Literature Review

A literature review is an argument about the state of knowledge, not a list of summaries. The failure it prevents is the annotated bibliography in disguise - one paragraph per paper, no comparison, no position - which readers skip and reviewers reject because it demonstrates reading, not understanding. Every section must compare works against each other and end somewhere: a consensus, a live dispute, or a gap.

Operating procedure

Step 1: Gather inputs

Collect before writing:

• The guiding question or claim the review serves (a thesis chapter, a paper's related-work section, a research proposal, a decision memo). Default framing if none given: "What is known, what is contested, and what is missing about X?"
• The corpus: papers supplied, or search scope (fields, venues, timeframe) if collection is part of the job.
• Audience and length target (a related-work section runs 800-1,500 words; a standalone review 3,000+).
• Inclusion posture: representative coverage is the default; if the user says "every study, defensibly complete," stop and route to systematic-review - that job needs a protocol.

Label assumed scope as a guess and confirm.

Step 2: Scope and collect