how long should it take to write a literature review

How Long Does It Take to Write a Literature Review

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Table of contents, what is a literature review, what’s the purpose of a literature review, what is the importance of a literature review, how long should a literature review be, what are the different types of literature reviews, how long does it take to write a literature review paper, how long does it take to write a 1000 word literature review, how does a literature review differ from a research paper, how to write a literature review in 30 minutes or less, 9 essential tools to help write a literature review, 2. mendeley, 4. grammarly, 5. speechify tts, 6. google scholar, 7. microsoft word, 8. evernote, 9. turnitin, why tts is helpful in writing a literature review, can i write a literature review in one day, can i write a literature review in one week, is writing a literature review difficult, how long does it take to write a literature review for masters, does it take a lot of time to write a literature review.

The question "how long does it take to write a literature review?" is one that many students and researchers often ask, and for good reason. A literature...

The question "how long does it take to write a literature review?" is one that many students and researchers often ask, and for good reason. A literature review is a crucial part of any research project, academic paper, or doctoral research proposal. Understanding its length and complexity can help in planning and executing the writing process efficiently.

A literature review is a type of academic writing that provides an overview of existing research on a particular topic. It identifies, assesses, and synthesizes scholarly articles, research papers, and other relevant literature to inform the reader about the current state of research on a specific area of study.

The purpose of a literature review is multifaceted. It aims to identify gaps in existing research, provide background information on a research topic, validate the research question, and set the stage for your own research project. It enables researchers to understand the existing landscape of their field of study, thereby guiding their own research methodologies and questions.

The importance of a literature review is paramount in establishing the validity of your research paper or proposal. It helps in framing your research question and showcasing that your study is not a mere repetition, but rather an addition to existing knowledge. By summarizing previous research, it offers a point of view and creates a foundation for new research.

The length of a literature review can vary depending on the depth of the research topic and the guidelines set by a particular institution or journal. In most cases, literature reviews range from 2000 to 5000 words. However, for doctoral dissertations, it can be much more extensive.

1. Narrative Review

2. Systematic Review

3. Meta-analysis

4. Scoping Review

5. State-of-the-Art Review

Writing a literature review can take anywhere from several days to several weeks, depending on the breadth and depth of the subject matter. Researchers need to gather relevant literature, read through them, synthesize key findings, and finally, write the review article while following the appropriate research methodology and citations styles like APA.

A 1000-word literature review can generally be completed within a day or two, assuming that you have already completed the required reading and have a plan for your review. However, this duration can vary depending on the complexity of the topic and the need for extensive research.

While both are academic papers, a literature review summarizes and synthesizes existing research, whereas a research paper presents new research findings. A literature review can be a stand-alone paper or a review section within a larger research paper.

Writing a literature review in 30 minutes or less is unrealistic for most comprehensive reviews. However, you could potentially draft a very rough outline or jot down key points, citations, and topic sentences to be expanded upon later.

What Steps Should Follow to Write an Effective Literature Review?

1. Identify a Research Topic

2. Conduct a Literature Search

3. Read and Annotate

4. Organize and Outline

5. Write and Revise

Cost: Starts at $249.95 for a one-time purchase

EndNote is a reference management software widely used by researchers and graduate students alike. The tool allows users to store and organize citations for journal articles, books, and research papers, making it easier to cite these sources while writing the literature review. The automation feature is a massive time-saver, especially when handling complex citation styles like APA or MLA. With EndNote, users can search for additional journal articles and relevant literature directly within the platform, streamlining the process of gathering and managing resources for a review.

Top 5 Features:

- Reference management

- Citation automation

- Bibliography maker

- Search capabilities for journal articles

- Sync across multiple devices

Cost: Free basic plan

Mendeley is another robust tool for managing research papers and citations. The platform provides a PDF reader , allowing for easy annotations and highlighting directly within the software. The citation generator is another essential feature that simplifies the writing process, particularly when adhering to a particular citation style. Mendeley also offers collaboration features, enabling researchers to share references, notes, and even co-write documents, making it an excellent tool for group projects or multi-author literature reviews.

- PDF reader

- Collaboration with other researchers

- Citation generator

- Social networking for scientists

Zotero is a free, open-source tool that provides similar functionality to paid options like EndNote and Mendeley. One of its standout features is browser integration, allowing users to easily add citations and full-text articles directly from the web browser. The citation generator function supports multiple citation styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago. Additionally, Zotero offers robust library organization features, making it easier to sort and access research materials for a literature review.

- Free and open-source

- Browser integration

- Library organization

- Annotation and note-taking

Cost: Free basic plan; Premium starts at $11.66/month

Grammarly is primarily known for its superior grammar-checking capabilities, but it offers much more. The tool's plagiarism checker is invaluable when writing literature reviews, as it ensures that your work is original and not unintentionally copied from other sources. The software also offers suggestions for improving writing style and word choice, making it easier to write a concise, coherent, and error-free literature review.

- Grammar checking

- Plagiarism detection

- Tone adjustment

- Style suggestions

- Word choice

Cost: Free basic plan; Premium starts at $6.99/month

Speechify TTS (Text-to-Speech) offers a different, auditory approach to reviewing written content. Graduate students and researchers often have to sift through vast amounts of text when crafting a literature review, and Speechify provides an alternative to reading, helping to improve comprehension and retention. The tool can read aloud existing literature or even your draft, enabling you to better understand the flow and transitions of your writing. It can also help you catch errors or awkward phrasing that may not be evident when reading. Text-to-speech technology has shown to be extremely helpful in writing a literature review.

- Text-to-Speech

- Speed adjustment

- Multiple languages

- Voice selection

- Offline listening

Google Scholar is a free search engine specifically for scholarly articles, theses, books, and conference papers. While it doesn't have the reference management features of EndNote or Mendeley, it is a goldmine of peer-reviewed papers and articles that can serve as primary material for your literature review. The "Cited by" feature also lets you see how many other papers have cited a particular piece of research, providing a measure of its influence or impact in the field.

- Free access to scholarly articles

- Citation export

- Case law search

- Patent search

- "Cited by" feature

Cost: Part of Microsoft 365, starting at $69.99/year

Microsoft Word might seem basic compared to specialized software, but it remains a vital tool for writing. The software offers numerous formatting options that align with various citation styles. The spellcheck and grammar features, although not as robust as Grammarly, provide a decent first pass at editing. Word also offers an outline view, ideal for structuring complex literature reviews before you dive into detailed writing.

- Spelling and grammar checker

- Extensive formatting options

- Outline view for structuring

- Collaboration features

- Templates

Cost: Free basic plan; Premium starts at $7.99/month

Evernote is an excellent tool for gathering and organizing your thoughts and resources before and during the writing process. The software lets you clip web pages and PDFs, annotate them, and organize them into notebooks. Evernote's powerful search feature makes retrieving these notes easy, making the writing process more streamlined and organized.

- Note-taking

- Web clipper

- Task management

- Annotation

Cost: Pricing varies; usually comes with institutional subscription

Turnitin is renowned for its plagiarism checking capabilities, making it indispensable when writing a literature review. The tool provides originality reports that highlight plagiarized content, thus helping writers make necessary revisions. Turnitin also features grading tools and feedback options, though these are generally more useful for educators than for students or researchers.

These tools can serve as your arsenal in conducting a high-quality literature review, whether you're a master's student, a doctoral researcher, or a seasoned academic.

- Plagiarism checking

- Peer review

- Grading tools

- Feedback studio

- Originality reports

Speechify TTS (Text-to-Speech) is particularly useful for graduate students and researchers who have to sift through voluminous amounts of text. Listening to the text can help you better understand the flow and transitions of your writing. It can also assist in catching errors or awkward phrasing that may not be evident while reading.

Writing a comprehensive literature review in one day is generally not advisable. While a shorter review could potentially be written within 24 hours, the quality may be compromised.

Yes, a one-week timeframe is more realistic for writing a smaller literature review, especially if you have already gathered your sources and have a clear focus.

The difficulty in writing a literature review lies in the need to read, understand, and synthesize existing research while avoiding plagiarism.

For Master's students, writing a literature review can take anywhere from two weeks to a month, given the smaller scope compared to a doctoral dissertation.

The time required to write a literature review can vary widely depending on factors such as the depth of the research topic, the number of sources, and the writer's familiarity with the subject.

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Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to write a literature review in 6 steps

What is a literature review?

How to write a literature review, 1. determine the purpose of your literature review, 2. do an extensive search, 3. evaluate and select literature, 4. analyze the literature, 5. plan the structure of your literature review, 6. write your literature review, other resources to help you write a successful literature review, frequently asked questions about writing a literature review, related articles.

A literature review is an assessment of the sources in a chosen topic of research.

A good literature review does not just summarize sources. It analyzes the state of the field on a given topic and creates a scholarly foundation for you to make your own intervention. It demonstrates to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.

In a thesis, a literature review is part of the introduction, but it can also be a separate section. In research papers, a literature review may have its own section or it may be integrated into the introduction, depending on the field.

➡️ Our guide on what is a literature review covers additional basics about literature reviews.

• Identify the main purpose of the literature review.
• Do extensive research.
• Evaluate and select relevant sources.
• Analyze the sources.
• Plan a structure.
• Write the review.

In this section, we review each step of the process of creating a literature review.

In the first step, make sure you know specifically what the assignment is and what form your literature review should take. Read your assignment carefully and seek clarification from your professor or instructor if needed. You should be able to answer the following questions:

• How many sources do I need to include?
• What types of sources should I review?
• Should I evaluate the sources?
• Should I summarize, synthesize or critique sources?
• Do I need to provide any definitions or background information?

In addition to that, be aware that the narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good overview of the topic.

Now you need to find out what has been written on the topic and search for literature related to your research topic. Make sure to select appropriate source material, which means using academic or scholarly sources , including books, reports, journal articles , government documents and web resources.

➡️ If you’re unsure about how to tell if a source is scholarly, take a look at our guide on how to identify a scholarly source .

Come up with a list of relevant keywords and then start your search with your institution's library catalog, and extend it to other useful databases and academic search engines like:

• Google Scholar
• Science.gov

➡️ Our guide on how to collect data for your thesis might be helpful at this stage of your research as well as the top list of academic search engines .

Once you find a useful article, check out the reference list. It should provide you with even more relevant sources. Also, keep a note of the:

• authors' names
• page numbers

Keeping track of the bibliographic information for each source will save you time when you’re ready to create citations. You could also use a reference manager like Paperpile to automatically save, manage, and cite your references.

Read the literature. You will most likely not be able to read absolutely everything that is out there on the topic. Therefore, read the abstract first to determine whether the rest of the source is worth your time. If the source is relevant for your topic:

• Read it critically.
• Look for the main arguments.
• Take notes as you read.
• Organize your notes using a table, mind map, or other technique.

Now you are ready to analyze the literature you have gathered. While your are working on your analysis, you should ask the following questions:

• What are the key terms, concepts and problems addressed by the author?
• How is this source relevant for my specific topic?
• How is the article structured? What are the major trends and findings?
• What are the conclusions of the study?
• How are the results presented? Is the source credible?
• When comparing different sources, how do they relate to each other? What are the similarities, what are the differences?
• Does the study help me understand the topic better?
• Are there any gaps in the research that need to be filled? How can I further my research as a result of the review?

Tip: Decide on the structure of your literature review before you start writing.

There are various ways to organize your literature review:

• Chronological method : Writing in the chronological method means you are presenting the materials according to when they were published. Follow this approach only if a clear path of research can be identified.
• Thematic review : A thematic review of literature is organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time.
• Publication-based : You can order your sources by publication, if the way you present the order of your sources demonstrates a more important trend. This is the case when a progression revealed from study to study and the practices of researchers have changed and adapted due to the new revelations.
• Methodological approach : A methodological approach focuses on the methods used by the researcher. If you have used sources from different disciplines that use a variety of research methods, you might want to compare the results in light of the different methods and discuss how the topic has been approached from different sides.

Regardless of the structure you chose, a review should always include the following three sections:

• An introduction, which should give the reader an outline of why you are writing the review and explain the relevance of the topic.
• A body, which divides your literature review into different sections. Write in well-structured paragraphs, use transitions and topic sentences and critically analyze each source for how it contributes to the themes you are researching.
• A conclusion , which summarizes the key findings, the main agreements and disagreements in the literature, your overall perspective, and any gaps or areas for further research.

➡️ If your literature review is part of a longer paper, visit our guide on what is a research paper for additional tips.

➡️ UNC writing center: Literature reviews

➡️ How to write a literature review in 3 steps

➡️ How to write a literature review in 30 minutes or less

The goal of a literature review is to asses the state of the field on a given topic in preparation for making an intervention.

A literature review should have its own independent section. You should indicate clearly in the table of contents where it can be found, and address this section as “Literature Review.”

There is no set amount of words for a literature review; the length depends on the research. If you are working with a large amount of sources, then it will be long. If your paper does not depend entirely on references, then it will be short.

Most research papers include a literature review. By assessing the available sources in your field of research, you will be able to make a more confident argument about the topic.

Literature reviews are most commonly found in theses and dissertations. However, you find them in research papers as well.