Narrow Topic and Map the Searched Literature

Instructions

For your assignment last week, you explored the literature related to two potential topics that reflect to your degree and specialization. Based on your readings, choose one topic to explore further for the remainder of this course. Then, continue searching the literature for 5-7 additional scholarly sources.

If you find you are having trouble locating scholarly resources for your topic, you might have to consider expanding your topic or looking at how the topic was studied in other fields. Remember that besides searching the online databases, search through the reference lists of the articles that you have already obtained to locate potential additional resources.

In addition, the majority of the references you select should be contemporary (i.e., published within the last 5 years). This will help ensure your topic is relevant and timely.

As you continue to build your scholarly sources, remember to evaluate the worthiness of each scholarly source and decide whether to include it in your review (use your critical reading and evaluation skills).

Then, use your scholarly resources (should be at least 8 up to this point) to build a concept map to help you further organize your literature review.

Generate lists of topic headings (or themes/categories) using a concept map as suggested in the readings for this week. You do not need to obtain special software to complete this assignment; you can use Microsoft Word, other word processing programs, or free mapping tools noted in the readings.

You should aim to identify at least 3 to 5 themes. Think about your potential dissertation topic, the brief literature review paper that is due later in the course, and the literature you have identified.

Then, select the themes accordingly. The goal is to help you organize the literature so that when you begin to write the literature review, you can write in a more efficient and organized manner.

Length: 2 pages (minimum; one page should be the concept map, the second page should be the reference page)

Your paper should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

Sources:

1) Identify Themes

This week, you will work on narrowing your topic as well as building your resources on that topic. In addition, you will learn about another way to process the information you are reading. Last week, you organized information in tables.

This week, you will work on using a concept map. These assignments are meant to help you determine how you best process information. Regardless of what method you decide to use, please continue to use the reference management system you chose in Week 1 to help keep track of all your resources (see also Phelps, Fisher, & Ellis, 2007 for additional suggestions).

The readings will also help you understand how to use concept mapping to organize the searched literature into themes or categories. This is an important assignment that will help you organize your materials and your thinking as you begin to embark upon writing the review that is intended to help you identify potential areas of inquiry for your dissertation.