Literature Review
Introduction
1. Give a more complete overview of your topic
Your research question likely did this in just a few sentences. Now you can take a few paragraphs to explain the topic in more detail, whether that be patterns in the phenomenon (e.g. gun violence, mental illness, breastfeeding, food insecurity, divorce, etc.).
Be sure you establish your problem / phenomenon with EVIDENCE
1. “Guns are common in the United States” is very different from “Firearms are very common in the United States. According to a recent worldwide survey, the rate of firearm
Literature Review
ownership in the United States is the highest in the world (Karp, 2018).
2. Summarize past research on your topic
1. Are there trends in the study of your topic? For example, is past research mostly survey based? Is there a dataset commonly used? Does research focus in certain countries or states? Is it only ever at the “national” level, and rarely at the city level? What are the conclusions of past work (do studies agree on, disagree, mixed evidence)?
1. Make sure you talk about specific studies here! Ideally, you can talk about multiple studies at once, such as a group of studies that use the same dataset or that have looked at your topic with a particular set of assumptions or methods.
3. Critique
What do we still not know about your topic of interest? What “gaps” exist in prior research to which new research should attend?
What are the limitations of past research on this topic?
1. Again, when discussing limitations of past work, be sure to talk about specific studies or groups of studies.
Note: Though there are exceptions, every piece of research has some positives. The more you can recognize what a paper or report does well, the clearer its limitations
in combir n, these two pieces of the literature review provide a firm foundation for you to then jump into your own proposed study, the data you will use, etc.
Your literature review must.
1. Review and appropriately cite at least 6 peer-reviewed research articles on your topic of interest (these 6 can include studies you cite in your Introduction)
• You can also include reports and news stories that leverage verifiable sources / data (More New York Times, Austin Statesman, Wall Street Journal, less Breitbart, Daily Kos, etc.), but these do not count towards your total of 6 peer-reviewed articles.
Summarize and synthesize existing research. A crucial part of a literature review is drawing connections between individual studies. Your literature review should NOT be a longform list of 10 studies that are discussed independently of one another.
Clearly articulate limitations of past work and existing gaps in our understanding of your topic of interest.
In-text citations and a full bibliography of the sources you cite are required in APA format.
The Details:
Papers must be typed and double-spaced with one-inch margins, and 12-point, Times New Roman font
Length: 4-5 pages (<2,000 words, including citations)[order_button_c]
