Educational research homework

Directions for Unit 4

Problem Selection and the Review of Literature

All the information you need for completing Unit 3 will be found on this directions sheet. Print a copy and please pay careful attention to the directions.

1. Keep the objective relevant to this unit in mind as you proceed: Following completion of this course, the student will understand the purpose and process of writing a review of related literature. The student will be able to exhibit mastery of the most used elements of APA style

2. Complete the assigned readings. The one on Specifics of Writing should be simply skimmed over and then referred to repeatedly in all writing of assignments throughout the semester . You can’t memorize all that information, but you’ll need it repeatedly as resource material necessary in doing your writing. You’d do well to have copies at hand as you write. Do not underestimate the importance of this section of your text.

3. You have two tasks to complete:

a. Plan for the review of literature. Using the template provided, produce a tentative plan for how you will conduct your review of literature. The template is provided so as to simplify your task and to make sure that you cover all bases. On the item that refers to bibliographic mining, be sure to pick a fairly recent article so that the sources you get will not be too outdated. Bibliographic mining is going into a research paper’s reference list to identify articles that might be useful to you.

c. Review of literature. Search and find at least 15 professional peer-reviewed journal articles that are related to your particular interest and problem that you want to investigate. You may add information from appropriate Internet sites, but please do not include books for this assignment. They are not inappropriate for reviews in general, so I want you to focus on journal articles. None need to deal with the groups of subjects you chose, but will be more general background information (related literature) . This will be a topic that might have at least indirect future impact on your success in outcomes with your students or counselees. Read these articles and integrate relevant elements into a review of related literature. Because this is a very demanding assignment, it is critical that you do not delay getting started on it. Please be sure to look at the sample review of literature in Appendix B of the Etext for guidance. It should go without saying that the Etext sections on reviews of literature and writing style are important as well.

d. If you do not use PERRLA, you’d better buy a copy of the APA’s Publication Manual. To do otherwise is almost certain to result in disaster in citations and the reference list. Since I’m providing a text free of charge, I have no sympathy for anyone who tries to scrimp by and save money by not buying PERRLA or the APA Manual.