essay

Essay 3: A Literature Review (20 points) Context: ​A literature review serves two primary purposes - to help the writer or to help the

reader. ● As a pre-writing tool for the author, a literature review is used to ​synthesize ​and ​analyze

carefully collected research. After assessing each source, the literature review will be used to identify and compile major theories, common themes, interesting developments, limitations in the conversation as a whole, out of date but still ​meaningful ​concepts, various perspectives, participants and their influence in others’ publications, etc..

● Literature reviews may also serve as introductions in larger papers, serving to contextualize a writer’s perspective. In this way, readers are able to 1) appreciate the legitimacy of the conversation, 2) understand what others have said before, and 3) appreciate the significance of the writer’s addition to the conversation.

This essay will serve as a pre-writing tool for you. Your goal should not be to prove a point. Your goal for this genre is to discover what others are saying and to have a better understanding of the topic.

Assignment: ​Taking on the issue you have already introduced and proposed to research, use the literature review genre to synthesize and analyze external works that discuss that issue in a variety of ways.

Requirements: ● ​MLA/APA formatted page settings, in-text citations, and a Works Cited/Reference page ● ​Incorporate at least 6 new external scholarly sources (The publications should not be older than 10 years and cannot be repeated from your earlier assignments)

Getting started/pre-writing: 1. As you research, pay close attention to the jargon sources use. Even if you aren’t keeping

the source, their terms may be useful keywords in your ongoing search. 2. Closely read and analyze each of your sources’ perspectives, points of interest made,

similarities/differences to other works, and how they add to, detract from, or redirect the conversation.

3. Synthesize the sources by comparing/contrasting your sources’ views, approaches, structures, etc.

4. Be sure to note strengths and weaknesses or gaps in the research as well. Popular organization methods:

1. Chronological (work on a timeline) 2. Topical (identifying different points made throughout the conversation) 3. Theoretical 4. Method or approach (placing more or less data rich articles in close approximation) 5. Source by source (showing similarities/differences between works)