Students will demonstrate their capacity to develop a research question of their own interest by completing a two-part document: 1) a literature review; and 2) a research proposal.

Students will demonstrate their capacity to develop a research question of their own interest by completing a two-part document: 1) a literature review; and 2) a research proposal. The purpose of this assignment is to give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge about the research process to an original project of their own interest. The literature review allows students to demonstrate their capacity to gather, evaluate, organize, and synthesize research into a coherent, logical, scholarly document. The lit review will be 8-12 pages in length (not inclusive of the title page or references), double-spaced, typewritten, in APA format, and must include at least 20 references (though most papers should have more than this). Students should clearly articulate the purpose and significance of the study and supported ideas with references to relevant literature. Relevant literature includes articles from scholarly journals or edited books. Internet references should only rarely be used (i.e. there are a few online journals that are acceptable). Wikipedia, information-based websites, press releases, popular books (not edited) are not appropriate. If you have a question about a resource, please bring it to class or email the instructor before you use it. Original citations should be located. “As cited in” references will NOT be accepted. IF full, original articles cannot be found, please read the abstract to confirm that the article addresses the appropriate point and use the original citation. The paper should be scholarly in tone and authoritative. This is not an essay (i.e. opinion piece), a reaction paper, or a report. A successful literature review includes the following: – An identified problem area and its significance, in terms of scope, impact, urgency, etc. – A clear research question that can be addressed within the scope of a 7- or 10-page paper. – Identification and evaluation of other relevant research that has been conducted and why this body of research is not sufficient to answer the question at hand (e.g. does existing research not ask the right questions, or measure the right variables? Do they only focus on a particular age? Or not take age into account?) – Adequate explanation of concepts and a clear statement of the expectations or research hypotheses. The literature review should proceed logically from the general problem area down to the specific research being proposed. See less