Project Outline and Literature Review
Resources
- Project Outline and Literature Review Scoring Guide.
- Capella Online Writing Center - APA Style and Format.
- Capella University Library.
- Capella University Library - RefWorks.
- Smarthinking.
- What Is the Literature Review?.
- Writing Feedback Tool.
Overview
Entering an academic conversation involves many steps. Two of the most fundamental of these steps involve reading material in the field and forming a perspective on what you have read. Academics demonstrate their perspective on the material in the field by composing a literature review.
The purpose of this assignment is to assist you in gathering pertinent research for your final project. Begin by developing an outline that presents categories such as the background, theory, and challenges of the cultural conflict that you identified for your research topic. Then complete a literature review for each category. In brief, a literature review covers multiple areas on the topic including:
- Key concepts.
- Existing theories.
- What is known.
- What is not well understood.
- Why it is important to study this topic.
- What research methods seem most appropriate.
A literature review traces the genealogy of a topic in the field; it notes the history of the topic and the notable perspectives of others in the field who have addressed the topic. The purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that a writer has insightfully and critically surveyed relevant literature in order to convince a targeted audience that this topic is worth addressing. The literature review is not intended to report the literature, but instead to synthesize it.
By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria:
Competency 2: Analyze individual cultural competencies.
Competency 3: Analyze culturally and developmentally appropriate intervention strategies.
- Analyze findings on intervention strategies published by cultural and ethnic researchers.
Competency 4: Apply theories, methods, and research in cross-cultural awareness.
- Interpret scholarly resources for cultural theories and practices relevant to the proposed topic.
- Examine the research on challenges facing a population.
Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the human services profession.
- Communicate in a professional manner using scholarly resources that support the analysis through clear, concise, well organized, and grammatically correct writing that incorporates appropriate APA style and conventions.
Assignment Instructions
Complete a 3-5 page literature review that cites 8-10 recently published (within the last five years), peer-reviewed resources that inform your research topic. It will be helpful to consider making an outline for your final paper. The literature review should minimally include:
- Restatement of the cultural conflict identified in your Unit 2 assignment.
- Discussion of the population or populations.
- Theories and research that explore the problem.
- Challenges facing the population or populations.
- Identification and analysis of personal competencies.
While you may find additional resources to use in your final submission, these sources should provide a conceptual framework of theories and strategies for your intervention.
Your literature review should cover the elements above and provide enough detail for your instructor to assess the relevance of your research and the application of the research to develop an evidence-based intervention plan for your project.