The Narrative Systematic Review assignment is the assimilation and culmination of the Research Question assignments you have completed throughout this semester. This assignment is your first draft of your review. It will be graded and returned to you with the expectation that you will make the necessary changes and further refine your work to submit in final draft form at a later date.
Because this review is part of a scaffolded assignment, your review should contain edited elements of your research question assignments. However, you should not merely cut and paste these two assignments directly into the review, but rather, you should edit and/or expand what you have already so that it flows with the outline or narrative of your review.
Literature review elements:
Introduction
Define problem area. Why is this important?: Much of this information should come from your first research question assignment. However, you must ensure that you provide significant background information to demonstrate the importance of this issue. Think about questions such as, “How large is this population and how many within this population are dealing with this issue?”, “What are the antecedents that may lead up to this population to have this problem?”, “What are the outcomes for this population if this issue is not addressed?”. There may be other questions to address, but this gives you a good start.
Introduce research question: This should not be fancy. Remember Occam’s Razor. Simply introduce your research question as the purpose of your review.
Scope of the review
This is simply a summary of your process from the second research question assignment. You should not spend pages explaining your process. Instead, summarize your process, including the databases, limits, and keywords you used, along with your search date parameters. You want to demonstrate in this section that you conducted a comprehensive review of the literature and provide at least an initial basis for replication should one wish to do so.
Review of the literature
Synthesis of major findings: Here is where an outline of your review will be helpful, assuming you created one. Remembering your purpose for the review, provide a thorough analysis of the literature. Be comprehensive, but not overly wordy. Aside from outcomes, you might also consider addressing issues related to theory, methodological elements, or other themes that you notice throughout your reading that would contribute to your discussion of the problem and/or intervention. Remember that you are probably the only person to have ever assimilated this particular grouping of articles together, so you have the ability to provide a unique perspective of what the literature tells you.
Conclusion
Summarize the major findings from your review: This should not be lengthy, but it should be a solid summary.
Critique of overall literature: strengths, limitations, gaps in the literature: You may find information for this section in the articles themselves, but you should also provide your own insights. As noted above, you are probably the only person to have ever assimilated this particular grouping of articles together, so you have the ability to provide a unique perspective of what the literature tells you.
Answer your research question: Recommendations/implications for current practice and research: Given what you’ve learned from your review, what are your treatment recommendations? Make sure to justify your recommendations. Similarly, what recommendations for future research do you have in this area?
Format:
Please submit this assignment following APA style guidelines. Papers should be no more than 15 pages, double-spaced and font should be 12 point, preferably Times New Roman or Arial. Include headings for each component/ subcomponent of your paper.
Your review should include the following elements:
Title page: Give your proposal a working title and develop your title page according to APA guidelines. This page does not count in your page count.
Literature review: See elements above. Using headings throughout your review is an important stylistic element. Please use them.
References: List any references you may have used according to APA guidelines. These pages do not count towards your page count.
