Literature Review will be a study of the literature directly related to the topic or problem under study, followed by an explanation of how your research question grows out of that review, that is, showing how you identify your own research focus in term of “gap” in previous research. The purpose of the literature review is to know what others have discovered before you begin your investigation of your own, to ground your study in a particular context of what is known about a subject in order to establish a foundation for the topic (or question) being researched.

The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate your abilities to research a topic of study so you can learn to (1) identify and formulate an inquiry question that defines what you’d like to learn, (2) know how to search and locate literature (eg. Journal articles) using library and internet resources; (3) analyze information found in educational journal articles, and (4) synthesize new knowledge into a written literature review and (5) establish context for your inquiries.

Assignment Description:

For this assignment you are asked to complete a literature review on the topic of your choice. You are asked to locate at least 5 educational journal articles on your topic and write a 2 page (11 font size, 1.15 spaced) literature review on the articles you’ve selected.

Steps to complete your literature review: Finalize your topic. Formulate an inquiry question that specifically describes what would like to know about your educational topic. Go to the library or lib.utah.edu to search for and locate journals that include your topic’s information. Find articles, read the abstracts and skim the articles to determine if they correspond well to your topic AND inquiry question. Select at least 5 journal articles and keep copies. Read your articles and begin to sort and classify them according to their findings. Write an outline for your literature review. Write your review.