Literature Review 1000 words

The Literature Review assessment

Writing a dissertation can appear a long and difficult task but it will be more manageable if broken down into smaller tasks. Writing a 1000-word literature review will help you make such a start. It is a typical way to start any research process as it requires you to get an overview of the existing academic research on your topic. This is important as it helps you place your own work in the context of existing research, so that you can make a contribution to knowledge and insight on the topic.

The literature review will be your first assessed submission, worth 10% of your grade and due by 13.00 on 21 November 2022. To write the literature review you will build on the dissertation proposal that you submitted in your second year in the module 5PIRS018: Doing Political Research (the second piece of coursework). If you have changed your topic over the summer, this will be your chance to tackle a new topic. If you are continuing with the same topic you identified last academic year, this will be your chance to

a) integrate the feedback received on your proposal from 5PIRS018; and

b) demonstrate that you have made significant progress on it during the summer and your first 8 weeks of the semester.

Whether or not this is a new topic for you, you will need to formulate an entirely new piece of work. This is not the same as the review you did for your Level 5 Political Research module and you must be very careful not to fall foul of the Academic Standards assessment rules on “double-counting” (aka self-plagiarism).

In particular, in the literature review, you will be expected to demonstrate that you have:

1. identified your research question beyond a general ‘topic’ of choice. The question will need to be clearly stated in the assignment.

2. researched the relevant literature beyond what was required in your proposal. In particular, your literature review should show evidence that you are familiar with at least 20 sources.

3. found ways to categorise and characterize the types of research and literature available and relevant to your work

4. expanded the bibliography to reflect your research into the literature beyond what was required in your proposal in last year’s module Political Research module (5PIRS018W). In particular, your bibliography should contain at least 20 sources, most or all of which should be research-based (usually academic) books and journal articles. (NB: the bibliography does not count towards the word limit).

Your literature review will be assessed according to the following criteria:

· Breadth of the literature discussed.

· Coherence of the themes and structure of the review.

· Fit between literature review and research question.

· Clarity of writing style.

· Presentation, including academic conventions.

Further guidance on the function, content and purpose of the literature review will be given in Workshops 2 and 3.

You will receive your mark and written feedback on your first submission via Blackboard by Monday 12 December 2022.