Assignment: Course Project Task V/First Draft of Literature Review

For this Assignment, you will submit your first draft of the literature review using a minimum of 10 sources gathered over the weeks. The purpose of conducting and writing a literature review is to provide an evaluative discussion of the existing research related to your proposed study and gathered thus far, highlight the gaps that remain in the literature, and establish a context and theoretical basis for your study.

As you begin writing this draft of the literature review, consider the following guidelines:

• You are writing to inform/educate your audience. Who is your audience? How much do they know about your research topic?

• You are trying to convince your audience you are competent as a researcher, dealing with your topic and proposed research question. You do this by evaluating and integrating/synthesizing the literature, by examining and naming the patterns existing among the articles, and by discussing the studies you consider strongest within the body of literature you have reviewed.

• You also do this by stating clearly in the beginning your research topic and your proposed research question, a succinct statement of the significance of this topic and question--and, as always your purpose for writing this literature review and your map of the themes/major concepts you intend to evaluate and synthesize.

• You identify the weaknesses and/or gaps you found in the literature, as well as the researchers' suggestions for additional research. A weakness or a gap may be small; for example, a certain population may not have yet been researched for your topic.

• You give clear credit for direct quotes and ideas not original to you. Be overly cautious to avoid plagiarism, using Turnitin as a form of feedback that you have done this well.

• A perfect literature review does not exist in a first draft. Submitting a first draft provides you with feedback from your instructor, and it supports your efforts to perfect your literature review .

• Many writers of literature reviews concentrate on the body of their literature review first and then write the introduction and the summary near the end of their writing. This can be useful, if you are absolutely clear about your purpose for writing this literature review and have your research question clearly written and in front of you, as you state and develop your themes.

• Allow time (12-24 hours) to put your first draft aside, prior to submitting it to Turnitin and then your instructor. Reread your first draft with a fresh mind, and then make any minor adjustments. Use the spell check function on your computer to review your first draft. Proofread your paper in addition to using spell check. And...if at all possible, ask someone to read your paper out loud while you listen, to be as sure as possible that you are very clear in what you are saying.

Write your first draft of the literature review in a minimum of 10 double-spaced pages as a Word document. In your literature review, you should have done the following:

• Begun with an introduction that showed the significance of the topic as well as its historical context and/or how it fits in the broader scholarly literature in this field, while also clearly stating the research topic and the research question [in question form], your purpose for this literature review and the map of the major themes that will form the body of the paper.

• Integrated and evaluated the literature, dividing the body into the patterns you have found within the articles you reviewed. Note: You should have a minimum of 10 articles for your review, shown on the Reference page; at least 1/2 should be empirical studies, indicated by using **.

• Discussed which studies you considered stronger and your rationale

• Identified the gaps in the literature and the suggestions for future research, mentioned by researchers.

• Evaluated and synthesized the literature you chose.

• Given credit for direct quotes and ideas not original to you, using careful quotation and citation format, as needed.

• Avoided plagiarism, cautiously and judiciously.

• Ended with a summary that restated the purpose and map, while giving an overall evaluation of what you considered the most important elements of this review.

• Used spell check to review the first draft and proofread after using spell check.

• Had another reader review your paper, possibly out loud, with you carefully listening for the clarity and sense making.