GOAL: The literature review is a complex genre, and the goal is to practice most of the learning outcomes of the course. As you prepare for and write the literature review, you will:
• Synthesize scholarly, academic, professional, government, and non-expert, reputable sources.
• Practice writing the academic genre of the literature review to organize and integrate your own ideas with reputable sources, in order to suggest an intervention, a solution, or an area that requires further research. You will be establishing an exigence and writing with a specific purpose in mind.
• Write for a specific audience (stakeholder) that can make decisions about your suggestion or recommendation. You will be making a new offering.
The literature review is an academic genre, used by academics and often by proposal writers to collect and synthesize sources. The literature review serves different purposes; in this case, the main goal of the literature review is to help you think about your topic in complex, nuanced ways and to explore and incorporate scholarly conversations into the argument you will be making for the final project, the advocacy letter.
The literature review is a transitional document you will use to investigate your topic as it is discussed in academic and expert discourses and to formulate your own ideas and arguments about the topic.
Although you will be using the literature review as a transitional genre, the literature review is a complex genre that requires time, effort, and focus.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Choosing sources
You will use the number of sources you need to make a cohesive, coherent review of the current literature in your topic of interest. For this literature review, the normal range in sources is 15-20 sources, depending on the topic, arguments, need for supporting evidence, need for background and context sources, need for caveat, qualifying, pushback sources.
The sources you choose should help you establish an exigence (a problem that needs to be addressed by a specific audience) and to make a new offering (a recommendation, suggestion, new approach, etc.). You must include scholarly, peer reviewed sources, since those are the ones deemed most credible by the likely audiences of a literature review and since they provide robust evidence for most research questions. We will work on narrowing and refining your research question over the course of several weeks.
You will use APA style, unless you prefer to use the style most commonly used in your field of study. You are responsible for properly citing sources using established guidelines.
The role of audience
As part of the literature review, you will write a reflection about the audience (stakeholder) you are addressing in the literature review. The audience might be similar or different from the audience for the advocacy letter. We will discuss the stakeholder(s) in more detail throughout the semester.
The role of synthesis
The synthesis is the centerpiece of a literature review, and it can only happen successfully if you read your sources carefully. Take notes as you read, being mindful of key terms, the currency of the source, main claims, research methods used, and where you see possible controversies emerging.
To write the synthesis, begin by grouping various sources according to how they are similar and different. As you do so, be mindful of why these similarities and differences exist. Think about how the evidence you found in your sources fits together like pieces of a puzzle that yield a larger picture of the issue so that you can reach some tentative conclusions about them and discuss those implications.
The role of the complex thesis
The purpose is generally the thesis for a literature review. The thesis for a literature review operates differently from one used in an argument paper. Here is an example of a weak and strong thesis for a literature review:
• WEAK: The current trend for treating depression combines medication and cognitive behavioral therapy.
• STRONG: Though cognitive behavioral therapy is used in treating depression, more research is needed about expanding patient access to these treatments in underserved populations.
The “weak” thesis will lead to a literature review that summarizes sources one by one; the “strong” thesis will require a synthesis of research already done about treating depression that shows where more might be done about improving patient access to such treatments.
Thus, the literature review is never an end in itself; it synthesizes important information that not only answers your research question, but also takes a stand on what should happen next to solve the problem you identified, address a gap in the existing research, or to improve/change current practices in a field or profession.
Writing the literature review
Literature reviews are organized around ideas, not the sources themselves. Those ideas should derive from the focus, or purpose, you establish. To establish that focus, you must read your sources thoroughly, take notes, and look for patterns that you see that address your reason or purpose for writing the review.
GRADING CRITERIA: The literature review will be graded based on how well it establishes a purpose and an exigence, and on how well it makes a new offering to a specific stakeholder. The literature review must show synthesis of interconnected sources, multiple perspectives and aspects of a narrowly defined issue, and adherence to a citation style. The literature review must adhere to the genre conventions, including use of headers and subheaders, concise language, multiple sources.