As the name implies, a literature review involves searching or reviewing published studies and summarizing what the literature (published articles or groups of articles) say on certain topics or issues – like those six topics or issues we already covered in Issues Identification Assignment in Module 2 of this class. So you may be discussing what ONE article says on police brutality (for example), or what several articles say on the same issue. So you select an issue from the Courtelaney scenario (either within or outside the six issues you identified in module 2 and you search the literature (published works) and you summarize the consensus view(s) of articles on the issue … Some times you discuss consensus view(s) of articles on the issue and sometimes you say all or some of the different views or the majority views of different articles on the same issue or subject … then you pick another issue and you repeat as above with that next issue. You will notice that sometimes the literature does not have any consensus or clear cut view(s) on an issue ….
In literature review, this time (as opposed to annotated bibliography), you are looking at FINDINGS of “all” or “many” or “one” or “majority” or “quite sizeable number of” published articles on an issue versus in annotated bibliography where you looked at just ONE ARTICLE at a time for an annotation, evaluation …. etc. Here you can also evaluate FINDINGS of articles or group of articles on an issue …
However, please follow an identifiable pattern in your literature review – for examples, you can start from more serious issues or from more contemporary issues or from issues where there are lots of published article or you can group similar issues together and discuss as one … but in any case, you need to cite lots and lots of published works on each issue saying what published works say on such issues … etc
Also, remember that you are reviewing the literature to summarize what the literature says on certain issues. So I expect to hear lots of “According to the literature …. One study suggests …. Another article by XXX says … a group of work suggest … etc.” You need to cite lots and lots of literature on the issues ….. Yes, you pick an issue and then summarize what the literature (published studies) say on that issue. Issues including under –representation of minorities in a police department; police arrest quotas; traffic lights; botched investigation; … etc” So on any of these or all of the above issues as examples, what does the literature say?
Be sure to review strong (peer reviewed) studies and be sure to review sufficient number of studies.
Although 3-4 pages of narratives required, you posted less. Please try to meet the full requirements of each assignment. Expand and develop some of the nice thoughts and ideas you had on the major issues.
