Requirements and Guidelines
For the literature review section, you will begin by presenting the tentative title of your paper (this can change if need be for your final research proposal) – this is the “heading” for the literature review and should be on the very first line of your document. You will then begin your literature review with an introduction to your topic of interest. This introduction paragraph should clearly indicate to the reader what your topic of interest is and should also clearly state the purpose of your research proposal. This introductory paragraph is the beginning of your literature review and does not carry the title of the introduction. The purpose of the literature review is to propose an argument (i.e., violence in the media has a negative effect on those who view it) and then use the available literature on the topic (i.e., empirical evidence) to support your argument. It helps to think of this section as the “why” behind your proposed research study. The literature review should begin fairly broad and then narrow in scope to your focal point of interest.
Within the literature review, you will want to clearly identify the argument that you are trying to make. You will want to use the resources to support what it is you are trying to say. This can be accomplished by using the results or general findings of past studies in order to provide support for the argument that you are making. If you choose to do this, make sure that you keep it brief. Just present the relevant material – what were the findings, how does this support what you are saying, where did these findings come from (i.e., make sure you cite it). When presenting evidence, make sure that it relates back to your overall discussion. It has to make sense and it must be clear how it supports your argument! If you choose to describe an entire study, make sure that this description or review is limited to about one paragraph, unless the study is of the utmost importance.
Once you are confident that you have presented a sound, logical, and reasonable argument for your proposed research study, you will
want to conclude the literature review section with a paragraph that summarizes your discussion. Within this paragraph, you should
reiterate the purpose of your proposed study and present your research hypothesis. This hypothesis must be testable and must meet the
falsifiability criterion (the topic of chapter 2 in the Stanovich book). This last paragraph of your literature review should be viewed as both an opportunity to wrap up and summarize your argument as well as a transition into the next section (Method section), which will provide
the details and information regarding “how” you would propose to conduct your study.
Grading Criteria:
The literature review will be graded and to receive full credit, you must have; at least five complete pages of a literature
review (5 points), which includes a clearly stated purpose statement (2 points), logical argument (5 points), supportive evidence (5 points) and testable/falsifiable research hypothesis (3 points), demonstrates that you have begun the research process (i.e., provided at least five in-text citations) (3 points), and adhered to appropriate APA formatting and style (2 points). If you do not meet these requirements, you
will NOT receive full credit.
For this assignment, you will be graded primarily on how well you have started the research process and used the class readings and discussions to help you present and support the argument for your proposed hypothetical study. As such, you will be evaluated on the clarity of your introduction paragraph, and how well you provide evidence (i.e., empirical evidence along with the
appropriate citations) to support the claims made throughout the literature review. You will also be evaluated on the degree to which you have included a clearly stated, falsifiable research hypothesis.
You will also be evaluated on your use of APA formatting and style
guidelines. This includes the type of information covered in class, such as the running head, page numbers, appropriate title, correct
section headings, correct use of in-text and reference citations, and the appropriate use of language for a scientific research paper,
among others. You will also be evaluated on the quality of your writing and the degree to which it is clear, concise, and scientific in
nature. This includes, but is not limited to, your use of appropriate language (i.e., non-sexist, non-biased, or use of jargon), your ability to present clear and concise sentences and paragraphs, and a lack of grammatical and spelling errors. Your paper should be clear and
concise, yet still, flow well throughout.
Finally, if you plagiarize anywhere within the rough draft of your literature review, you will receive a score of “0”. If only one statement is plagiarized from the source material (without the proper quotation marks and citation), then you will
receive a “0” for the entire paper. You will not have an opportunity to correct any plagiarized material and resubmit your paper – THERE
WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS.
(I have already chosen a topic)
Last Completed Projects
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