Composing A Literature Review For A Marketing Research Paper


Before you offer your analysis concerning the prevailing marketing trends and strategies through your marketing research paper, it is necessary that you provide your target readers with the background for your work. This is where literature review comes in. In carrying out a literature review for your marketing academic paper, you are practically looking into previously published analyses in the same field of study and presenting them as a summary in your paper. With these secondary data, you will then be able to come up with an original conclusion for your own paper, supported fully by the primary data you gathered from different sources.


Therefore, in composing a literature review for a marketing research paper, you are expected to give a detailed description, classification and accurate evaluation of the various analyses published on the marketing topic you have chosen to write on. Here are some of the things you should know as you get ready to compose your paper’s literature review. They are as follows:


  • Maintain Proper Structure: Your paper’s literature review is just like an essay and as such, there has to be an introduction, body, and finally, conclusion. In the introduction segment, you are expected to include your paper’s question, clearly explaining the significance of the question and any other information that would make your target readers understand your paper more. In the body, you summarize, compare, and evaluate the sources or information gathered. Finally, you conclude by providing a summary of the major issues with the literature under review. It is also that segment that allows you to convince your readers on the importance or significance of your research and what areas should be covered by subsequent researches.

  • Maintain Proper Organization: Just like the main body of your paper, it is important that you maintain proper organization as you compose your paper’s literature review. If proper organization is not maintained, it would make your paper boring and confusing. This is not something you want as it would surely affect your grades. There are various organizing principles which you should follow and they include the following

    1. Thematic
    2. Chronological
    3. Qualitative
    4. Methodological

  • Write Clearly: Apart from properly structuring your paper and maintaining proper organization, it is also important that you write clearly. This means that every statement you make in your research paper should be clear so that your readers understand where you stand or your viewpoint. Apart from the use of normal marketing terms, make sure to write in simple and easy to understand words and phrases.