Q: What are the basics of writing a literature review?

The literature review in a research paper is written as part of the Introduction section. A literature review should not be a mere description of all the available information on the topic. It should be a critical and analytical summary of the selected literature that evaluates the progress of knowledge in the research area leading up to your study. Here's how you can organize your literature review:

• Begin with some background literature about the broad research topic to set context and introduce the broad field of study.
• You can then move on to recent progress on the study topic. Ideally, separate themes should be discussed in a chronological manner to describe how research in the field has evolved over time and to highlight the progress in the field.
• Provide a comparison and contrast of different studies and discuss the controversial aspects as this will help identify the main gaps that need to be worked upon.
• Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of other studies that have tackled the same problem. This is important for outlining the need and novelty of the research.

You can also refer to these articles to learn more about how you can write the literature review section of your paper effectively:

• How to write the literature review of your research paper
• How should my literature review be structured?
• What tense should I use when writing a literature review