Structuring and Writing Your Literature Review

Focused on Assessment Criterion 1.2 of 7CO04, this video addresses the structural and compositional demands of producing a critical literature review at Level 7. It covers four distinct organisational approaches — thematic, chronological, methodological, and theoretical — and examines the conditions under which each is best suited to a given research aim. The video also addresses how these approaches can be combined, for instance by nesting chronological development within a primarily thematic structure, and explains how organisational choice should be governed by the demands of the argument rather than convention.

A substantial portion of the video is devoted to the distinction between summary and synthesis, which the video treats as the central differentiator between adequate and excellent Level 7 work. Synthesis here refers to the practice of identifying agreements, disagreements, and explanatory tensions across sources and drawing collective analytical conclusions from them, rather than presenting sources sequentially. The video also addresses the role of topic sentences, the positioning of the author's own voice relative to cited material, and the use of evaluative language — including specific linguistic markers such as "convincingly demonstrates", "limited by" and "persuasively argues" — as tools for signalling critical engagement throughout the review rather than at isolated points.

The video further covers the practical mechanics of critical reading as a precondition for critical writing, including previewing sources for relevance and quality, active interrogation of claims and supporting evidence during reading, and annotation habits that generate material for later synthesis. Flow and coherence across the review are addressed through the use of transition sentences, signposting language, and the structural logic that connects individual sections to the overarching research rationale. Together these elements map directly onto the indicative content for AC 1.2, covering the evaluation of sources, the structuring of a review, and the distinction between reading and writing critically.