Literature Review.
Order Description
Mini Literature Review
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to give you practice writing a literature review so that you will be well prepared for your upper division course, especially your capstone class.
Assignment: Your job is to create a chart and write an essay that synthesizes and comes up with an original argument about recent scholarship on a topic chosen by the class. Your essay should discuss the three research studies we read in class.
Here are some questions that MIGHT help you narrow your focus:
? What findings do these scholars agree on?
? What themes do most of these scholars discuss?
? How has our discussion of this topic changed over time?
? How is this literature—as a whole—flawed or incomplete?
Do not answer each of these questions one after the other. I suggest them merely to help you approach the literature critically so that you can come up with your argument. You may decide to base your argument on ONE of these questions, but you don’t have to. Be forewarned though: if you do choose to focus on one of these questions, answering that question alone will not be enough. You will also have to help your reader understand why the answer to that question matters and what consequences it has.
What exactly should the paper include and in what order?
Your essay should be typed and double-spaced with normal margins. It should have the same sections you would find in any research paper or professional literature review:
A. Abstract (paragraph-long description of what you studied, how you did your research and what you found out. This goes on a separate page.)
B. Introduction (with a thesis stating what you studied and what your argument is)
C. Methods (This is where you describe how you did your research)
D. Findings (This is where you describe what the literature says as a whole. Put your chart here.)
E. Discussion (This is where you discuss the real world implications of your findings, including what still needs to researched and what policy or program implications the research raises.)
F. Conclusion (This is where you tie it all up.)
How long should my paper be?
About five pages, but that DOES NOT INCLUDE your title page, your abstract page, your reference page or your chart.
Anything else?
In addition to content, you will be graded on organization, paragraphing, avoiding plagiarism and patch writing, APA formatting and citations, mechanics, grammar and usage.
Below you will find the scoring guide that I will use to evaluate your essay. Review it, print it off and attach it to your final paper. You will be marked down one point if the scoring guide is not attached.
Also be sure to attach your rough drafts if you want to receive points for revision.
Also, be sure to turn a digital copy of your paper to Turnitin.com. Papers not uploaded to Turnitin BY THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THE DUE DATE will receive zero points.
Just so there is no confusion: You must give me a printed copy of your paper (with a scoring guide attached) AND you must upload your paper to TURNITIN.