The Literature Review
This assignment will become the literature review for your major research report. You should incorporate the feedback and suggestions received into the literature review before integrating it into your report. It is worth 15% of your final mark.
Prior to developing the literature review, it will be necessary for you to (i) familiarize yourself with the variables that are available in the dataset, and (2) to do some library research in familiarizing yourself with relevant available literature. There is obviously no point in writing an elaborate literature review if you cannot operationalize it in the dataset that is available to you
Due Date: Nov. 8th,2012
Format and Length: Typed, double-spaced, 3-4 pages
The Review:
The literature review should discuss previous research done on the topic you have chosen and should rely mostly on recent academic journal articles. The utility of the literature review is that it situates your current research within the broader context of previous research. Summarize and discuss the research and findings described in the articles you have chosen following the guidelines in the Leedy and Ormrod (Ch. 4) reading.
You will need at least 5-7 relevant articles from sociological journals and/or book chapters that are directly related to sorts of relationships that you are studying. The goal here is to relate your topic to what has been previously published, show what is known and not known about the topic, and state how your study will further advance knowledge in that particular area. In putting together the literature review, end it by stating the primary research question you examined and situate this research question within the context of the previous research discussed in your review.
Follow the guidelines provided in the Sept. 27 powerpoint presentation. The literature review provides both the background and the rationale for your study and should focus on studies that have direct relevance to your study. A literature review should:
- Concentrate on the scientific research/theory in your particular area
- Summarize and, more importantly, evaluate the literature
- Create a context for your research and,
- Justify the utility of your study
Keep in mind the 10 questions discussed in the powerpoint:
1. What do we already know in the immediate area concerned?
2. What are the characteristics of the key concepts or the main factors or variables?
3. What are the relationships between these key concepts, factors or variables?
4. What are the existing theories?
5. Where are the inconsistencies/shortcomings in our knowledge and understanding?
6. What research designs or methods seem unsatisfactory?
7. What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited?
8. What views need to be (further) tested?
9. Why study the research problem further?
10. What contribution can the present study be expected to make?
Research Question (Main Hypothesis)
At the end of the review, state your primary research hypothesis(es). Your hypotheses should be clear as to what the dependent variable in your analysis is. Which independent variables are of particular importance in explaining this dependent variable? What are the relevant independent variables that you considered as important controls?
A Final Note:
A literature review should be written in terms of research themes (variables) and the relationships between them. It should not just summarize studies that you have found (i.e. it is NOT an annotated bibliography.) Write clearly and concisely and avoid unnecessary repetition. Make sure that you cite all of your sources and include a bibliography at the end of the review. This will become the bibliography for your final paper.
Citations should be done according to the ASA or ASR guidelines, both within the text and in the bibliography. Do not use footnotes or endnotes. In citing material from the internet, the ASA style should include the date that documents were retrieved also.
The guidelines can be found at: