LITERATURE REVIEW ASSIGNMENT

OVERVIEW

The Literature Review Part 1 is the first half of your original communication literature review project and builds upon your Topic Proposal assignment. This first part of the paper focuses on introducing the topic, providing a rationale for studying the topic, and setting up the structure of the body of the paper.

This paper should be approximately two pages and conform to APA 6th Ed. guidelines. It should also contain a cover page and reference page. You are required to cite a minimum of three scholarly references in this part of the paper and every reference you cite in the paper (and only those references cited in the paper) should be included on a reference page. Any online sources used must be credible sources such as government sites or sites backed by scholarly research. You will be docked 5 points for each scholarly source under three in your paper. In addition, you must write in third person. This means avoiding words such as "you" and "we." Use past tense when reviewing findings from previous research, but use present tense when discussing the implications of studies.

INTRODUCTION: The introduction should begin with something that grabs the reader's attention. From there, the introduction should describe the communication-based situation that you are interested in (i.e., your general topic area). Be sure to describe your topic in a way that can be understood by someone with no background in the area. The introduction should also introduce the key variables (independent and dependent), but this should be done in a fluid way (i.e., you should not have the phrase "the independent variable is" and "the dependent variable is" like you did in the Topic Proposal assignment). The introduction should conclude with a clear thesis statement that fully previews the body of the paper and transition sentence leading into the background and need.

BACKGROUND AND NEED: This section (also called the "rationale") is where you justify the selection of your topic. Why is this something we should care about? Ways of justifying the topic include describing its prevalence, implications for individuals, families, organizations, or society. Does your topic have implications for testing or expanding theory? Does it have practical implications? Be sure to support any claims that you make here with scholarly sources. This section should conclude with a transition leading to the body of the paper (i.e., the review of literature).