How to structure your literature review

In a literature review, you need to think about the entirety of what you’ve read and synthesize the key points from the different readings, bring them all together. Do a critical analysis of the body of literature than comes together around your topic.

How do we do that?

We use themes!

What is a theme? A theme is a unifying idea, a kind of umbrella, under which you will bring together a number of points or arguments or perspectives.

Think of it like a 3-course meal. When you go out – or stay in – to eat a 3 course meal, you don’t just slap it all on the table at once. You bring dishes out one at a time. And that’s how you should serve up your critical review of the literature, one course at a time, one theme at a time.

One theme might focus on the conceptualisation of the topic – definitions and parameters. Another on the history of the topic, another on the policy frameworks around it, Another on theoretical approaches, different ways of explaining or understanding it. It all really depends on what you’re doing. Those are just some ideas.

During the time you’ve been reviewing the literature, you might have already identified some themes because these are things that are already quite clear the literature.

Or, you might have noticed new things yourself, new themes. Because after all, this is likely the first time that anyone has approached the literature posing the specific questions that you have, you are seeing the literature through your own unique lens.

Now have a think about this for your own literature review.

• Give each theme a title.

• Describe it, what’s it about? How does it relate directly to your dissertation question or title?

• Note down the key authors who are emerging as the key players around this theme.

• And summarise the main points that are being made by different texts and different authors.

You might find that there are some items of literature that crop up in more than one theme. There might be a really good book that includes stuff relevant to a couple of your themes. That’s fine! Many texts cross-cut different themes, this is a good thing.

I would advise that you structure your literature review around three, four, or five themes. Four is the ideal. If you find you have less than this, you might need to root around in one of your themes to see if there is more to it, can you separate it out into two? If you have more themes than this, think about whether you can bring some of them together, consolidate them under one new theme.

My self-study guide - How to write a thematic literature review

Let me walk you step by step through the process of writing a thematic literature review. Here’s my 60-page guide, based on my 20 years’ experience of supporting social science graduate students to write theirs! Click here to find out more AND to download a free sample preview of the guide so you can try before you buy.