Literature Review
You are to write a 1050 to 1750 word literature review (in addition to the title page and references page) on the articles you selected for Week 2, synthesizing the findings in the articles that you found on your topic. You may incorporate other articles or references to support your discussion, as needed. Use APA citation and reference guidelines.
What is a literature review?
A literature review is a synthesis and critique of the published research in a given area of research. Your focus is on the findings of the studies you are exploring – their methods, approach, results, and implications – rather than the broad topic overall. It should synthesize findings in specific areas. Thus, you should look for themes in the range of articles and write about them as you group common themes.
Synthesize the material you found. In other words, find connected themes in the different areas you cover. Occasionally you might discuss individual articles, but only if the article is very unique and no other article has similar findings. The synthesis should focus strictly on existing, published research.
What else should you include besides a synthesis of research?
Be sure to include in your review other potential areas that still need to be explored. What unanswered questions are there? What holes are in the research that you have not yet found answers to? What contradictions are in the research will you seek to explore?