there is a recurring pattern of ‘steps’ that often repeat themselves in individual paragraphs in a literature review:  

1. introducing a single study or a group of studies in connection to a claim – ‘opening’ statement (functions as a topic sentence)
2. providing a positive and/ or negative evaluation of studies’ contributions through generalized statements (optional)
3. narrowing the focus down to findings of single studies (from one to a few sentences per study)
4. making a positive and/ or negative evaluation of (optional).