Identify topic and research question: Be sure to identify your topic and research question. It is important to provide context to the literature review by explaining your topic and making the area of literature that you are reviewing clear. Discuss trends in the literature: Identify trends in the literature, specifically focusing on a critical evaluation of development and changes in theoretical assertions and variations in methodologies. Evaluation: Evaluate similarities and differences in conclusions across the studies, and note the way in which methodologies might have impacted those conclusions. Summarize: Summarize the major contributions of each study, and highlight areas in which themes overlap between studies and create broad main areas of research on your topic. Gaps: Identify any gaps in the research on your topic. Conclusion: Conclude by drawing together the main ideas and themes presented in the literature with a critical evaluation of similarities and differences between the studies.