Literature Review Section of Your Capstone
1. META SECTION OF LIT REVIEW
You should place at the top of your lit review your answers to the following questions.
- What is the focus of your literature review (See “find a focus” from how-to guide)?
- What is your organizational structure (see “Now consider some typical ways of organizing the sources into a review” from how-to guide)?
2. BODY SECTION OF LIT REVIEW
In this 750 – 2500 word (excluding the meta-section above) literature review, summarize and analyze the existing secondary literature relevant to your research question. Pay attention to scholarly debates, shifts in thinking, major questions, as well as breaks and continuities in the field.
If your research project is, in essence, a pilot version of what would be a more intensive research project in the real world (say, for example, you interviewed a handful of people about a major topic rather than the larger interview pool such a project might require), your literature review takes on a greater significance in your project.
After reading your literature review, I should know why your questions matters for the field or discipline and, if necessary, why your chosen methodology makes sense.
To understand what a good literature review that justifies a specific research question, you might want to read this example of a literature review sample_lit_review_race-and-prosecution.
3. SCREENSHOT SECTION OF LITERATURE REVIEW
IMPORTANT: For every citation or quotation, take a full-page screenshot from the relevant source. (how to take a screenshot: pc ; mac). Include these images at the end of your literature review in order of the citation or quotation’s appearance in your literature review. DO NOT SUBMIT TWO FILES TO Blackboard; INCLUDE ALL SCREENSHOTS IN THE SINGLE FILE YOU SUBMIT TO BLACKBOARD (20% off if you fail to include screenshots)
WRITING REQUIREMENTS
A. Clearly identify your cl/ev/wa for each paragraph that presents evidence. Again, not all paragraphs present evidence. But if a paragraph presents evidence, it should probably take the form of a cl/ev/wa paragraph.
B. Be sure to use direct quotations in support of your argument every time you present significant evidence (where appropriate by discipline). (-10% if you do not)
C. Integrate and introduce your quotations using methods 3 or 4 from HW 3.
(-10% if you do not)
D. Be sure to reduce your direct quotations to ten or fewer words. (-5% if you do not)
E. Punctuate your quotations properly (-5% if you do not)
F. Follow whatever citation method is appropriate for your discipline. (-5% if you do not)
G. Do not begin or end your direct quotation with an ellipsis (-2% if you do not)
H. Be sure to pay attention to authorial voice in whatever sources you rely upon; author x may summarize author y in order to disagree with author y. That summary, accordingly, would not be the expression of author x‘s argument or opinion.
