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WRIT 2 Hagen 2018
Literature/ Issue Review Assignment
Report on scholarly research on your research question. The Literature Review is followed by the Argument Paper assignment; you use the same research step and sources for that paper.
Assignment Requirements and Deadlines:
Topic Proposal presented orally in class on Friday 1/18
Annotated Bibliography due Monday 1/28
Draft literature review, 6-10 pages double-spaced plus references; bring one printed copy plus copies for topic group peer review. Due Monday 2/4.
Share and read drafts in preparation for week 5 writing group
Revision due 2/11 or 2/13 (depends on writing group). Attach previous versions and comments.
Additional revisions as needed until you get a sticker
Genre: What is it?
A “literature review” is common writing at the university, often following a library “literature search” step. A written review of published research has different names in different fields— “bibliographical” or “historiographical” paper, a “report on sources,” or a “review essay.” Regardless, the final paper is an analytical report on a cluster of sources that share a topic. In the report, the writer works to synthesize or make connections among these sources, explaining how they represent a sample from a group. Click for more on literature reviews.
A literature review paper shows your knowledge and understanding of the published research on a certain question. Important hallmarks of a literature review include:
A research question narrow enough to allow in-depth inquiry through a comprehensive survey of academic sources.
Synthesis of complicated scientific and social information. In other words, organization follows research questions rather than following individual sources.
Sources are smoothly incorporated (through signaling and paraphrasing) and completely documented (with correct citation format).
Audience: Who reads it?
The real-life audience for a literature review is researchers and students, so you can think of your classmates as the audience for this paper. Most scholarly journals publish reviews in addition to primary research articles and academic publishers have entire journals that specialize in reviews (see TREE for an example in ecology disciplines). Your report’s audience wants to know the issues and research without doing the research and reading steps for themselves.
Purpose: What is it for?
Instead of surveying the library research on a new research question, what if you could read a literature review written by a group of experts? What if you think of a research question associated with your interests, but you need to find out more about it? In academia, we love literature reviews because they serve important summary and synthesis purposes while communicating the current research.
Learning Outcomes: Research skills, information literacy, and objective research writing
Your job is to gather, organize and understand background information and current research (also range of opinion and arguments) on an important “question at issue.”
You will:
Apply critical analysis skills to a range of different sources,
Appropriately integrate and cite sources throughout your paper, and
Practice organization, meta-discourse/cohesion tools, paraphrasing, and summary.
Practice informational/explanatory writing style (objective tone, sentence style, and purposeful paragraph development)
Do not take sides. You will get a chance to persuade your reader in the Argument Paper. For now, you are objectively informing us and establishing competence discussing all the evidence. Your report’s audience is someone who wants to know the issues and research.
Sources: Also see the Annotated Bibliography task. For your Literature Review paper, you must have a minimum of six sources, including:
At least one book or book chapter
At least one review article
At least two primary research articles
At least one source physically retrieved from a UCSC library (not electronic).
Length: At least six pages, double spaced. Ten pages is more common.
Citation format: Cite using a consistent format common for the discipline of your major (or proposed major). See this resource if you’re unsure which style to use.
Feedback:
Peer Review in class Monday 2/4, due Wednesday 2/6
Writing Group: Read all papers before group
Revisions:
Due in class one week from Writing Group
Additional revisions responding to instructor feedback due in one-week cycles.
This is a major paper, which must earn a sticker indicating it meets C2 outcomes.
Related Work:
Reading: Research Purposes grid, How to read a scientific article, & Shaping your topic.
Notebooks & tasks: Labs 3 & 4 Topic Explorations, Lab 5 Keyword Tree(s) and Library Worksheet, Lab 6 Acknowledging Sources, and in-class Topic Proposal
Papers: The Annotated Bibliography is closely related to this assignment. The Argument paper uses the same research step.
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