literature review paper

ENG 106

Literature Review Assignment Three

A Literature Review is a coherent paper of literature on a given topic. It is a review of literature directly related to the topic or problem under study, followed by an explanation of how your research question grows out of that review. The purpose of the literature review is to know what others have discovered before you begin your investigation of your own, to ground your research paper.

The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate your abilities to research a topic of interest to (1) identify and formulate an inquiry question that defines what you’d like to learn, to (2) know how to search and locate literature (journal articles) using the library and scholarly internet resources, to (3) analyze information found in these articles, and to (4) synthesize new knowledge into a written literature review paper.

Assignment Information:

Complete a literature review on a particular social justice topic of your choice. Please be sure to write about any of the themes related to this course: Immigration, Systemic Racism, Mass Incarceration, Poverty, Privilege, Transgender, Gender, or Healthcare Inequities. Keep in mind you are NOT writing a research paper.

You are analyzing literature based on a research question and delving into a particular topic of your choice.

Locate at least 10 scholarly articles on your topic and write a 6 to 8-page literature review. (Six sources must be from the UM Library)

It is strongly recommended that you read the literature and establish 2 to 3 themes. Use approximately 4 articles per theme.

Steps to complete your literature review:

1. Choose a topic that you are interested in studying.

2. Formulate an inquiry question that specifically describes what would like to know about your topic.

3. Go to the UM Library (online is fine) and search for and locate journals that include your topic’s information

4. Find articles, read the abstracts and skim the articles to determine if they correspond well to your topic AND inquiry question.

5. Read your articles and begin to sort and classify them by theme according to their findings (Use the Matrix it is part of the project).

6. Organize your articles by sorting and classifying their findings in a meaningful way, always considering your original topic and inquiry question.

7. Write your introduction then provide the lit review.

8. Be sure to separate your literature by themes (subtopics) on the Matrix and submit it.

Outline for writing your literature review:

1. Introduction (without a heading)

Write an introduction paragraph for your review. This paragraph

a. states the topic and inquiry question for this review

b. tells the reader specific background information to the issue and hand

2. Literature Review (Heading)

Before you begin this section, be sure that you have sorted your articles into different themes based on the articles’ findings (sometimes called results or outcomes or perspectives). After you sort your articles, it is important to give your sorted groups a thematic name. The names of the sorted articles will become your headings for each of the sections that you write in the body of your review. The body of your literature review will include,

a. Theme 1: several paragraphs that describe the first issue that you identified and compare, contrast and/or connect the articles you’ve selected in relation to that theme.

b. Theme 2: several paragraphs that describe the first issue that you identified and compare, contrast and/or connect the articles you’ve selected in relation to that theme.

3 Conclusion (Provide a Heading)

This is the last paragraph of your literature review. In this paragraph, it is important to summarize the main findings from the articles that you reviewed and to point out how your inquiry questions were answered or not answered, what the gap is there if any.

4. References

This is the last page of your review. It serves as a listing of all references that you mentioned in your paper. Please make sure that only references cited in your drafts will be listed here. Please use APA style when completing this list.

5. Additional Information

Remember to create an APA formatted cover page. Be sure you check your grammar usage and do not forget to synthesize your sources you are not describing the literature you are analyzing it.

Literature Review

Grading Rubric

The following chart will be used as a rubric to assess a small-scale literature review:

	Super 100-90	Acceptable 89-80	Needs Work 79 or below
Content	This inquiry question was well established in a narrow context of a social justice topic.	The inquiry question was established in the context of a social justice topic	The inquiry question was established in the broad context of a social justice topic.
	At least 10 articles were selected, and each specifically related to the initial inquiry question.	At least 9 articles were selected and related to the initial inquiry question.	At least 8 articles were selected; some minimally related to the inquiry question.
	The findings/results/outcomes/perspectives of articles were thoughtfully compared, contrasted and/or connected to each other, and analyzed.	The finding of articles were compared, contrasted and/or connected to each other with some analysis.	The findings of articles were mentioned with little and or no comparison or connection to each other. Little analysis was provided.
	The conclusion of the review summarized the knowledge found from this review and related the knowledge gain to the inquiry question.	The conclusion of the review summarized the knowledge found from this review.	The conclusion of the review did not summarize the knowledge found from this review.
	The references were cited correctly using APA style	The references were cited but not correctly in some areas.	The references were not cited correctly.
Organization	The review was organized using APA headings and subheadings. The review was suitably organized considering the contents of the selected articles.	The review was suitably organized considering the contents of the selected articles. Headings but no subheadings provided.	The review was minimally organized, and writing was disorganized in each heading.
Mechanics	There were no grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors and transitional phrases were used to guide the reader throughout the text.	There was an occasional grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation error that did not distract the reader.	There were many grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors that distracted the reader from the content of the writing.