The topic of this research is increasing on-task behavior during distance learning time in gifted students diagnosed with ADHD at elementary level. We want to find strategies and behavioral interventi

Gradaute Rearch Course Dr. Arbelo

Writing Guide for the Literature Review

Prewriting involves the preparation and arrangement of your ideas before writing them into a paper. Use whatever techniques work for you (e.g.–Freewriting, Brainstorming, Listing, Outlining, Questioning, Clustering). Your research and documentation are accomplished during the prewriting stage.

Sources

Generate material from outside sources. You must use at minimum 10 outside sources for your literature review. These sources MUST be credible, quality academic sources that are limited to: peer reviewed journal articles (mostly), textbooks, government websites.
Peer-reviewed sources are preferred (journals and books published at university presses). You can find such sources through Liberty’s online library. The Library Research Portal there will help you find scholarly journals. Note that the top database used for education subjects is ERIC.
Because this research assignment has many possible facets you can explore, you may have a valid reason for using a non-peer reviewed sources. Exceptions include the following:
1. Online databases of historical texts/documents (where the sponsoring organization, editorial board, and information about the original printed source are clearly identified)
2. Professional organizations (usually ending in a .org suffix)
3. Government agencies (ending in a .gov suffix)
4. Websites with the “.edu” extension are not necessarily reliable ones as many different people have access to posting articles on such sites. Additionally, faculty material published on such sites have not been subject to the rigorous review process required by print publications (Just because someone has the degree doesn’t mean his/her entire body of work is recognized by the academic discipline in which he/she operates).

Research
1. Go through your sources and take notes on information relavent to your topic.
2. Be creative & original in selecting information.
3. Once you’ve discovered your purpose for writing, that purpose will inform the rest of your note taking.
4. Document! When you’re getting ideas from outside sources, you must take special pains to identify that material as such, so record all bibliographical information and make note of the page source of every quotation you retrieve. Doing this now, at the prewriting stage, will save you much grief later on.

Thesis Statement: For this assignment, you should have already written your thesis statement.

Outline and write your literature review. The way you synthesize material is unique to you. Your arrangement of various points can be original. Your own interpretations and ideas can be incorporated. Look for gaps in your sources: there may be a point that is not stressed or an obvious conclusion that is overlooked. Dispute with your sources. Remember to stay in line with your Research Proposal as well as the guidelines provided by the Writing the Winning Dissertation textbook.

Revise, Edit, and Proofread

A. Check your thesis statement. Does it clearly articulate all the points you’ve covered in your review? Are any points mentioned that aren’t covered in your review?

B. Check your body paragraphs against your thesis (12 page review). Are they related to your thesis? Are they analytical?

C. Check the details of your body paragraphs. Do you have enough support for your topic sentence? Are all the details in each body paragraph directly related to their respective topic sentence? Are the points you’re making arranged in such a way that your reader can clearly follow your line of thinking? Do you have too much outside support (so much so that it overwhelms your voice)?

D. Read your paper carefully (out loud is suggested).

E. Check your compliance with APA format. Review in-text documentation and works cited page (using APA Handbook to do so). Check for any missing citations; fix if necessary.

Submit the final draft of your paper by the deadline stated (12 page literature review, not including the cover page or reference page).

FOLLOW THIS LAYOUT: Introduction, Conceptual Framework, Review of the Reseach Literature, Summary and Future Research

Introduction

A sound literature review is an extremely important component of many types of papers written in graduate school. Professional journals across disciplines typically require authors to include a literature review in articles that are submitted for consideration for publication. Students are asked to include a literature review in theses and dissertations, as well as papers across graduate school courses. Writing a properly structured literature review is a very important skill at the graduate level.

A literature review (also expressed as “a review of the literature”) is an overview of previous research on the graduate student’s topic. It identifies and describes and sometimes analyzes related research that has already been done and critically summarizes the state of knowledge about the topic. To best understand the role of a literature review, consider its place in the research process and in the research paper.

The research process often begins with a question that the researcher would like to answer. In order to identify what other research has addressed this question and to find out what is already known about it, the researcher will conduct a literature review. This entails examining scholarly books and journal articles, and sometimes additional resources such as conference proceedings and dissertations, to learn about previous research related to the question. Researchers want to be able to identify what is already known about the question and to build upon existing knowledge. Familiarity with previous research also helps graduate students understand a topic in an in depth manner and it also helps researchers design their own study

Literature review should include:

Abstract – no more than 150 words properly formatted

A. Introduction to the Literature Review

B. Conceptual Framework

C. Review of Research Literature

D. F. Summary and Future Research

The Objectives of a Literature Review

Authors should try to accomplish the following four important objectives in preparing a literature review:

The review should provide a thorough overview of previous research on the topic. This should be a helpful review for readers who are already familiar with the topic and an essential background for readers who are new to the topic. The review should provide a clear sense about how the author’s current research fits into the broader understanding of the topic. When the reader completes reading of the literature review, she or he should be able to say, “I now know what previous research has learned about this topic.”

The review should contain references to important previous studies related to the research question that are found in high quality sources such as scholarly books and journals. A good literature review conveys to readers that the author has been conscientious in examining previous research and that the author’s research builds on what is already known. In this process, highly interested readers are also provided with a set of references that they may wish to read themselves.

The review should be succinct and well-organized. Most literature reviews range from 30 to 80 pages. In this assignment, you are going to develop a literature review of 20 to 25 pages. This is not including cover page, abstract, and references. Every page should be well developed, succinct, and follow the guidelines.

Many authors like to begin with an “Introduction” section that identifies the general topic and its importance. This is followed by the “Literature Review” section that provides the overview of previous research and explains what has and what has not already been learned. Much of the focus of the literature review is on previous research related to the subject under study. This includes most recent research over the past 7 years, theories, evidence best practices, common findings among studies, critical areas that still need research.

The review should follow APA Guidelines 6th edition.

Sections to be developed:

Introduction:

The introduction to the LR sets the stage by describing the boundaries of the literature search (LS) within the field of study. The researcher’s LS gathers, analyzes, and synthesizes research articles, research reports, seminal books, governmental and institutional reports, historical documents, archival media, and so on, to discover and present the state of knowledge concerning the topic under study. Available time, critical skills, prior knowledge, and scholarly discernment allows the researcher to know how far and wide to search to support their research. The search must, in the end, meet the twin aims of establishing 1) comprehensive coverage of the literatures pertinent to the problem and 2) relevance in the selection and application of literatures. Since research problems exist within determinate and specified social contexts and since bodies of literatures attach to these problems, the research problems themselves offer contextual and literature boundaries for the LS.

Machi and McEvoy (2012) suggest the introduction should contain “six sections . . . (1) the opening, (2) the study topic, (3) the context, (4) the significance, (5) the problem statement, and (6) the organization” (p. 145). These sections are designed to orient the reader to the problem-at-hand and provide an outline of how the LR argument will be pursued. A good academic introduction provides the reader with a clear description of what lies ahead of them and the specific reasoning steps the author will use to take the reader through to a logical end. Graduate students are advised to use Machi and McEvoy’s sections as sub-headings in their Literature Review—adapting and modifying the headings to meet the needs of their individual study and LR argument. (See Machi and McEvoy text for descriptions of the sub-sections listed here.

Conceptual Framework:

The use of a conceptual framework as an argumentative structure for the LR is very important. Conceptual framework is a term for the epistemological position a researcher uses to approach a set of phenomena. The position is “conceptual” because whenever phenomena are experienced, they are associated with concepts the researcher possesses—that is, the researcher’s existing knowledge. Concepts “frame” how the researcher views phenomena, and thus necessarily shape how the researcher understands what is observed. Conceptual frameworks display objectivity and creativity by reflecting the researcher’s position as 1) a member of a scholarly community of knowledge; and 2) a scholar possessing a unique noetic outlook on the world, respectively. A researcher’s ideas must be objectively grounded in well-confirmed concepts employed by a community of practice, which validates and confirms knowledge through communal truth-seeking activities. Yet a researcher also always possesses ideas which are unique, by virtue of her or his individual and distinct noetic perspectives on the world, which allow for creative new associations, applications and developments of concepts. The interplay between unique researcher perspectives and communal truth-seeking activities allows for the creation and confirmation of new knowledge through creative acts of individuals (and groups of individuals) that are then validated by the community. The two-fold insight here is that: 1) not all new ideas are objectively valid or rationally justifiable to the community of practice; and 2) existing concepts in the community of practice admit of addition, revision, and even overturning (see Kuhn, 1962; Feyerabend, 1975).

a conceptual framework is an argument about why the topic one wishes to study matters and why the means proposed to study it are appropriate and rigorous. By argument, we mean that a conceptual framework is a series of sequenced, logical propositions the purpose of which is to convince the reader of the study’s importance and rigor. Arguments for why a study “matters” vary greatly in scale, depending on the appropriate audience. In some scholarly work, the study may only matter to a small esoteric community, but that does not change the fact that its conceptual framework should argue for its relevance within that community. Finally by appropriate and rigorous, we mean that a conceptual framework should argue convincingly that (1) the research questions are an outgrowth of the argument for relevance [emphasis added]; (2) the data to be collected provide the researcher with the raw material needed to explore the research questions; and (3) the analytic approach allows the researcher to effectively respond to (if not always answer) those questions. Further, rigor includes not only how a study is carried out, but also how the methodology itself is conceptualized. As we will see in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 in particular, methodology is neither objective nor value-neutral. As such, what you study and how you study it ultimately raises questions about who you are, what kinds of questions you ask, the assumptions embedded within those questions, and the extent to which those assumptions are made explicit and, where appropriate, subjected to critique. (Ravitch & Riggan, 2012, p. 7)

Review of the Research Literature

The review of research literature is the core of the literature review and provides the evidence-base that your literature needs. This review must be undertaken with scientific organization and must employ the researcher’s best analytic and descriptive skills in order to provide the reader with an accurate picture of the state of research in the field. Szuchman and Thomlison (2011) describe three different types of reviews of research literature: “empirical,” “theoretical,” and “systematic.” Empirical reviews are a synthesizing summary of prior research that “presents a state of knowledge in an area” (p. 62). Theoretical reviews provide critical analyses of the current theoretical perspectives in the literatures. And systematic reviews are undertaken in quantitative studies to provide “a formal synthesis of experimental research studies designed to explain how particular interventions affect specific outcomes” (p. 62). The literature review will necessarily involve empirical and theoretical considerations.

Summary of the Litrature Review

A comprehensive overview of the literature review.

Tips:

The literature review provides a comprehensive and relevant review of literature that pertains to a topic in the research. The primary purpose of the literature review is to identify the topic, problem, research hypothesis, within the framework of previous research on the topic. The review provides a reasoned argument to the claim that the research question guiding the study reveals an area of investigation that is a new avenue of research, or a research avenue that has not been adequately studied or sufficiently confirmed. The LR argument uses the analyzed and critiqued literatures as a base of evidence to justify the argument’s main claim. The presentation of this evidence base demonstrates to the reader that the researcher understands the field of study and the position the current study occupies within the community of scholarshipPrewriting involves the preparation and arrangement of your ideas before writing them into a paper. Use whatever techniques work for you (e.g.–Freewriting, Brainstorming, Listing, Outlining, Questioning, Clustering). Your research and documentation are accomplished during the prewriting stage.

Sources

Generate material from outside sources. You must use at minimum 25 sources for your literature review. These sources MUST be credible, quality academic sources.
Peer-reviewed sources are preferred (journals and books published at university presses). You can find such sources through Albizu University’s online library. The Library Research Portal there will help you find scholarly journals.
Because this research assignment has many possible facets you can explore, you may have a valid reason for using a non-peer reviewed sources. Exceptions include the following:
1. Online databases of historical texts/documents (where the sponsoring organization, editorial board, and information about the original printed source are clearly identified)
2. Professional organizations (usually ending in a .org suffix)
3. Government agencies (ending in a .gov suffix)
4. Websites with the “.edu” extension are not necessarily reliable ones as many different people have access to posting articles on such sites. Additionally, faculty material published on such sites have not been subject to the rigorous review process required by print publications (Just because someone has the degree doesn’t mean his/her entire body of work is recognized by the academic discipline in which he/she operates).

Research
1. Go through your sources and take notes on information relavent to your topic.
2. Be creative & original in selecting information. Understand methodologies used, common themes, identify gaps in the research, the theoretical frameworks applied.
3. Once you’ve discovered your purpose for writing, that purpose will inform the rest of your note taking.
4. Document! When you’re getting ideas from outside sources, you must take special pains to identify that material as such, so record all bibliographical information and make note of the page source of every quotation you retrieve. Doing this now, at the prewriting stage, will save you much grief later on.

Thesis Statement/Purpose Statement: For this assignment, you should prepare it beforehand; use it as a heading.

Outline and write your literature review. The way you synthesize material is unique to you. Your arrangement of various points can be original. Your own interpretations and ideas can be incorporated. Look for gaps in your sources: there may be a point that is not stressed or an obvious conclusion that is overlooked. Remember to stay in line with your topic and that you will use this literature review to guide your proposal; especially the needs statement and background.

Revise, Edit, and Proofread

A. Check your thesis statement. Does it clearly articulate all the points you’ve covered in your review? Are any points mentioned that aren’t covered in your review?

B. Check your body paragraphs against your thesis (25 page review). Are they related to your thesis? Are they analytical? Do you discuss the research literature, the methodological literature, do you have a strong background and problem statement?

D. Read your paper carefully (out loud is suggested).

E. Check your compliance with APA format. Review in-text documentation and works cited page (using APA Handbook to do so). Check for any missing citations; fix if necessary.

F. Papers are to be reviewed by students support services before submitted and you must upload them to Bb and turnitin for a plagiarism check.

Submit the final draft of your paper by the deadline stated.

Examples of Proper Literature Reviews

Example #1: A Brief Section of a Literature Review (Lin and Dembo 2008)

The first example presented is from a research article (Lin and Dembo 2008:35) that sought to explain why some juveniles use illegal drugs and others do not. One of the theories being used by the authors is social control theory. The following section is part of the literature review that discusses previous research findings on the role of this theory in predicting juvenile drug use.

Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory argued that adolescents who had no strong bond to conventional social institutions were more likely to commit delinquency. Many empirical studies that follow Hirschi’s theory found general support that juveniles who have strong social bonds are engaged in fewer delinquent acts (Agnew 1985; Costello and Vowell 1999; Erickson, Crosboe, and Dornbush 2000; Hindelang 1973; Hirschi 1969; Junger-Tas 1992; Sampson and Laub 1993; Thornberry et al. 1991). Some studies that specially employed social control theory to explain juvenile drug use have also found support for this theory (Ellickson et al. 1999; Krohn et al. 1983; Marcos et al. 1986; Wiatrowski, Griswold, and Roberts 1981). By reviewing these studies, one can find that during the adolescent period (12-17), family and school play influential roles in influencing youngsters’ behavior. Whereas a defective family bond increases the probability of youthful drug use or juvenile delinquency (Denton and Kampfe 1994; Wells and Rankin 1991; Rankin and Kern 1994; Radosevich et al. 1980), students who have a weak school bond also have a higher risk of drug use (Ahlgren et al. 1982; Bauman 1984; Radosevich et al. 1980; Tec 1972).

Notice especially the following: (1) the thorough overview of previous research, (2) the large number of previous research studies referenced, (3) the succinct and well-organized writing style, and (4) the manner in which previous studies are cited.

Also note the following formatting guidelines:

If name of author(s) is in the text, put DATE OF PUBLICATION in parentheses.
If one author, use NAME and DATE OF PUBLICATION (and no punctuation between them).
If two authors, use NAME and NAME and DATE OF PUBLICATION.
If three authors, use NAME, NAME, and NAME and DATE OF PUBLICATION.
If four or more authors, use NAME et al. and DATE OF PUBLICATION.
If two or more citations are listed together, order them alphabetically by first author’s last name.

Example #2: A Brief Section of a Literature Review (Rogoeczi 2008)

The second example is from a research article (Rogoeczi 2008) that examines whether living in crowded conditions has the same or a different effect on women and men. The following section is part of the literature review that discusses previous research findings on the effect of lack of space in a room on aggressive actions by women and men. Note that the section comments on the fact that not all previous research is consistent. This sometimes is the case and is important to note.

Experimental research varying room size reveals a relatively consistent pattern of gender differences, with more aggressive responses to limited space found among males than those observed among women (Baum and Koman 1976; Epstein and Karlin 1975; Freedman et al. 1972; Mackintosh, Saegert, and West 1975; Stokols et al. 1973). Studies examining the effects of density on children also report sex differences in response to density, with boys displaying heightened aggression (Loo 1972, 1978). Research on gender differences in withdrawal has produced more mixed findings (e.g., Loo 1978). Still other research finds no evidence of sex differences in discomfort as a result of crowding (Aiello, Epstein, and Karlin 1975; Baum and Valins 1977) or in the impact of crowding (Evans et al. 2000). Several longitudinal studies of the impact of household crowding on psychological distress among college students reveal no differential effect by gender (Evans and Lepore 1993; Lepore, Evans, and Schneider 1991). However Karlin, Epstein, and Aiello (1978) report more physical and psychological effects among crowded women than men.

Example #3: An Extended Section of a Literature Review (Durkin, Wolfe, and Clark 2005).

As an example of an extended section of a literature review, an article by Keith Durkin, Timothy Wolfe, and Gregory Clark (2005: 256-261) in Sociological Spectrum is used. The research examines the ability of social learning theory to explain binge drinking by college students. Tim Wolfe is chair of the Education department at Mount Saint Mary’s University and a Education graduate of Roanoke College.

Introduction

Research Purpose

The abuse of alcohol by college students has been the focus of considerable concern for several decades. However, one specific pattern of alcohol consumption, known as binge drinking, has recently received a tremendous amount of attention from the media, college personnel, healthcare professionals and researchers in the behavioral sciences. Binge drinking involves the consumption of large quantities of alcohol in a single drinking episode. A number of researchers have operationally defined binge drinking as the consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks in a single setting (Alva 1998; Borsari and Carey 1999; Haines and Spear 1996; Hensley 2001; Ichiyama and Kruse 1998; Jones et al. 2001; Meilman, Leichliter, and Presley 1999; Nezlek, Pilkington, and Bilbro 1994; Page, Scanlan, and Gilbert 1999; Shulenberg et al. 1996). Research has indicated that this behavior is a prevalent phenomenon on college campuses nationwide. For instance, a 1993 survey of 17,592 students from 140 colleges and universities, which was conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, found that 44% of students reported they had engaged in binge drinking during the previous two weeks (Weschler et al. 1994). Subsequent studies conducted in 1997, 1999, and 2001 produced nearly identical results (Weschler et al. 2002).

There is a growing consensus that binge drinking constitutes a very serious threat to the well being of many of today’s college students. In fact, binge drinking has been characterized as the foremost public health hazard facing college students (Weschler et al. 1995). Research has indicated that compared to other college students, binge drinkers are more likely to experience negative consequences as a result of consuming alcoholic beverages. These include blackouts, hangovers, missing class because of drinking, falling behind in their studies, doing something that they later regretted, arguing with friends, getting involved in physical fights, and getting into trouble with the police (Weschler et al. 1994; Weschler et al. 2000). The most recent research suggests that many of these aforementioned negative consequences are on the rise nationally (Weschler et al. 2002). Binge drinking is also related to engaging in high-risk sexual behaviors, thus putting these students in danger of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or having an unplanned pregnancy (Ichiyama and Kruse 1998; Meilman 1993; Smith and Brown 1998). Moreover, recent research has found that students who report getting drunk frequently have significantly higher odds of being victims of assault than their peers (Hensley 2001; Mustaine and Tewsbury 2000). Furthermore, it is estimated that more than half of the young adults who binge drink on a daily basis exhibit indicators of alcohol abuse or dependency (Shulenberg et al. 1996). Finally, the tragic alcohol-related deaths of students at several colleges and universities highlight the potentially fatal consequences of this activity (Jones et al. 2001; Vicary and Karshin 2002).

Research has further revealed that the negative consequences of binge drinking are not limited to the students who participate in this behavior. This activity also has an adverse impact on other members of the university community. The concepts of “secondary binge effects” (Weschler et al. 1994; Weschler et al. 1995) and “secondhand effects” (Weschler et al. 2002) have emerged in the literature to describe the problems that are the direct result of other students’ binge drinking. Some of these secondary binge effects include being verbally insulted or abused, being physically assaulted, having one’s property damaged, experiencing unwelcome sexual advances, and having sleep or studying disturbed because of the conduct of intoxicated students. The recent alcohol-related riots on a number of campuses and neighboring communities are also examples of these secondary consequences (Vicary and Karshin 2002). Neighbors living near campuses frequently report a lower quality of life as a result of student binge drinking because of noise disturbances, litter, drunkenness, vandalism, vomiting, and urination (Weschler 2002).

Although a number of recent studies have sought to identify factors that are associated with binge drinking by college students (Alva 1998; Ichiyama and Kruse 1998; Page et al. 1999; Turrisi 1999; Weschler, et al. 1995), research that applies the various sociological perspectives, particularly theories of deviant behavior to this phenomenon is particularly limited. For instance, Durkin, Wolfe, and Clark (1999) applied social bond theory to the binge drinking behavior of undergraduate students at one private college. Also, Workman (2001) conducted an ethnographic study at one university to examine the social construction and communication of norms about excessive drinking among fraternity members. The relative absence of sociological research on binge drinking is an extremely significant oversight. Given the fact that sociological theories of deviance typically have a strong explanatory value, the current undertaking can make an important contribution to understanding this problematic behavior. The purpose of the current undertaking is to apply one of the leading sociological explanations of deviant behavior, social learning theory (Akers 1985, 2000), to binge drinking by college students.

Once again, notice the following: (1) the thorough overview of previous research, (2) the large number of previous research studies referenced, (3) the succinct and well-organized writing style, and (4) the manner in which previous studies are cited. In addition, notice how the authors use the last paragraph to explain the need for a sociological study of binge drinking.

References

Durkin, Keith F., Timothy W. Wolfe, and Gregory A. Clark. 2005. “College Students and Binge Drinking: An Evaluation of Social Learning Theory.” Sociological Spectrum 25(3): 255-272.

Lin, Wen-Hsu and Richard Dembo. 2008. “An Integrated Model of Juvenile Drug Use: A Cross-Demographic Groups Study.” Western Criminology Review 9(2): 33-51.

Regoeczi, Wendy C. 2008. “Crowding in Context: An Examination of the Differential Responses of Men and Women to High-Density Living Environments.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 49(5): 254-268.

Additional Helpful References

Galvan, Jose L. 2009. Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 4th ed. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing. (This source provides a detailed step-by-step process of conducting and writing a literature review.)

Machi, Lawrence A. and Brenda T. McEvoy. 2008. The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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