noun · academic
literature review
UK/ˈlɪtrətʃə rɪˈvjuː/US/ˈlɪtərətʃər rɪˈvju/LI·ter·a·ture RE·view
a section in a thesis or paper that summarises and evaluates previous studies on a topic
Examples
“My thesis begins with a short literature review on air pollution studies.”
“Supervisors usually expect a thorough literature review before experiments start.”
“A good literature review highlights gaps in current knowledge.”
Band 8 sentence
“A rigorous literature review not only summarises past work but critically assesses methodologies to justify the new study.”
Collocations
- comprehensive literature review
- conduct a literature review
- critical literature review
Word family
Common mistakes
do a literature review→conduct / write a literature review
many literature review→many literature reviews
research about literature review→research on/into literature review
Say it for a higher band
5reading→6summary of studies→7+literature review
Synonyms
review of literature
Easily confused
research proposal
“Before starting the project she submitted a research proposal to the supervisor.”
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In Science & Research
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