synthesis of literature
How to Write a Literature Review in 30 Minutes or Less


STEP 1: Extract Summaries

Don’t let the name scare you. A “literature review” or “synthesis of literature” is simply a report. The purpose of this report is to organize for discussion the sources you have collected. The process for doing this is easy and consists of 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Extract Summaries

To use your summaries in paragraphs, first move the citation information to a list by itself. In the remaining summaries be sure to keep author last names and dates of publication as in-text citations. Page numbers aren’t necessary because you are summarzing the entire work. Also, once you indicate the year of publication of a source in a paragraph, you do not have to repeat the publication year again in that paragraph.

Here is what the list of sources should look like before and after you strip out the reference citations. 

BEFORE

pre-strip bibliography

AFTER

summaries no citations

Note that each summary contains an in-text citation of the author(s) last names and year of publication. Also note that the year of publication does NOT have to be repeated once it is stated in a paragraph.