social science

Literature review assignment (25% of total grade)

Due May 25

11 pm Submission via I-Campus

Final paper: between 900-1,300 words (except for references)

File format: word (.doc, docx)

The purpose of this assignment is to help improve your critical and analytical thinking as well as your research ability. To make your life easier, you are free to choose any topic within the field of social science.

Please use the following format (four sections) for your paper. You can add subsections if you want.

1. Introduction:

What is the issue, and why is it important? Define the topic or problem you wish to address. Be sure to define in specific enough terms to examine thoroughly in the time available. For example, “happiness” or “housing price” is too broad. “The relationship between friendship and happiness,” or “Impact of school quality on housing price” are acceptable paper topics. Explain why studying the topic of your choice is important from the perspective of society.

· Introduce your research topics or problems

· Explain why studying topic of your choice is important from the perspective of society (Justification of your research)

2. Summary of previous literature

What do we know? Conduct a critical review of the literature and discuss your findings. Your analysis should be drawn primarily from the academic literature: Minimum 13 references (including at least 8 journal articles or book chapters written in English). Consultant reports, publications from advocacy organizations, and most government agency reports are often not reliable sources. Be particularly careful of what you find on the Web. I encourage you to use academic literature as much as you can.

· Related theories (if applicable)

· Summary of previous findings

· Summary of data sources/research methods used in previous studies

3. Conclusion

What conclusions can be drawn from your assessment? Is there a need for more research on this question?

· Limitations of previous studies (at least two limitations)

· Are there any important related questions that were not examined in previous literature?

· Are there any limitations in methodology used in previous studies?

· Your potential research questions (1-3 questions)

· Based on the literature review, please identify 1-3 research questions that you want to explore in your final paper. It would be nice if your research questions are related to the limitations of previous studies you discussed above.

4. References

· List of previous literature

· Both in-text citations and reference should follow APA Citation style

· APA format:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html

· If you include journal articles or book chapters not written in English, you need to provide the English citation