LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
For this assignment, you will develop a condensed literature review on a topic you chose. The literature you select should be relevant to a current issue, problem, innovation, change, or trend in your field or specialization.
Writing a literature review is a key part of academic work. A literature review is a piece of writing that describes what has been learned about a topic through previous research efforts. The literature review is essentially a report on work previously done in a field, to show an understanding of the context for your own writing.
Your literature review should include a minimum of five references from peer-reviewed journal articles related to your field or specialization. As a reminder, you can refer to How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles? for assistance in searching for appropriate reference materials.
Literature Review Guide
A literature review is not a summary of individual sources in a list, such as in the form of an annotated bibliography. Instead, the literature review should integrate in-text citations within the paragraphs to support your analysis of the scholarly readings you selected. You will seek key themes from the different scholarly journals.
Use Academic Writer for guidance in citing sources and formatting your paper in proper APA style. See the Evidence and APA section of the Writing Center for instructions on accessing and using Academic Writer.
Critical thinking: Be sure to analyze and evaluate the articles, not just report what was written. What should you add?
Integration: Integrate information from across the sources in your review. Look for themes and commonalities. Do not just review one article after another in a linear fashion. Use headings and subheadings to organize your paper around themes you identify.
Review of the rubric: Apply critical thinking to analyze scholarly articles and point out conflicting evidence or perspectives. Apply critical thinking to evaluate scholarly articles and identify criteria used for evaluation. Synthesize information to identify missing information that limits understanding of the topic.
Critical Thinking Examples
Apply principles of critical thinking to analyze scholarly articles and point out any conflicting evidence or perspectives. For example:
“Articles X and Y (citation) promote a constructivist approach, which is in direct contrast to the behaviorist approach advocated in article Z (citation).”
Apply principles of critical thinking to evaluate scholarly articles and identify the criteria used for the evaluation. For example:
“There is a weakness in the inference made by the author (citation), as the conclusion of XXXX was not clearly supported by the data.”
“The author (citation) never clearly defined the concept of XYZ.”
Synthesize information gathered in a review of scholarly literature and identify any missing information that limits understanding of the topic. For example:
“The five articles addressed how schools are approaching XXX, but they all focused on suburban, public schools. More breadth of scope is needed to fully understand the implications of the issue.”
Instructions
Before you begin your paper, examine the scoring guide to see the grading criteria.
Use the Sample Course Paper Template [DOCX] as a guide for formatting and organizing your course papers.
Use the Week 4 Writing Revision Matrix [DOCX] template to address feedback you receive on your paper from your instructor. Refer to the Writing Revision Matrix instructions below for further information.
Paper Organization
Start with a title page and organize your paper with the following guidelines:
Title page: Use [Chosen Topic]: Literature Review as your paper title.
Introduction: The opening content should directly follow the title of the paper (repeated from the title page) and provide an introduction of your chosen topic and overview of what will be included in your paper.
Overview of topic: Begin the body of your paper with an overview of the topic you chose for this review. Your topic description can begin with a broad consideration related to education. Write in third person and include literature support.
Topic relation to specialization: Provide a detailed description and examples of how the topic you chose to review specifically relates to your specialization. Write in third person and include literature support.
Review of the literature: The literature review should include a minimum of five references from peer-reviewed journal articles related to your education specialization.
Keep in mind, as you review your articles, the process of questioning. For example, how the articles present similar or contrasting information about your topic, how well the articles support your perspective on the topic, and if you discovered something new about your topic through your literature review.
Continue to write in third person and leverage the literature.
Apply principles of critical thinking to your analyses and evaluations of the literature you review.
Conclusion: Your conclusion should emphasize the main themes in your paper and provide a synthesis of the literature reviewed.
References: Include a minimum of five different scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles (related to your field of specialization) that are also cited in the paper. Your citations must have references, and your references need to be included within your paper as in-text citations.
Additional Requirements
In addition to the requirements outlined above, your assignment should meet the following:
Assignment template: Use the Sample Course Paper Template [DOCX] for the assignment.
Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Sources: A minimum five peer-reviewed scholarly sources.
APA formatting: Follow current APA style and formatting for in-text citations. For more information on the APA guidelines for in-text citations, go to Academic Writer and use the Learn tab to find the Quick Guides on Citing Sources and Paper Format and Organization.
Include a title page with the following title: [Chosen Topic]: Literature Review.
Be sure to include, on the references page, a minimum of five different scholarly, peer-reviewed journals (related to your field of specialization) that are also cited in the paper. Your citations must have references, and your references should be included within your paper as in-text citations.
Length: The paper should be 710 double-spaced pages in length, in addition to the title page and references page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Portfolio Prompt: Consider saving this assignment to your ePortfolio. The work you submit for this course will only be retrievable for a limited time, and you may want or need to access these assignments in the future.
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