Are you struggling to write a literature review, either for your dissertation or a class assignment? Getting bogged down in articles? It may help if you think of the structure of the literature review as a looking like a funnel -- that is, wide at the top, narrow at the base.
Begin your review with a wide but brief overview of the field. This provides a sense of background, but should not be the main focus of your reivew. Instead, quickly narrow to a discussion of the research relevant to your specific topic, focusing on reviewing the information that's most relevant to your research question.
If you follow this structure, the review will be shaped by a focus on your topic, even while you demostrate where your research fits within the larger field.
Contact the Doctoral Support Center: rsoedsc@usc.edu for help and additional writing tips.
