How to Write a Literature Review in English: Synthesis, Structure, and Research Gaps

A literature review is an argument about a body of research, not a book report on several articles.

The weak pattern is author-by-author: Smith found X. Jones found Y. Lee found Z. The reader receives information but no map of the field.

Organise by analytical question

Group sources around themes, methods, findings, or disagreements: What is established? Where do results diverge? Which populations or contexts are missing? A source may belong in more than one paragraph because it contributes to more than one question.

Synthesis requires relationships

Use verbs that make the relationship explicit: supports, extends, contradicts, qualifies, replicates, challenges. The techniques in C1 synthesis writing prevent the review from becoming a stack of summaries.

A research gap must be earned

“No one has studied X” is a strong claim. More defensible gaps may concern method, population, time period, context, inconsistent findings, or unresolved explanation. Use academic hedging when the evidence is incomplete.

Before drafting, build a source matrix and apply the reading strategy in How to Read Research Papers in English. Structure comes from comparison, not from the order in which you downloaded the PDFs.