PS 502
Article Summaries/Literature Review 2017
During the course of the semester, each of you will write, post to our Moodle page, and present to the class a literature review consisting of brief summaries of three articles. These articles are ones that you have found in scholarly journals and that have been approved beforehand by me.
Due Dates: There are several due dates that are relevant to this assignment. First, the articles that you have found and propose to include in your summary/literature review must be from no earlier than 2009, and they must be suggested to me no later than the Wednesday before your summary/lit review is due to be posted. Not in every case will the article (or publication) you suggest to me be deemed suitable. If that is the case, you will suggest another in enough time that I will be able to approve it by the Friday before your assignment is due. (Missing that final deadline for an approved article will result in the loss of points for your assignment.) It should be clear that you will do yourself no favor if you put off the approval process until the last possible minute. In fact, I will be happy to respond to your suggestion of an article many weeks before the assignment is due, if you would like to do that. In order for it to be timely, you will post your written summary/lit review to the course Moodle page by 5:00 p.m. on the day it is due. (You will notice on the syllabus that generally the date will be at least a week before you will present your work to the class.) Late papers will be penalized, and the later the paper, the larger the penalty.
Summary: Each summary/lit review will be in the format of the sample that I will make available to you later. It will be no longer than three single-spaced pages. The summaries of the articles should consist of brief statements of the major points of the articles, but in your own words. When necessary, brief quotations from the article may be used, but they should be indicated as such. Excessive reliance upon the original wording of the article will be treated as plagiarism, and will be dealt with accordingly. What will make your three summaries a lit review is that you will have woven them together, giving them a context appropriate to the week’s subject.
Presentation: Presentations will be conducted in class, where you will be expected to give a brief oral presentation on the articlesthat you have summarized in your literature review. Reading your written summaries aloud is not acceptable, as neither your classmates nor I wish to be read to, and besides, we all will have read your written, uploaded paper during the preceding week. Feel free to include additional commentary or analysis in your oral presentation. Pointing out a tie-in to the assigned textbook reading for the week would be especially appropriate. In any case, you will be expected to stand for questions from your classmates and from the instructor. You should plan to take no more than twenty minutes for your presentation. At the end, your classmates and I will most likely ask questions or react to your presentation. I may limit the total length of your presentation and the discussion following it, based upon the amount of time available.
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