For this assessment, you will be required to find 10 scholarly sources and write a formal literature review. Despite varying standards over what constitutes as an adequate review, I lean heavily toward the side of brevity.
- Your first paragraph(s) will frame your problem, mention the social importance of the issue, and highlight the gap in the research that will be addressed by your study. Keep your personal feelings out of the paper (e.g., do not say “in my opinion” or state your beliefs).
- From here, you should transition into the (likely) multiple explanations for why the problem occurs. You should reference the studies that have been done (using in-text citations), and briefly summarize their findings (this works even better if you can thematically shift from one group of studies to the next). The idea is similar to filling in a puzzle: your study is supposed to offer the last piece (or, at least, an original piece). The latent reason for this section is to demonstrate to your readers that you “know your stuff” and that you are “giving credit where it is due.”
- During the above process, you will work yourself into “standing upon” some set of expectations or prevailing theory- something you believe offers the explanatory power or a set of principles your data will support (note: “will”- obviously, you do not know this).