This is not the introduction to a proposal or article. It is a brief review of literature on a topic that students have frequently expressed interest in. Utilizing the three studies you chose for your evidence table, you will
1. choose a focus for this review based on the research questions addressed by these studies;
2. write an introductory paragraph describing this focus and its importance and relevance;
3. write a paragraph for each of the three studies describing its relationship to the focus of the review, a descriiption of the study design, and the major finding(s);
4. write a final paragraph summarizing what a next study could be in order to investigate a related, unanswered question, or to replicate a finding in some way related to the focus you’ve selected.
Read the introduction sections of your three articles to deepen your understanding of what the authors wished to achieve with their research. These articles were chosen for their similarities to each other, so you may want to go back and forth between the three noting what they say about prior research and ultimately, at the end of their introductions, what they wish to achieve with theirs. If need be, you may decide to pick a different article(s) from the list provided last week, instead of one or more of the articles in your evidence table. Your draft requires three articles.
Summarize the salient aspects of the research designs. In complex studies it is easy to get lost in the weeds – to not know what was crucial about the design and what was needed to provide the authors with sufficient information about participants so as to utilize that in the interpretation of the major findings. If you find that you need to read the design and methods carefully, several times, you are not alone. However, if you have read the introduction, you will be able to see why they did what they did. For this assignment, this is most important – being able to describe what each study contributed, how they are related to each other, and how to briefly describe the design and then the findings. You will not provide statistical results in your review, only the finding as it pertains to each study hypothesis.
You do not have to format this draft in APA format, but you must use APA format for quotations, citations, and the reference list.
