Small-Scale Literature Review Assignment

A literature review is a descriptive summary of research on a topic that has previously been studied. The purpose of a literature review is to inform readers of the significant knowledge and ideas that have been established on a topic. Its purpose is to compare, contrast, and/or connect findings that were identified when reviewing researchers’ work. Oftentimes, literature reviews are written to ground a study in a particular context of what is known about a subject in order to establish a foundation for the topic (or question) being researched.

The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate your abilities to research a topic of study s o you can learn to (1) identify and formulate an inquiry question that defines what you’d like to learn, (2) apply your knowledge on reading research that you’ve learned in class, (3) analyze information found in professional sources like journal articles, and (4) synthesize new knowledge into a written small-scale literature review.

Assignment Description:

For this assignment you are asked to complete a small-scale literature review on an issue of your choice. You are asked to locate at least 5 scholarly articles on your topic and write a 4–5-page literature review on the articles you’ve selected.

Steps to complete your small-scale literature review:

1. Choose an issue that you are interested in studying.
2. Formulate a research question that specifically describes what would like to know about your issue.
3. Search the web and library databases to locate journals that address your research question.
4. Find articles, read the abstracts, and skim the articles to determine if they correspond well to your issue AND research question.
5. Select at least 5 scholarly articles for your project.
6. Read your articles and begin to sort and classify them according to their findings.
7. Organize your articles by sorting and classifying their findings in a meaningful way, always considering your original issue and research question.
8. Write an outline for your small-scale literature review. Submit this for class.
9. Write your review.

Outline (for writing your small-scale literature review)

1. Introduction

The introduction is used to establish the context of your review to the reader. To establish the context, it is important to do the following in this opening paragraph:

1. Define the topic of your study and provide any background information that helps your reader to understand the topic.
2. Explain your reason (perspective) for reviewing the literature on this topic.
3. State your research question for this review.

2. Body

This section of your paper begins with an explanation of how you have organized your small-scale literature review and describes findings from articles that provide answers to your research question. Before you begin this section, be sure that you have sorted your articles into different themes based on the articles’ finding (sometimes called results). After you sort your articles, it is important to give your sorted groups a descriptive name. The name of the sorted articles will become your headings for each of the paragraphs that you write in the body of your review. To write the body of your small-scale literature review, it is important to include the following:

1. Write and introduction paragraph for the body of your review. This paragraph tells the reader specific information on how many articles you reviewed and how you sorted the articles into common themes based on the findings (results).
2. This will be a paragraph that describes the first theme that you identified and compare, contrast, and/or connect the articles you’ve selected.
3. This will be a paragraph that describes the second theme that you identified and compare, contrast, and/or connect the articles you’ve selected.
4. This will be a paragraph that describes the third theme that you identified and compare, contrast, and/or connect the articles you’ve selected.

3. Summary

This is the last paragraph of your small-scale literature review. In this paragraph, it is important to summarize the main findings from the articles that you reviewed and to point out the information that you found particularly important to know that answered the research question that you established in the first paragraph of your review. You should not summarize each source, but rather the patterns of main ideas present in the sources.

Try to conclude your paper by connecting your research question back to the context of the general topic of study. Overall, what is the “big picture” of the main findings from the articles that you reviewed?

What is the most important information to know that addressed your research question?

What is the significance of your research question with regard to the context of your general topic? (Remember the “So what; who cares?” aspect of conclusions). Tell your audience why your issue matters and reiterate what you learned in response to your research question.

4. Works Cited/References

Select at least 5 scholarly articles for your project. Aim to include at least three relevant library database sources. Make sure that each source on your works cited/references list makes is represented (and cited) in your literature review.