Students will select
a counseling related topic of interest and complete a 5–6-page literature
review, written in APA style. The literature review should culminate in a research
question(s)/gap in the literature. Although quality of the content will be weighed most heavily, papers are expected
to have correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, and APA formatting. You should find at least 10 recent articles
on your topic, with at least 3 empirical studies. The goal of this assignment is to critically review the literature on
your topic and to practice using the literature review to inform your study. Use sources to help you determine a gap in
the literature and the need for your study. Students will first
be matched with a peer and will review each other’s literature reviews,
providing feedback on content, APA, flow, adherence to the rubric, etc. This will be completed
prior to the deadline. Consult the textbook in helping you come up with a
research topic and write the literature review. The “Lit Review” is referred to in your
textbook as the “Introduction” of a Research Report. Also consult professional journal articles to see how the
authors write their literature reviews and create a rationale for their study.
Major Components of the Literature Review
1. Introduction of
topic & rationale
·
What specific counseling-related topic are you reviewing? Be sure it’s
not too broad or vague.
·
Get specific!
·
Why is this topic important (not to you, but to counselors who are your
specific target)?
·
Is your argument clear enough to warrant this lit review?
·
Is the reader clear on what this review will cover and why (have you
provided a statement introducing what will be covered in the review)?
·
Is your argument backed up by citations? Are all your claims backed up by
citations?
2. Relevant literature
on the topic
·
Does the paper include at least 10 recent peer-reviewed articles on the
topic? Are at least 3 of these empirical studies?
·
Are most of your resources up to date? (published within the past 5-ish
years? Some older articles are fine, especially foundational studies).
·
Are the articles the most relevant to the paper and/or argument? Is some
important literature clearly omitted? Is it clear that you reviewed significantly more
articles and only selected the top 10 to be included in this review?
·
What does the literature and research say about this topic? Are there
conflicting views that are addressed?
·
Are all your claims backed up by citations?
·
Have you divided the lit review into sections that make sense and break
down the literature topic meaningfully and in a way that flows logically?
·
Have you reviewed relevant studies (empirical) and reported these
correctly and meaningfully (brief review of methods, findings, relevance)?
·
Have you made meaningful links between topics/literature (i.e., used
transitions to connect your topics)?
·
Have you used transition sentences and “so what?” statements throughout?
That is, why was it important to include that info in your review? When reviewing a study or
citing specific research, be sure to add “so what” sentences at the end of that. What did
this mean in terms of our purpose? What gap did it
illuminate? How does it relate to your rationale or research
questions?
3.
Identification of gaps in the literature & Inclusion of
1-3 logical research questions that address the gaps in the literature
·
Have you addressed gaps in the literature? That is, have
you reviewed what we know and linked that to gaps in what we know?
·
What areas are still under-researched related to your topic
and rationale?
·
Have you fleshed out these gaps and used citations to back
them up?
·
Why are these gaps important to study? Have you addressed
the need for the study?
·
This section should be infused throughout the literature
review as you review various studies. Toward the end of the lit review, you want to reiterate a
summary of broad gaps that lead into your research questions.
·
Have these gaps been tied back to your intro, rationale,
and lit review to make a consistent and clear logical argument? (this can be included in “so what?”
statements).
·
Have you included 1-3 logical research questions (at the
very end of the lit review) that might address the gaps in the literature?
·
Have these questions been formulated properly? Could a
study address these?
·
Are the research questions relevant to your
introduction/rationale, literature review, and identified gaps?
4.
APA, formatting, structure, organization, writing style,
paper length
·
Have you reviewed the paper for APA errors and formatting,
per the APA Checklist and additional
sources? Is the paper free of grammatical, sentence-structure, and spelling
errors? Do
the
verb-tenses agree? Is it written in past tense or present perfect tense?
·
Is your paper logically organized? Does it flow naturally
between headers and paragraphs? Does it include transition sentences to connect ideas and
arguments?
·
Is the paper written in a professional way and “matter of
fact”? Does it avoid excessive wording and “passionate” language, while still creating enthusiasm
for the topic? Is it written concisely
and to
the point?
·
Does the paper follow a consistent flow/argument that naturally
concludes in the gaps and research
questions?