 Jacob remembers the first time his professor assigned a literature review. It was part of a final research project. He wondered, what is a literature review? Should he read a bunch of classic novels and review them? Jacob learned in the academic world the term literature is often used to describe the collected body of scholarly works related to a topic. This most often includes books and articles published in academic peer review journals. A literature review involves locating, reading, and analyzing these scholarly works. The purpose of the literature review is to engage in a scholarly conversation. In other words, when Jacob reviews the literature, he is listening to a conversation. He finds out about previous research studies conducted, the findings of that research, and suggestions for future research. Literature reviews also help researchers gain a variety of perspectives about a topic and find areas of scholarly disagreement. As a sociology student, Jacob would consult the literature to guide the development of his own research questions. For example, he used the library's databases to find several articles from researchers who had conducted studies on food deserts, a topic of interest to them. In gathering multiple sources, Jacob listened to multiple perspectives and realized there was some debate and gaps. For example, he learned that research about community gardens and urban areas was lacking. Jacob understands not every article he reads will say the same thing or provide the same evidence. In conducting a literature review, it's his job to identify the gaps in the disagreement. Jacob will have to evaluate the various findings in the research presented and develop his own conclusions. In the end, Jacob understood the purpose of a literature review was not only to enhance his own knowledge of a topic, but to provide support for his research and help him develop ideas for his own research.