Research Project Part II: Introduction/Literature Review
A well-written Introduction and comprehensive Literature Review inform readers of the importance of your research project and situate your arguments in the context of existing academic literature, respectively. Below, each component of this assignment is described in more detail, along with formatting instructions:
Introduction:
Much of this work has already been done – what you will need to do now is take the feedback given on Part I of your research project (Topic Proposal) and write a roughly 1-2 page introduction to your paper. This should include information on the research question you have chosen, your argument(s), a brief reference to the ways in which your research will add to the existing literature on this topic, ideas of methodological treatments for your research question (don’t worry if you haven’t gotten to this part yet – you can make a reference to quantitative vs. qualitative research, or a dataset you feel would be useful, etc.), your expected findings, and most importantly – why your research is needed and worthy of consideration by your audience.
Literature Review:
The critical thing to remember about writing a Literature Review is that for your readers, it presents a story about the literature that is relevant to your research topic. You should not use a “boxcar” approach, where each source is discussed in one sentence/paragraph/section, followed by the next one, and the next one, and so on. A well-formed Literature Review should represent an integrated analysis of the pertinent literature which tells the reader what the sources have to offer in terms of accumulated knowledge on the subject, whether or not their findings and arguments appear to support the need for your research project, and/or any issues that the literature may have ignored or potentially gotten wrong until now. You should highlight how your research project attempts to contribute to the literature in new ways. In summary, your Literature Review should follow a clear framework (chronological, thematic, or methodological – see handout on writing Literature Reviews in Moodle for more information) and inform on the relevant arguments and findings from your sources, the overall story they present on your topic, and how your paper will fit into that story. Remember to include proper introductory and concluding paragraphs, as in “traditional” research papers. Literature Reviews in most academic articles generally run about 3-5 pages in length.
Formatting:
Introduction – 1-2 pages in length
Literature Review – 3-5 pages in length (these should be combined in one submission) 12” font, 1” margins, double-spacing, section headers acceptable
Minimum of 5 academic sources (you will need more than this for your final project)