Literature
A literature review
Application: Synthesizing Literature
One of the early stages in developing a research project is to examine the available literature on your topic of interest and related topics.
A literature review is a carefully crafted examination of credible literature relevant to your focus topic. A literature review determines how the resources you found:
Relate to and are relevant to your purpose
Enable you to fulfill your purpose by offering different perspectives and insights to the purpose you identified
Are similar to or different from one another
Create a solid, evidence-based argument to support the purpose of your study
Have implications for social change
Stimulate new questions for future research
Offer resources (included in the reference list) you can consult in your study
Discovering what others have produced and organizing and synthesizing this information into a coherent picture will allow you to place your own research interests into the larger context. A literature review should not be a mere summary of your articles but instead should relate to how the literature supports your study’s focus.
To prepare for this Assignment:
Review the Learning Resources on literature searches and references:
Chapter 2, "Review of the Literature," and Chapter 4, "Writing Strategies and Ethical Considerations" (read the Writing Ideas section, pp. 79–87) of the Creswell text
Chapter 7, “Reference Examples” of the APA Manual
Research Planning and Writing section of the Research Resources and Tutorials webpage
Sections on Critical Thinking, Literature Reviews, and Synthesis in the Writing Resources area of the Literature Reviews webpage provided by the Writing Center
Trustworthiness handout to assess the trustworthiness and reliability of a resource
Media programs:
Roundtable: Research Methods
Conducting a Literature Review
Synthesizing Resources and Ideas
Consuming Research: Critical and Ethical Strategies
Five Basic Steps for Evaluating Sources
Evaluating Sources by Using the Three Cs
Library guides on conducting searches:
Subject Terms and Index Searches webpage
Keyword Search Strategy webpage
Boolean webpage
Find Full Text: Overview and FAQs webpage
Conduct a literature search in the Walden Library for articles related to an area of research interest you identified in the Week 1 Discussion 2. Focus only on full-text scholarly or peer-reviewed articles or dissertations and be sure to note the number of results or hits that you get. Narrow or broaden your results so that you have approximately 15 viable scholarly sources that include:
Three seminal (classic) professional journal articles (written at least 10 years ago and by an important scholar in the field)
Seven current articles (written within the past 5 years) from primary sources published in professional peer-reviewed journals (APA, 2010, pp. 9–10)
Two secondary sources or articles related to your topic of interest
Three Internet sources related to your topic of interest
Note: You will use these same articles again in future assignments.
As you explore the literature related to your topic of interest, you also want to examine what aspects related to your potential topic have not been studied in depth in the field and/or uncover issues related to your topic that the field needs to know more about. Consider any crucial issue in the field or the literature that may be unclear or in dispute.
Identify 4–5 articles related to your topic of interest that you will synthesize for this Assignment. Consult the Article Analysis Matrix Excel worksheet to help you keep your analysis organized.
Write a 3- to 4-page literature review synthesizing and critically analyzing these 4–5 articles.
Consider these questions as you synthesize your articles:
What are the trends in the literature?
What aspects of the topic have been researched?
What aspects of the topic need to be researched further, according to the articles?
Based on the literature, what commonly held assumptions exist within the field?
Based on the literature, what areas of discourse, contention (if any), or divergent perspectives exist?
Where would your research interests fall within this framework? Does your topic fill in a gap in the research? How does it relate to the existing literature you have found?
Rubric for Week 3 Assignment 1
Top of Form
Criterion | Description | Evaluation | Weight | Points | Possible Points | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Complete | Student submits a 3- to 4-page paper critically analyzing 4–5 articles. |
| 0.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analyze | Student analyzes the fundamental aspects of the problem in an IT context. |
| 0.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trends | Student identifies the trends in the literature. |
| 0.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aspects | Student discusses the aspects of the topic that have been researched. |
| 0.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Further | Student presents the aspects of the topic that need to be researched further. |
| 0.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contention | Student presents areas of contention that exist in the literature. |
| 0.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gaps | Student identifies where within the research framework his or her research interests will fall. |
| 0.6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Total Points Earned Out of 40 | 40 |
Bottom of Form
Evaluation | Description |
9–10 | Mastery—Exceptional, complete, clear; exceeds expectations. |
Competent—Complete; meets expectations. | |
6–7 | Developing—Approaching expectations; missing some detail, not fully developed. |
2–5 | Deficient—Vague, weak; needs more detail. |
Absent—Not present; no assignment completed. |