What is a literature review? Definition, structure and example
What a literature review is, what it is for and how to write one that synthesizes sources, with an original example excerpt and a step-by-step method.
Sources and citations
Build a library of sources, read them with notes and cited summaries, and cite them in your style. Verify citations checks your work without grading it.
Start writing freeWhat you can do
- Add sources by uploading PDF, Word, text or Markdown files, saving a web page, looking a paper up by DOI or title, or entering the details yourself.
- Read each source in the Reader, jump to a page, and save a passage as a note that links back to where it came from.
- Get a summary of a source where every point cites the passage it came from, and ask questions with answers that cite the source.
- Find starting sources for a topic: candidates from papers and the web arrive one by one, and you add or dismiss each.
- Cite sources from your library in APA, MLA, Chicago (author-date or notes-bibliography), Harvard or IEEE, with page numbers or other locators, and switch style at any time.
- Your reference list builds itself under your draft, and sources missing details your style needs are flagged for you to fix.
- Verify citations runs three separate checks: formatting, whether each source can be identified, and whether it supports the sentence that cites it. It points out problems and never grades your work.
Guides
What is paraphrasing? How to paraphrase and cite it properly
What paraphrasing is, how it differs from summarizing and quoting, and how to paraphrase a source honestly in five steps, with before-and-after examples.