These are the guidelines for the Literature Review Paper:
Your Literature Review paper will be 1,200-1,500 words (about four to five pages) in MLA Style (http://libguides.randolph.edu/wc/styles).
The paper must have five secondary sources.
Secondary sources include scholarly critical books, articles, and histories. One of your secondary sources should be a biographical article or book about the author. Secondary sources include articles (journal, news, or magazine), books, videos, podcasts, etc., about the literary work and/or its author. Generally speaking, these should be scholarly sources, not popular sources, although some periodicals for mass audiences such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and similar publications often include articles that would be suitable for this paper.
The paper must also have at least one primary source, which will be the literary work itself.
So, your Literature Review Paper must have at least six sources.
Save your paper as a docx (MS Word) file before you submit it. Even if you use Google Docs, you have the option to save your paper as a docx or pdf file.
Here is a sample Literature Review Paper written by a student in ENG 241: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1enPr-iXtYSHEO0uw9022YBnkwOa5hrixFQofkMKD-P4/edit?usp=sharing
Genre
A literature review is basically a survey of significant sources available on a proposed topic. It does not necessarily seek to make an argument about the topic. Rather, its goal is to report on the topic and summarize discourses that others have written and/or presented about the topic. Another goal is to determine some of the major questions or concerns about the topic and determine what sources might be used in a full-blown, in-depth study of the topic.
Process
The first step in writing your Literature Review Paper will be to decide on a poem, play, or novel and read it.
The next step is to do some research and find sources about the author.
Moving on, you will need to do more research and find at least five authoritative sources on the poem, play, or novel and its author. More information about sources is included later in this assignment sheet. Please be sure to read it carefully so that you do not use any prohibited sources!
After finding your sources, you will need to read each one carefully while you annotate them and take notes.
Drafting and organization
Having completed your research and reading, it will be time to begin drafting your Literature Review Paper. Students are advised to use the following outline to organize their papers:
I. Introduction: Your introduction should provide an overview of your paper. It must include the title of the literary work you are focusing on, the name of the author and some biographical information about him or her, the date the work was published, a summary/description of the literary work, and a statement about the availability of sources for the topic. Be sure to cite any sources you use in your overview using MLA-Style citations.
II. Body: The body of your paper must have at least five paragraphs. Each paragraph will be devoted to one of your sources and include the title of the source, the name of the author, and a summary and critique of the source. If you are using a book as a source, you need only summarize the section(s) that are relevant to your topic. If you are using a video as a source, you will need to summarize just as you would a book. Each body paragraph must include at least one quotation from the secondary/critical source. Be sure to include MLA-Style citations for quotations and key paraphrases.
III. Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review must explain what you have learned by writing the paper. (Just remember not to use first-person anywhere in your paper.) This explanation should include some of the major questions or concerns you have discovered about the literary work and its author that might be explored in a full-blown, in-depth study. Finally, you should state if you believe there are sufficient sources for such a study and whether it is worth pursuing.
IV. Bibliography: Your paper must include a bibliography. The bibliography for an MLA-Style paper is a Works Cited list. The Works Cited is to begin on a new page with consecutive pagination at the end of your paper. The Works Cited must include entries for all of your sources. These sources will be the literary work you have researched, biographical sources about the author, the sources summarized in your literature review, and other sources you have used in the paper. Remember that every source listed in the bibliography must be cited in the paper.
MLA Style
For help with MLA Style, see
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_introduction.html
Do not use the Microsoft Word References tool or “citation machines” for your source documentation! They will put mistakes into your papers! Do your source documentation yourself.
Sources
Generally speaking, the types of sources that you will need for this paper are not the type you will be able to find through a quick web search. You will need to dig deeper than that.
One of the best places to begin searching for sources for this essay is the MCC library’s website at https://www.montgomery.edu/library/research. This is your portal to NC Live and other database collections.
If prompted, enter the same user name and password you use to access Blackboard.
Another useful source is Internet Archive, which allows users to set up free accounts to “borrow” online materials.
Books are available to you not only through public and school libraries but also through ebook sites such as NC live and Internet Archive.
Students must limit their use of general Websites. These often include websites that individuals and merchants maintain rather than reputable libraries and nonprofit groups.
Students may not use Wikipedia and other such encyclopedias as sources. Study aids such as Cliff’s Notes, Bookrags, Shmoop, SparkNotes, enotes, study.com, GradeSaver, GradesFixer, CourseHero, 123helpme and similar “cheating” sites are also off limits as sources. These general references are helpful in acquainting ourselves with unfamiliar topics and perhaps find research prompts, but they are not intended to be authoritative sources. Also, please be aware that you should not use anything written by another student as a source unless it is a thesis or a dissertation.
One of the best places to find sources for this paper will be the Gale Literature Resource Center.
Good luck with your Literature Reviews! I look forward to reading them.

Literature Review