RES 861 Week 5 Review of Literature Assignment

RES 861 Week 5 Review of Literature Assignment

RES861

RES 861 Grand Canyon Week 5 Assignment – Literature Review: Body

Details:

In the previous assignment, you created an outline of the literature review (Chapter 2) for your dissertation. The next step is to draft the body of the literature review. The body of the literature review is its primary segment. It is here that the actual review of the literature takes place. In this assignment, you will construct a draft of the body of the literature review (Chapter 2) for your proposal and dissertation.

 

General Requirements:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• Refer to the most recent dissertation prospectus template in the DC (dc.gcu.edu) for details and criteria for the literature review (Chapter 2).
• Instructors will be using a grading rubric to grade the assignments. It is recommended that learners review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment in order to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.

Directions:

Prepare a draft literature review (Chapter 2) of 1,750-2,000 words for your dissertation. You will not address all of the themes in your outline in this assignment.

1-    Select two of the major themes from the outline of your dissertation literature review that you created in the previous assignment.

2-    For each major theme, identify at least three empirical or scholarly articles (six articles total) related to the theme.

3-    For each empirical article, state the article title, the author, the research question(s), the research sample, the research methodology, the gaps in the study (what questions does the study raise?), and the research findings of the study. For scholarly, non-empirical articles, state the article title and author, and provide a brief contextual summary of the article.

4-    Identify at least three sub-themes that relate to each theme (six sub-themes total).

5-    Identify at least three empirical or scholarly articles related to each sub-theme (18 articles total).At least one article must demonstrate a quantitative methodology.

6-    For each empirical article, state the research question(s), the research sample, the research methodology, the gaps in the study (what questions does the study raise?), and the research findings of the study. For scholarly, non-empirical articles, state the article title and author, and provide a brief contextual summary of the article.

7-    Select one of the quantitative empirical articles used in the sub-themes section of this assignment and identify the following elements:

• Alternative and null hypotheses associated with the research question.
• Sampling method (How were the participants recruited?).
• Variables and the type of scale for each variable.
• Inferential statistical tests for hypothesis testing (used to determine if the null hypothesis is retained or rejected).
• Level of significance set by the researcher to test the hypothesis.
• Results of the statistical tests performed (Was the result of each statistical test significant or not?).
• Descriptive statistics for the sample or the data (mean, median, etc.).
• Procedures taken to ensure reliability and validity of the data.

Write statements that synthesize the three studies of each sub-theme based on the information you stated above. You will write six synthesis statements. RES 861 Week 5 Review of Literature Assignment

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

Drafting the body of the literature review

Introduction

So you’ve decided to write a review. Congrats! That’s an important step in the process, but it’s also one of the more intimidating parts of the process. In this post, I’ll walk through some of the things you should consider when drafting your body of literature and how to get started on those first few paragraphs.

 

Drafting the body of the literature review

The body of your review will be where you explain your research question, how you will answer it, and what you found.

• Explain why this is important: state what’s at stake if we don’t do something or if people continue doing something.

• State the problem or issue: What would happen if research didn’t exist? How could we use existing knowledge in order to solve our problem/issue/question?

• Describe what steps have already been taken (if any) towards solving this problem/issue/question. Be sure to include references so readers can check them out themselves!

Make sure you include enough material.

You don’t want a reader to be left wondering what you mean by “the body of the literature.” If you’ve read through your sources and think they’re relevant, put them in the body of your review. Don’t be afraid to include too much information; if you find a source that is relevant and interesting but doesn’t fit into your thesis directly, use it as an example or lead-in (like this).

If there’s something particularly important about one particular piece of information—for example, if one source contains data on drug toxicity while another doesn’t mention toxicity at all—you can add this fact into your conclusion at the end before going back over everything again!

Make sure your sources are recent and relevant.

• Make sure your sources are recent and relevant. If a paper is published in the past, it may not be as useful and relevant to your topic as one written more recently.

• Make sure the source is credible. If you can’t trust what an author says, then it’s probably not worth using their research for your review.

• Make sure the source is scholarly (i.e., peer reviewed). This means that experts at universities or other institutions have reviewed them before they were published; if they haven’t been peer reviewed yet, this could mean there’s something wrong with them!

• Finally: make sure each article has been written by an expert who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to this subject matter!

Make sure you’ve identified each key concept and term.

Before you start writing, make sure that your key terms are defined. This will help the reader understand what they are reading and make the text easier to follow. You can use any of these resources:

• A dictionary (a great tool for getting started)

• A thesaurus (a useful tool for expanding on your language skills)

• An online thesaurus, such as Google’s free Dictionary and Thesaurus Tool

Make sure you have a good mix of scholarly and popular sources.

You should have a good mix of scholarly and popular sources. The word “scholarly” refers to research that is written by people who are considered experts in their field, while “popular” refers to writing that has been published by non-academics or amateurs. Both types of sources can be useful in your paper, but you need to make sure they aren’t too similar!

For example: If you’re writing about how many people read Harry Potter books each year (a scholarly topic), then it’s best if you use data from academic journals as well as surveys taken on Amazon’s website (a popular one). This helps show readers what kind of numbers really make sense when comparing different pieces of information from different kinds of sources—and why those numbers might differ greatly depending on who was doing the counting!

Make sure you have a good mix of primary, secondary and tertiary sources.

Make sure you have a good mix of primary, secondary and tertiary sources.

Primary sources are original research or reports of events (for example, journal articles). Secondary sources are reviews of other people’s research and tertiary sources are summaries of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are more credible than secondary ones because they were written by the people who were actually involved in the event being reported on; however, they’re less likely to be cited because they don’t have many citations associated with them.

Make sure each section is well-defined and that your paper flows logically from one topic to the next.

• Make sure that each section is well-defined and that your paper flows logically from one topic to the next.

• You should have a good mix of scholarly and popular sources in your paper, but try not to rely solely on secondary sources or tertiary (or lower) level information. This can make it difficult for readers to understand what you’re trying to say, especially if they don’t know enough about the topic at hand.

Drafting is hard work but you’ll feel great when you’re done!

When you’re done drafting your body of the literature review, it will feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders! You can take a break and come back to it later if needed—but don’t worry about how much time has passed since then; just focus on writing the next section. It’s important to note that this is not a race: write as slowly or quickly as needed until all parts are complete.

Conclusion

Now that you’re done drafting, it’s time to start writing. This part is much easier than you may have expected and once you get into the rhythm of things it will be nothing but smooth sailing!