Want a Standout Literature Review with a Solid Argument? Avoid the Subheading Trap

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Your literature review needs subheadings. Well, that’s a relief. If that’s all that needs doing, you’re in the home stretch. Just read over your review, locate discrete sections, label them, and Hey Presto! Done. 

Sound too good to be true? Of course it is. And why is that? Subheadings help readers, not writers. And this is probably why readers give this advice so often. 

When faced with long dense blocks of text, readers can feel discouraged, put off. It’s too much! I don’t have time to read all this! Subheadings break up long blocks into manageable chunks that readers can tackle one chunk at a time. 

Subheadings also make the text scannable – the reader can get a sense of the whole before they dig into the details. Entering a forest of text feels much more doable when the path through is laid out and easy to follow. 

'Subheadings help readers, not writers. That's probably why readers give this advice so often.'

All of that is well and good, and providing subheadings for your reader can be a sensible and considerate thing to do. But for you as the writer, subheadings can be problematic and may even lead you astray. Here are three reasons why. 

Subheadings: A False Sense of Security

Subheadings as you are writing can provide a false sense of security. It feels like you are accomplishing something, but what you are really doing is listing and describing. You wind up with a structure that essentially says Here is a group studies on X. Here is another group of studies on Y. To conclude, here is a group of studies on Z. In this case, subheadings have misled you. You started out to make a case but wound up cataloguing instead. 

Subheadings May Short-Circuit Your Thinking

The minute you label something it becomes difficult to see it any other way, so anything you then do with

that labelled information gets filtered through the label. You stop really seeing the actual thing and depend on the label instead. What if it isn’t the best label? If you assign subheadings too early, this may prevent you from seeing the deeper patterns, the patterns that establish the originality of your work and nail down the reason your research question needs to be asked. 

Subheadings Are Not the Same as the Steps in Your Argument

Your literature review is an argument. In it, you set out a logical, step-by-step case for why your research needs to be done. It is the steps in your argument that give your review structure, clarity, and coherence, not topic labels. As I showed above, topic labels go something like this: Studies on X; Studies on Y; Studies on Z. Steps look more like this: There have been many studies on X; The prevailing view in these studies is that A leads to B; However, newer work in studies on Y show that the supposed relationship between A and B is flawed; We therefore need a study on Z. 

And the Moral of the Story?

For a good solid literature review, it is the steps in your argument that you need to work out. If the steps are not clear and valid you haven’t made an argument, and assigning subheadings will not fix this. 

So here is radical idea. When you’re drafting, don’t use subheadings. Write your chapter as one continuous piece of prose and structure it according to the steps of your argument. In between There have been many studies on X and Therefore, we need my study, the steps will change as your thinking develops and you see those deeper patterns. 

When you are satisfied that your argument is sound and makes the case for your research question, be sure that each step is explicitly stated for your reader in sign-posting sentences that mark the transition from one step to the next. Each step can be a section. 

If you do that well enough, your reader won’t ask for subheadings. Your argument, like any good argument, will stand up on its own. 

Your Blog Author

Dr Susan Mandala is founding director of Writing Works Consulting. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and was for many years an academic at the University of Sunderland, where her favourite role was training PhD candidates to write literature reviews. 

A specialist in the study of language, writing, and style, Susan has 30 years of experience as a teacher, trainer, and workshop facilitator and is dedicated to helping everyone she works with turn great ideas into results with impact through clearer writing, sharper thinking, and more strategic use of language. 

She develops and delivers writing workshops in a range of areas, specialising in academic writing, grammar for writing, and analytical report writing. 

Her signature workshop, How to Really Write Your Literature Review, runs three times a year in October, January, and June (registration and payment through Eventbrite).

The next workshop is coming soon, on June 9th from 5:00-8:00 pm, (BST, UK time), online via Zoom. Registration opens soon, so watch this space and follow me on Eventbrite for details.

Want to know more? 

I’d love to hear from you. 😊

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘As someone new to research, I really needed some support to help me find, navigate and extrapolate the right information from all the research materials available. I was feeling overwhelmed and was reluctant to get started without a system to organise all the information I wanted to gather. Susan’s workshop was just what I needed.’ – Jane Pickthall

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