Identify your argument. Before you can create a literature review, you must decide what to write about.
Determine your subtopics. The concepts for large academic papers can be broken up into categories. First, there is the leading argument, or main topic, for the paper. To prove your point, determine what areas of supporting evidence you will need. For example, writing an essay about environmental communication practices could have the subtopics digital environmental communication, environmental marketing and advertising campaigns, and community-focused communication groups. Researching how each of these sub-topics is affected by or can support environmental communication practices will bolster the original argument of your paper.
Compile your research. Academic journals are a good place to start acquiring multiple sources on a given topic. Using an academic search engine, start finding material for each subtopic.
Read all of your information. When reviewing your research, highlight pertinent information for each subtopic.
Write your literature review. As with any other academic paper, a literature review follows the general format of introduction, body and conclusion. The primary difference is that the introduction of the literature review will discuss the overall idea for a topic. In addition, the introduction will include the subtopics and state how each supports the overall idea. The body of a literature review consists of a paragraph for each subtopic that summarizes all of the information you found. After each paragraph, include a bibliography with all articles you acquired for that subtopic.
Ensure before submitting a literature review that the layout of the paper and the references used are formatted in the style required by the assignment.