A literature review is “a thematic synthesis of sources used to provide readers with an up-to-date summary of theoretical and empirical findings on a particular topic.”
Cisco, J. (2014). Teaching the Literature Review: A Practical Approach for College Instructors. Teaching and Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2(2), 41-57.
Steps for writing a literature review:
Find & Evaluate
Perform a literature search - you librarian can help you with this. Make sure you narrow your topic to make it easier to find a manageable number of sources and to get a good survey of the material.
Spend time reading and managing the information in the literature you found.
Summarize
Summarize the information you find in each of your sources. Look at each source: What are the findings, the methodology, theories, etc.?
Synthesize
After reviewing your summaries, you will start to notice common themes or ideas within your resources. Sometimes putting this information into a matrix can be helpful to organize your resources and group them by their themes; you can start weaving them together.
Write
Now you will take all of that information and integrate it. Organize the literature. Literature reviews are typically organized in one of the following ways:
Chronologically (show a progression of a particular methodology), or
Thematically - by idea/theme (progression of time may still be important in this organization as well).
Additional Resources:
Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91-108. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x