Literature Review Assignment
The goal of this assignment is to help you learn how to synthesize and write about literature that is
interesting to you. As well, the goal is to help you understand how to develop research questions and
hypotheses that are grounded in literature and theory. By doing this, you can personalize course material
and content to something that can be directly applied to your future endeavors.
Guidelines
**You will need to get your topic approved before writing this paper. Please note, topic selection is
a grade and counts for 15 out of the total 100 points for this paper. If you do not get your topic
approved, you will not receive credit for the literature review**.
Your final paper should be 6-8 pages, double spaced. You should use APA formatting. This includes
Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, and one-inch margins. You will need to include a
cover page. Please make sure to include a header in proper APA formatting. If necessary, include
headers and sub-headers in APA format. You will need to include a references page as well. Your paper
should not exceed eight pages.
You are required to include at least 8 references (both cited internally and in APA format) in this
paper. You can use any of the references from your APA assignments for this paper. It is likely that you
will probably need closer to 10-15 references to write a strong paper though.
You should include no more than two direct quotes in this paper. The purpose of this assignment is so
that you can summarize research and paraphrase it in your own words.
You will need to include internal citations. Please see the APA formatting PowerPoint if you have
questions about how to internally cite something.
Make sure your paper is written in a professional manner (e.g. use phrases such as “according to the
authors…” or “the researchers found”). You should only use personal pronouns when referring to your
hypotheses or research questions (e.g. “Thus, I propose the following hypothesis”).
Make sure that your paper is concise and to the point. This should not read as if you are simply
summarizing eight different articles and then stating a couple hypotheses or research questions. The
articles should be integrated together as much as possible. The goal is to tell a story about how
everything connects and how your research questions and hypotheses help to illuminate a problem that
is not currently studied. Your paper should read like a literature review you would find in a journal
article, although it will be truncated. Most literature reviews in journal articles are 12-20 pages double
spaced.
Make sure to include transitions between sections.
© YOON
Instructions
Before starting the paper, I will need to your research topic. Please see the assignment on Canvas for
specific instructions on what is required for me to approve your topic.
After your topic has been approved, you may start writing your paper. This paper ideally should be
broken down into major three parts.
Introduction
This portion should be 2-3 paragraphs long, or about a page to a page and a half. In this section you will
need to overview the rationale and theoretical approach you will use for the paper, then offer an
overview the paper and paper goals.
Rationale: A rationale is essentially an argument for why something should be studied. In other words,
why is it important to understand this concept. Rationales are often empirical (drawing on findings from
a series of studies), theoretical (testing a theory in a new context, using a theory to understand X), or
societal (drawing on public health data, crime statistics, government sources, etc.). Think of this as a
problem statement. Here is the problem I want to address and here is why this is a problem that needs to
be addressed/researched. You are only introducing your rationale here. Give just enough for the
audience to be interested to read more, but not too much that it distracts from the rest of the introduction.
Overview of theoretical approach: This should succinctly discuss what theory, theoretical tradition, or
model you have chosen and why this is useful for addressing the rationale provided above.
Overview the paper and paper goals: This should state the goals of the paper (likely theoretical and
practical), and then offer an overview of what will be discussed in the paper.
Literature Review
This portion should be 4-6 pages long and will likely be made up of at least two sections. In this section
you will build on your rationale discussed in the introduction through the use of literature. What does the
literature on your topic already show and what are the gaps in what currently exists? In addition, you
should overview the theory/theoretical tradition/model more in- depth.
The structure of this section will vary based on the topic that you have chosen (i.e., if you are focusing
on a public health issue, you will likely start with a section on the public health problem before going in
to the theoretical tradition, whereas if you are focusing on testing persuasion theory, you will likely want
to overview how the theory functions before discussing how you will apply it to your specific case). I
will offer you feedback in your topic approval assignment for ways that you can structure your literature
review.
Research Questions/Hypotheses
This section will ideally be a page to a page and a half. In this section you should have one to two
paragraphs summarizing what you discussed in the literature review, connecting this to the gaps in the
research (i.e., your rationale), and posing your research question(s) or hypotheses.
© YOON
Formatting
Please use the below instructions for formatting your paper.
Introduction
*No heading is necessary here; your paper should just begin below the title.
The title should be centered and not bolded
*Use your rationale to develop an attention-getting opener. Make sure this is appropriate for
professional writing.
*This section should be 2-3 paragraphs.
*The first paragraph should be the introduction/rationale.
*The second paragraph should overview the theory/theoretical tradition/model you plan to use. *The last
paragraph should preview the entire paper.
*Make sure to a) provide the seminal or most widely adopted definition of your construct/theory, and b)
to establish the key researcher(s) in this area. This should ideally happen in the second paragraph.
*Conclude this section with a transition to the next section (each section should conclude with a
transition) *Remember, this section should be 2-3 paragraphs. I am asking for a lot of information in this
section but adhere to the 2- 3-paragraph structure as the only goal of this section is to help the reader
become familiar with your topic of study and overview your paper.
Literature Review
*Have a section heading labeled with your topic/theory/construct of study.
This heading should be centered and bolded.
*Review the research in this area.
*Write as a narrative, not just explaining one study in each paragraph. *Why is this important to study?
*This section should be about 4-6 pages.
*If appropriate, you can break this section into two or three sections.
Research Question(s)/Hypotheses
*Have a section labeled Research Question(s) or Hypotheses. If you have both research questions and
hypotheses, you would label it “Research Questions and Hypotheses.” This heading should be centered
and bolded.
*Review the research, your rationale, and the gaps in the research
*State what will be gained (or lost) by studying (or not studying) these variables? *Pose
RQ(s)/Hypotheses
References
*Begin on a new page. Heading should be centered, bold, not italics.
*The title is References, not Works Cited.
© YOON
Rubric
This paper is graded on a 100-point scale and accounts for 25% of your final grade (100 out of 500
points). The paper is broken down into two grades: 15 points for topic selection and 85 points for the
paper.
Area Excellent Good Satisfactory Poor
Topic
Selection
15 points 12 points 8 points 7 points or less
All six questions are
thoughtfully
answered. It is clear
that the student took
time developing
their research idea.
Most questions are
thoughtfully
answered.
All questions are
answered, but there
was not much
thought put into the
questions.
At least two of the
questions are
unanswered. It is
clear that little to no
thought was put in to
answering the
questions.
Introduction
15 points 12 points 8 points 7 points or less
The introduction
includes a
thoughtful overview
of the rationale,
theoretical
approach, and paper
contents in 2-3
paragraphs. The
construct/theory is
clearly defined, and
the key researchers
are noted.
The introduction
includes an overview
of the rationale,
theoretical approach,
and paper contents in
2-3 paragraphs,
although some detail
is lacking. The
construct/theory is
clearly defined, and
the key researchers
are noted.
The introduction is
missing either an
overview of the
rationale, theoretical
approach, or paper
contents. The
construct/theory is
not clearly defined,
and the key
researchers are not
clearly noted.
Multiple components
of the introduction
are missing. Those
that are present are
not thoughtfully
addressed. The
construct/theory is
not defined, and the
key researchers are
not noted.
Literature
Review
35 points 28 points 20 points 15 points or less
The literature
review overviews at
least eight articles.
These articles are
synthesized together
to tell a coherent
story. The author
expands on the
rationale and is able
to draw on theory /
research to support
the rationale and
need to study the
problem. The
problem is clearly
outlined and
supported by
theory/research.
The literature review
overviews at least
eight articles. The
articles are not clearly
synthesized together.
The author attempts
to expand on the
rationale and draw on
theory / research to
support the rationale
and need to study the
problem, but some
detail is missing. The
problem is clearly
outlined and
supported by
theory/research.
The literature review
overviews fewer
than eight articles.
The articles are not
clearly synthesized
together. The author
attempts to expand
on the rationale and
draw on theory /
research to support
the rationale and
need to study the
problem, but much
detail is missing. The
problem is not
clearly outlined and
supported by
theory/research.
The literature review
overviews fewer
than six. The articles
are summarized
individually rather
than synthesized
together. The author
does not expand on
the rationale or draw
on theory / research
to support the
rationale and need to
study the problem.
The problem is not
clearly outlined and
supported by
theory/research.
© YOON
Research
Questions/
Hypotheses
20 points 16 points 10 points 7 points or less
The section includes
1-2 paragraphs
summarizing what
was discussed in the
literature review,
connects the
literature to the
rationale, and states
the RQ’s/Hyp. This
section includes a
strong argument for
why the author is
posing the
RQ’s/Hyp by
connecting the
literature and
rationale
The section includes
1- 2 paragraphs
summarizing what
was discussed in the
literature review,
attempts to connect
the literature to the
rationale, and states
the RQ’s/Hyp. An
attempt is made to
create an argument
for why the author is
posing the RQ’s/Hyp
by connecting the
literature and
rationale.
This section includes
1-2 paragraphs
summarizing what
was discussed in the
literature review and
stating the
RQ’s/Hyp. Little to
no attempt is made
to connect the
literature to the
authors rationale.
The author attempts
to create an
argument for why
they are posing their
RQ’s/Hyp, but is
missing critical
information.
This section attempts
to summarize what
was discussed in the
literature review and
states RQ’s/Hyp. No
attempt is made to
connect the literature
to the rationale and
no argument is made
for why the author is
posing their
RQ’s/Hyp.
APA
10 points 8 points 6 points 4 points or less
Paper is free from
APA errors.
Paper has 2-4 APA
errors.
Paper has 5-9APA
errors.
Paper has 11 or more
APA errors.
Grammar &
Spelling
5 points 4 points 3 points 1 point
Paper is generally
free from
grammatical and
spelling errors. All
transitions are
present.
Paper has minor
grammatical and
spelling errors. Paper
is missing some
transitions.
Paper has significant
grammatical and
spelling errors. Paper
is missing multiple
transitions.
Paper is difficult or
impossible to read
due to extensive
grammatical and
spelling errors. Paper
does not have clear
transitions.