Literature review EPQ format

For my EPQ I created two tables, one for sources I read and did use and for ones I read and didn't use. I recommend doing a literature review for the each page you did w.g. if you wrote 16 pages (not including titles and bibliography) do a literature review for 16 of your sources (this can be split between ones you used and ones you did not use).

Here are the headings I used:

Theme ¦
General theme of the source

Year ¦
Year it was published

Authour(s) ¦
Explains itself

Title ¦
Title of the source

Impact factor ¦
Only applicable for journal, refers to the number of citations it gets in a year which you can google

Effectiveness of source
Why did you use this source etc. how did it shape your project

If you choose not to include a source state your reason for rejection




Note this is just one way of doing it

i dont quite understand. You created a table for your literagure review on your essay?

And what do you mean by the pages example? You mean I have to create a lirerature review seperately for each page?

Yes I'll screenshot the example


by number of sources i mean, for example, if I write 16 pages in total, then i will review 16 sources, 17 pages and i will do 17 sources etc.
I hope that helps

Yes I'll screenshot the example


by number of sources i mean, for example, if I write 16 pages in total, then i will review 16 sources, 17 pages and i will do 17 sources etc.
I hope that helps

Yes I'll screenshot the example


by number of sources i mean, for example, if I write 16 pages in total, then i will review 16 sources, 17 pages and i will do 17 sources etc.
I hope that helps


Edit - by discussing the effectiveness of the sources you are essentially analysing each one, which counts towards the 20% a04 - review marks

To what im aware, isnt a Literature review supposed to be a paragraph withing your esaay (after the intro and before the main body)?

I placed my literature review after my summary and conclusion, after that was my bibliography, then my appendix.

My teachers were fine when I submitted and I've already got my grades.

Though as I said this is one system, do a method which is most comfortable for you that allows you to properly express your ideas in the best way

Another way you can do it is an essay based style where you write a paragraph for each source, discuss the nature of the source and analyse the usefulness of each one and how it impacted your project e.g. what information it brought

It just has to be a review of sources, it does not necessarily have to be in that style, though if that is the style you have been advised to use by your teachers I would strongly suggest using it.

In my EPQ it wasn't appropriate as it disrupted the flow of writing due to how I structured it, which is why I used a table instead.

However, the same categories in the tables can be discussed within the essay

To what Im aware, In the traditional literature review, you dont talk about all your sources coz in my case I have like 40. if I talk about it all in my essay, my word count be messed up. Isnt it correct?

No, I apologise for the confusion.

My biblography was all the sources I had used throughout my essay.

My literature review was a select few of my sources (16 of them in total) which I analysed and discussed their effictiveness or why I rejected them. The idea of analysing your sources is relevant to source analysis. I'm essentially saying you van combine your analysis of sources with your literature review.

I did also do my biblography and literraure review separately.

My appendix contained any tables, diagrams etc. which I used to support my essay/project as well as a defining scientific terms or in your case you could define economic terms.

Again sorry for the confusion

Some schools say different things that's why i distinguished them, essentially literature review and source analysis are the same thing. The act of you discussing the sources is the analysis.

Literature review did count as it was not in the appendix, my word count was about 8600 with bibliography included

thanks so much for the help!

One last time simple question and Ill leave you. Does the bibliograph usually count in word count? And did the your word count exceesing recommened 5000 words cut you grade?

No the bibliography does not count in the word count, neither does anything in the appendix.

If I count all of that out my word count was 5600 roughly, I used my appendix to kind of circumvent the word count , in the end I got A* even though it went over a bit , just try to keep it around 5000 but you don't get to strigently marked when you go over, it becomes a problem once you start hitting 10,000 etc.


happy i could help

so your bibliography was 3000 words???? how many sources did u have?
and you used your appendix to describe some things instead of doing it in essay to reduce word count?

My biblography and appendix was 3000, I had about 82 sources, several diagrams, annotations and explanations of diagrams and a dictionary.

I could have fully explained from scratch these diagrams but instead i explained them in my appendix with the diagram and then explained the meaning of the diagram in relation to project within my essay e.g.

"As seen in figure 2, bees are more likely to pollinate purple flowers" then i would go to the corresponding diagram in figure 2 and kind of explain the diagram etc.