Effective Field Theories

There is nice review on effective field theories, by C. P. Burgess, even though the title, Quantum Gravity and Precision Tests, does not reveal it. It starts with a scalar field theory and shows how to get the effective theory for the light modes. The great advantage over other papers is that it does not pay attention to the technicalities but rather to the ideas involved. It is ideal for those who are starting to study the subject. Of course, once you get this bird eye view of the subject you must then work out the technical details looking at other papers in the reference. The second part, which is much shorter than the first one, is dedicated to show how quantum effects can be computed in general relativity even though it is not renormalizable. It is really a good starting point.