Overview: Audience and Purpose
Through the annotated bibliography (AB), you surveyed a wide range of sources relating generally to your field of study. This general research gave you an idea of the conversations going on in your field. You may have narrowed your research to a specific topic. To continue exploring your field, you will now investigate a specific conversation going on in your field and share what you learn by writing a literature review (LR).
This assignment, the Literature Review, is multi-purposed; students successfully completing the LR will:
increase their own understanding of their topics
demonstrate to a professional, academic audience that they are learning the basic concepts and current trends in a field of study
demonstrate proficiency in college research and research writing by curating and assembling a variety of credible source materials and synthesizing those materials in a logical, coherent product.
As you write, think about a future faculty mentor who might share your research interest. To persuade them that you can conduct solid undergraduate research in your field, you’ll need to consider: How do your future professors expect you to conduct research and write about that research? What authors and/or sources would they expect to see? What would they expect in terms of tone, word choice, and citation?
Description
The body of the LR consists of three labeled parts: the background and Context of the issue, the Current research, and a Significance section in which you evaluate the progress and significance of the research. The LR includes an APA-style References page and a reflection letter in which you introduce your LR to readers and discuss your processes and development as a researcher and writer.
Lit Review
Sections
Context
In 1 ½-2 pages double spaced, introduce your topic. Explain enough background to show how it does or could affect a discipline, community, or other important group, and explain your overall organizational theme or pattern. You might share your initial discovery of this issue, problem, or area of study, so your reader can understand your perspective or explain what is interesting to you about your topic and why. There should be minimal outside sources in this area. Maybe a statistic, but no evaluation of sources in this part.
Current Research
In this section, the writer categorizes and organizes the sources so that the reader understands relationships between them. Organize your sources into categories labeled with sub-headings that break the general topic into logical parts or themes. Show the reader how the sources work together and against each other to provide a fair, comprehensive picture of the current state of the issue. This is not the time or place to insert your opinion of the sources; your input is how you choose to organize to reveal connections, gaps, opposing and/or competing views.
Use at least six sources including a range of credible, authoritative sources from different viewpoints, experiences, publication types, and authors (remember: scholars, experts, popularizers, public intellectuals, citizen reporters). Frame and document all sources using APA in-text citation guidelines. I would imagine this section would be 3-5 pages. This section will definitely be the longest of the entire paper.
Significance
The discussion is your chance to comment on the research you’ve curated for this LR. Reflect on what you’ve learned about your topic, what you understand differently. Draw attention to the aspects of research you find most interesting and important. Who stands to benefit from this research and how? Tell us how your research might continue, had you time and resources (that might include how you would move on to the “next” thing, too). This section should be 1 ½-2 pages in length.
Format and Citation requirements: Your LR must be 8-10 pages-double spaced (and must follow this order: Title Page, Context, Current Research, and Significance sections, APA Reference Page), double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point Times New Roman font, and conform to APA Style.