Literature Review
Assignment
Requirements: Your Review of the Literature should
have no fewer than ten (out of the 12 from your sources matrices) credible sources
(no Wikipedia or textbooks), at least five of which should be scholarly (peer
reviewed) articles and may be primary or secondary (remember that book reviews, introductions, and editorials in scholarly
journals are not peer reviewed). You may exceed the 10-source minimum as
long as there are five scholarly articles. The remaining five items may be
popular, trade/professional, scholarly or any combination of those categories. Your
Literature Reviews should include correct in-text citations and a “References” (APA)
or Works Cited (MLA) page at the end for full citations of your sources. As we
have discussed all semester, topics and the research questions you generate
must be relevant to your major. Any changes in topics as previously declared
must be approved by me in advance.
Grading: The literature review
assignment is worth 250 points.
Objective: To
gain mastery over your research material by carefully organizing,
synthesizing, and evaluating
sources with a view to possibilities for your topic, whether they are your
recommendations for best practices or ideas for future research. Thus, the
Literature Review is not an end in itself, but should be seen as a means of
gathering important information so you may answer the question: What should
happen next to solve a problem, add to research efforts, or improve current
practices?
Audience: Academic,
including advanced students and practitioners in your field. Your choice
of diction should reflect that of the discourse communities you are entering
(i.e., don’t dumb it down for the teacher:) Avoid contractions and “I,”
me,
tons, great, really, basically, etc.
SLOs:
This assignment is designed to demonstrate how you have
met the following student learning outcomes as set by the
Students as Scholars program:
*articulate
and refine a research question
*follow
ethical principles (avoid plagiarism!)
*distinguish
between personal beliefs and evidence (for those in the
sciences note the difference
between results and interpretation)
*gather,
evaluate, and analyze evidence that will help you explore your research question
*communicate
your original thinking throughout the course of the literature
review by engaging with your source material
and, as stated above, considering what new research, program(s), or changes to
best practices might solve a problem or meet a challenge.
For this assignment you will not be writing summaries of
your sources. Instead, you will compose a review that does the following:
Discovers conflicts, contradictions, and variables among the
authors’ ideas/methods/evidence;
·
Reveals
gaps in the research to identify a possible direction for your own conclusions/recommendations/ideas
for research;
·
Demonstrates
the relationships between your sources which will enable you to organize them into categories (category
titles will appear as subheadings in your review; the mind map should help here);
methodologies, definitions, results, etc. should be compared when possible. Avoid
summing up sources without making connections between them. The examples in our
readings and sample literature reviews should be helpful in that they will show
how to set up categories (subheadings) and demonstrate very strong
relationships between the sources. In your review language such as “Like Jones,
or “While Smith believes (blah, blah, Jones argues that__________” shows that
you are not only examining individual authors but you are also able to view the
nuances of your issue by making these connections.
·
Provides
your own critique (add your voice!) of
sources as you review them, as well as in the conclusion which should include a
brief overview of positions presented, as well as your take on the overall
significance of others’ findings that could contribute to your own recommendation(s)
or possible future research project. Be sure you can answer “what should happen
next?” after all that research.
Summary of Guidelines and Hints for Writing the Rough Draft:
1. Careful reading of your sources will make
their synthesis easier as categories will suggest themselves. For example,
individual sources for the topic of HIV/AIDS might mention the current state of
the disease, the geographic distribution of those affected, various treatments,
and prevention; take notes on each time your authors make a point that falls
into one of those categories. As mentioned above, these categories will be your
subheadings.
You will begin with an
introduction that should identify the topic area in broad terms, and then
narrow it down to your particular interest in the subject and state your
research question. For example, bacteria are becoming increasingly drug
resistant with consequences for all living things. Then you could mention some of these
threats before saying something like “one source is the excessive
amounts of preventative antibiotics administered to animals raised for
human consumption.” Your research question might be “Are there
alternatives to using antibiotics to prevent disease in livestock?” It is also important to stress why your
topic is important (statistics are a useful way to draw attention to the
significance of your issue) and to whom (So what? Who
cares?). A “road map” at the end outlining your categories will
help to prepare the reader for what you are about to say. We will
have a separate peer review in class for the introduction.
If there are differences
in definitions of key terms among your sources, point them out early in
the review.
Include a Methods section after the
introduction where you state the search terms and databases you examined.
Each category/subheading
should contain a synthesis of its authors’ points and, when possible or
appropriate, your own response to the person(s)’ ideas, methods, etc. Remember that noting that an article
was “easy” or “hard” to read is not a critical comment.
If you deem one study or theory is of particular importance, say so and why you think so (it is bigger,
more recent, had a better methodology which included_______).
Avoid quoting!! It
is important to realize that the ability to put a complex argument or
concept into your own words demonstrates a deeper understanding of the
material than just quoting significant passages.
Mark boundaries!! Be very careful that you clearly indicate
where your sources and your own comments begin and end. Not doing so can,
at the very least, be confusing, and at worst it is plagiarism. There will be an in-class
exercise on this later in the semester.
Cite all sources
carefully, both in-text and on the References page. Sloppy citations will
cost points.
Be aware of the
publication dates of your sources. A 5-year range for scholarship in the
sciences is appropriate; if you have earlier studies you may certainly use
them, but let the reader know you are aware of the difference and defend
its use, e.g., although study X was published in 1999, all subsequent
studies have adopted some of the authors’ results.
As suggested above, your
conclusion should sum up your reaction to the research, but also point to
your own questions, conclusions, or recommendations on the topic.
Hint: Some suggestions
you’ve heard before: Read each article more than once!! And take notes!! I
can’t emphasize these points enough. I love trees but printing out on-line
articles and making notes in the margins, as well as underlining key passages,
will make your lives much easier.
I have referred to the following for some of this
assignment:
Galvan, J.L. (2009). Writing
literature reviews. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
