A literature review consists of three main parts: an introduction paragraph, the body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph.
The introduction should give a quick summary of what the literature review is going to be about. It should tell the reader what the topic of the review will be and define the scope of the literature that will be discussed. The introduction should also indicate how the review is going to be organized. There will be more information on how to organize the body paragraphs of the literature review in the next section. One way to say how the review will be organized is to list what each body paragraph will be about and briefly say why they are in that order.
There are a few different ways to organize the body paragraphs of a literature review.
• Chronological: This is when the literature review discusses the sources in the order they were published, from the oldest to the newest. This can be useful if your focus is on the historical development of a subject.
• Trend: A literature review organized by trend will divide the review's subject into different categories and discuss the literature as it relates to each category. For example, a literature review about a nursing theorist might have one section talking about sources related to the theorist's life and another section for discussing the impact of their theory on modern nursing.
• Thematic: A thematic literature review will focus on a specific topic related to the literature. For example, in a literature review about a disease, the author may choose to focus on a single form of treatment for the disease.
• Methodological: A methodological literature review does not focus on the content of the sources. Instead it focuses on how the research was done. In other words, a methodological literature review is about the methods the original researchers used in putting together the data.
The conclusion of a literature review should begin with a summary of what the literature review is about. It should also comment on what the literature says about the topic as a whole and how research in the topic might advance in the future.