual rights with the collective good, ultimately advocating for a future where genomic medicine is integrated into patient care in an ethically responsible and legally sound manner.

The Legal Landscape of Healthcare Access in Rural America

• Khan, Shyan

The healthcare system in the United States ought to provide its citizens with unhindered access to high quality medical care as well as equitable treatment and coverage. Legislation to advance access to healthcare, such as the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs in 1965 and the Affordable Care Act in 2008, have been appropriate steps forward in achieving these goals, but obstacles to healthcare access still persist for many Americans. Healthcare access is hindered by foundational problems, such as a large uninsured population, inadequate infrastructure and facilities, and high costs for services. In rural communities, these problems assume different social and economic contexts and thus require their own separate evaluation. Rural Americans currently lack effective access to healthcare, despite existing policies aimed at improving access by making healthcare more affordable. In this article, I will explain different facts of the discussion revolving around rural healthcare access and analyze specific problems in the area. There are three policy directives that are essential to the expansion of rural healthcare access: public private partnerships, loan forgiveness for doctors serving at critical access hospitals, and expansion of the telehealth network. These avenues expand rural healthcare access, minimize government expenditure, and maximize public benefits.

The House of Representatives Needs to Expand

• Ghatak, Atreya

In 1929, the United States limited the number of congressional districts for the House of Representatives to 435 seats through the Permanent Apportionment Act. At the time, the average number of people within a congressional district stood at around 280,000 persons. In the 2020 census, this number has risen to 761,000 people per district. As a result, the voting power of citizens has been diminished. Representatives also face issues including logistical challenges in providing aid and information to constituents due to large populations. Importantly, the 435-seat limit dilutes the voting power of the electorate by reducing representation in states that have disproportionately large populations. This article argues that the 435 limit enacted by the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act and the current method of apportioning districts to each state conflicts with precedent set by the Supreme Court from the cases Reynolds v. Sims , 377 U.S. 533 (1964) and Wesberry v. Sanders , 376 U.S. 1 (1964). The 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act also violates the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of residents who live in states with slow growth rates. This article will advocate for Congress to repeal the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act and return to the practice of expanding the number of House seats every ten years, as well as lowering the size of each congressional district. 

Opposite Ends: Why the United States and Singapore have Drastically Different Models of Free Speech

• Chamberlin, Dylan

This article delves into why the United States and Singapore, despite their shared colonial history, democratic institutions, wealth, and global influence, have drastically different free speech models. This paper will look at three points of comparison: historical context, political theory, and evolution of judicial interpretation. By comparing the current events and the prevalent political theories at the time of drafting the Singaporean and American constitutions, this paper seeks to understand why the nations ratified contrasting free speech clauses.  However, the Constitution is only as meaningful as the courts interpret it, so this paper also explores how the respective Supreme Courts of Singapore and America have evolved their interpretation of the Constitution to shape their contrasting free speech models. While this paper will not argue which model of free speech is more effective, it will outline the underlying reasons for Singapore and America's drastically different free speech models. 

Book Censorship in Public Schools: Examining Florida HB 1467 (2022)

Several pieces of legislation have sprung up in recent years in Florida aiming to restrict public school library books and curricular materials. Notably, this coincides with other state legislative moves to restrict what students read and learn in school with partisan purposes. Library associations have reported that nationally, removed books disproportionately contain LGBTQ and racial minority themes. One law at the heart of these restrictions, Florida HB 1467 (2022), empowers community members to challenge and remove public school books and adds bureaucratic obstacles to the access of previously allowable materials. The vague and broad language of the Florida law leads to erratic application by school districts across the state, resulting in the suppression of protected speech. This article examines a key constitutional tension: Under what circumstances does the students’ right to receive information under the First Amendment outweigh school officials’ authority, and, by extension, parental authority over local education under the Tenth Amendment? The U.S. Supreme Court in Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico (1982) offers one answer, holding that political orthodoxy is an unacceptable rationale for removal, but pervasive vulgarity and educational unsuitability are acceptable. These three standards are useful, yet entangle in ways Pico is not fully suited to address. This article argues HB 1467 (2022) is unconstitutional under the political orthodoxy Pico standard, strict scrutiny analysis of content-based regulations, and the vagueness and overbreadth doctrines of the 1st Amendment.

Associations Between Discrimination and Markers of Systemic Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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• Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
• Discrimination, or unfair treatment of individuals based on social group membership, is a major public health concern. Understanding the physiological mechanisms through which discrimination impacts health is critical for understanding development of health inequities. Systemic inflammation likely serves as a key physiological pathway linking discrimination and health. However, estimations of the discrimination-inflammation association vary widely across studies. To address this, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between discrimination and inflammation in 28 articles that yielded 114 effects. Results revealed a significant, positive overall association, such that greater discrimination was associated with higher levels of systemic inflammation. Subgroup/moderator analyses demonstrated the magnitude of the association depends on the measure of discrimination, the marker of inflammation, and some key methodological differences across studies. This review emphasizes the need for theoretical and methodological precision to advance our understanding of the mechanistic pathways by which discrimination gets under the skin.
• Social psychology
• https://doi.org/10.17615/pbqd-6920
• Masters Thesis
• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Muscatell, Keely A
• Lindquist, Kristen A
• Sheeran, Paschal
• Master of Arts
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School

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International Development Thesis (L2153)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn and spring teaching

Working on your thesis, you’ll have the opportunity to integrate what you’ve learnt in your studies into a single, sustained piece of writing. You’ll explore a topic of your choice in depth, with the support of a supervisor.

On this module, you’ll learn about the design, planning and execution of the thesis. The module may include the collection of empirical data or the use of secondary source material. You’ll develop your own approaches to investigating the topic, drawing on earlier skills-based modules and on interests developed throughout the degree.

Contact hours and workload

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

This module is offered on the following courses:

• Anthropology and International Development BA
• Geography and International Development BA
• International Development BA
• International Development with a Language BA
• International Relations and Development BA
• Sociology and International Development BA

Harvard University COVID-19 updates

Department News

Neuroscience concentrator melissa meng wins glushko undergraduate thesis prize.

• May 24, 2024

Neuroscience concentrator Melissa Meng has been awarded the Glushko Undergraduate Thesis Prize , which honors students who write theses in cognitive science. It is issued by the Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. Meng conducted her research in the Uchida Lab . 

In her thesis, Meng investigated whether distributional reinforcement learning, a mathematical construct for describing how learning might happen, occurs in the mammalian brain. “The field of RL [reinforcement learning] asks how agents – humans, animals, or machines – can learn from trial and error to maximize the total reward they obtain,” explains Uchida Lab graduate student Adam Lowet , who mentored Meng. “This reward may be a random variable – that is, it is drawn from some probability distribution, rather than being fixed. Traditional RL simply averages over this randomness, but recent work in machine learning has demonstrated that learning the entire distribution of rewards, rather than just the mean, can be beneficial.”

To find out, Meng started with a traditional laboratory task for mice. “I recorded neural activity from the striatum of well-trained mice performing a classical conditioning task that associates random odors with different reward distributions,” she explains. “For the second part of my thesis, I decided to look into the neural basis behind distributional coding in the striatum. To investigate this, I induced a unilateral lesion using a neurotoxin to ablate dopaminergic neurons in the ventral striatum of mice as they performed the same classical conditioning task. From these experiments, we were able to provide direct evidence for distributional RL in the mammalian brain, show that striatal populations encode for not only mean, but also variance, and conclude that dopamine serves as a teaching signal for distributional RL in the striatum.” 

“Entrusting undergraduates with so much responsibility is extremely rare in the Uchida laboratory, but Melissa’s combination of enthusiasm, commitment, reliability, and curiosity left us no choice,” Lowet says. “As often happens in science, this passion was rewarded by the discovery that distributional representations were in fact impaired in dopamine-depleted brains, compared to intact brains. Melissa’s contribution has been recognized in the form of co-authorship on three posters presented at top conferences in the field, two contributed talks, and an in-revision manuscript .”

“Melissa spent a lot of time in the lab performing many difficult experiments,” adds MCB faculty Naoshige Uchida . “She was very much dedicated and grew her interest and passion in neurobiology research as she learns new experiments and gets exciting results. Melissa’s experiments led to important discoveries such as that dopamine plays a crucial role in learning to acquire neural activity reflecting the probability distribution of rewards, above and beyond the average reward.” 

Meng will pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Yale in the fall. Over the summer, she’ll be spending time with her family in Blacksburg, Virginia and traveling in China and South Korea. 

“I am extremely honored and grateful to receive the Glushko Prize, especially among such an incredible group of nominees, and I would like to thank several individuals for making this entire thesis possible,” she says. “I’d first like to thank my PI and supervisor, Dr. Naoshige Uchida, for providing me the incredible opportunity to be a part of this lab and for helping me learn and grow significantly as a student, researcher, and person during my time at Harvard. I’d also like to thank my mentor, Adam Lowet, who is a graduate student in the Uchida Lab, for teaching me everything I know and for always showing me so much encouragement and support with all of my endeavors. I also want to thank the entire Uchida Lab for welcoming me with open arms and for being not only inspirational, but also incredibly kind role models.”

Meng adds, “Additionally, I’d like to thank Dr. Laura Magnotti , my concentration advisor, and Dr. Ryan Draft , Dr. Kristina Penikis , and Mr. James Poolner for facilitating the wonderful undergraduate neuroscience community that I’m so proud to be a part of. Lastly, I’d like to thank all of my friends and family (particularly my mom, my dad, and my brother) for supporting me unconditionally every step of the way throughout my entire college career.” 

(l to r) Wen Li (mom), Xiang-Jin Meng (dad), Melissa Meng, and Bowen Meng (brother)

(l to r) Nao Uchida, Melissa Meng, and Adam Lowet