Literature review

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Academic integrity

This guidance supports planning and revision of your own work. It does not offer ghostwriting, invented sources, or a guarantee that a journal will publish a manuscript.

A literature review is not a stack of summaries. Each paragraph should tell the reader how a set of sources relates: they agree, they define a term differently, or they leave your question open. Cite the source you actually read. If you know a work only through another author's mention, say so or go and read it.

Stop when additional papers repeat a point you have already established. A review can be honest about a thin field. Inventing consensus is a more serious failure than admitting a gap.

A practical sequence

  • Write the question the review serves.
  • Group sources by claim, method, or context.
  • Open each paragraph with the relationship, then cite.
  • End with what your study still needs to ask.

Examples

  • “Three classroom studies describe feedback as a comment at the end of a script. They do not show whether learners used it.”

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