How long should the literature review section be in a mid‑length paper?

Just trying to get a sense of what’s “normal” for a literature review. I’m working on a paper that’s supposed to be around 12–15 pages, and I’m not sure how much space I should be devoting to the lit review. I started pulling sources and summarizing them, and before I knew it, I had written almost 5 pages. That feels like… too much? But then again, I didn’t want to skip over anything important. This happened to me last semester too, where I ended up having to cut the literature review down last minute. Anyone got a rough rule they follow?

Yeah, I’ve run into the same thing before. When I was writing a mid-length psych paper, I started off thinking I’d just do a page or two for the literature review, but then I found myself going down rabbit holes with all these related studies. What helped me was breaking it into themes and being selective about what really needed to be there to support my argument. I found https://www.customwritings.com/howtowrite/post/how-long-should-research-paper-be/ really useful when I was trying to figure out general proportions for each section. They give a good sense of how paper length impacts structure. I’d say for a 12–15 pager, 3 pages max on lit review works well, just enough to give background without taking over the paper.

Popped in just to read a few threads and this one made me think about how much the structure can change between disciplines. In some of my courses, lit reviews were almost like standalone essays, while in others they were just a brief paragraph before diving into the main analysis. I guess there’s a lot of flexibility depending on the expectations of the instructor or the field. Interesting stuff!

Hey, I’ve been in that exact spot, staring at a literature review that kept growing because every source felt essential. What helped me was deciding the role of the review before trimming anything, especially whether it was meant to map debates or justify my angle. While reorganizing, I leaned on science topics for students to reset my scope and see which conversations actually mattered for my question. That made it easier to merge summaries and cut repetition without losing substance. Since then, my lit reviews stay tighter and revisions don’t turn into last-minute panic.