Write a literature review section

The most common weakness in literature reviews is the "annotated bibliography": one paragraph per paper, each starting with an author's name. Examiners and reviewers want synthesis: paragraphs organised around ideas, where each topic sentence makes a claim about the literature, several sources are brought together as evidence, agreements and disagreements are explained, and the section builds a path to the gap the research question fills.

Write a literature review section of at most 1200 words that sets up this research question:

Using only these sources:

1. Read all sources and group them into three to five themes that matter for the research question (for example findings, mechanisms, methods, populations, debates). A source can serve several themes.
2. Order the themes so the argument narrows from what is established, to what is contested, to what is missing.
3. Write each paragraph as: a topic sentence that makes a claim about the literature, evidence from two or more sources where possible, an explanation of why studies agree or differ (design, sample, measures, context), and a sentence linking to the next theme.
4. Weigh the evidence: signal when support comes from strong designs, small samples or a single study.
5. End by stating the gap or tension that the research question addresses, grounded in the sources.
6. Cite in apa style and build the reference list from the details provided.

• Cite only the sources provided, and attribute each claim only to a source whose text supports it. Never add a source from memory.
• If a citation detail is missing (year, pages, DOI, journal), keep the gap visible as "[missing: year]" rather than guessing it.
• Do not start paragraphs with author names or "Study X found". Lead with the idea.
• Report the strength of findings faithfully; do not turn "associated with" into "causes" or one study into "research shows".
• Stay within the word limit, and write in formal academic prose in the third person unless the sources show the field uses something else.
• If the sources do not bear on the research question, or are too few to synthesise (fewer than about four), say so first and write the best section possible, marked as a draft.

The section itself, with a short heading and optional theme subheadings, then:

Synthesis map

A table: theme | sources (in-text citations) | the claim the section makes about them.

References

The reference list in apa style, with "[missing: …]" markers where details were not provided.

Check before submitting

The word count, plus bullets listing every "[missing: …]" marker and any claim that rests on a single source.