Length: 2000-3000 words
*Format: APA
- Sources: a total of at least 10 sources, all of which should be from scholarly journals or credible trade journals. You should find your sources through library searches.
If you cite sources from Dyebsites or popular journals, these sources should be in addition to the 10 sources you have cited from scholarly or trade journals.
*Topic: Please use the same topic that you used for writing assignments #1 and #2. It is recomm that you focus on or expand on the essay that you wrote for writing assignment #2. You will con with the topic you have selected and will conduct additional searches in the library databases.
Sources: a total of at least 10 sources, all of which should be from scholarly journals or credible trade journals. You should find your sources through library searches.
If you cite sources from websites or popular journals, these sources should be in addition to the 10 sources you have cited from scholarly or trade journals.
.Topic: Please use the same topic that you used for writing assignments #1 and #2. It is recommended that you focus on or expand on the essay that you wrote for writing assignment #2. You will continue with the topic you have selected and will conduct additional searches in the library databases, hopefully, focusing the topic more, and determining the 10 or more sources to use in this essay. Please note that this is a review of the literature on a topic. It is not a persuasive essay using sources to support a point.
Rather it is an overview of the current research on a topic.
Integration of Sources: At least eight sources must be cited in the body of the essay. You may cite sources in your introduction to help you define terms, and you may cite sources in your conclusion to help you direct the reader to further inquiry. However, the body of the essay should synthesize at least 8 sources.
Strategies in Developing the Topic for this Essay
Up to this point in the semester, you have completed an annotated bibliography on your chosen topic.
You have also incorporated and synthesized six sources into writing assignment #2. The work you have completed for these assignments provides a solid foundation for writing assignment #3. In this assignment, you will synthesize the ideas of at least 10 sources in a synthesis essay, or literature review.
For your annotated bibliography, you selected a topic based on your interests and, potentially, your major. You constructed a list of five references and summarized and critically analyzed them in 150-200 words each. You then completed the the six-source essay and synthesized sources. Through this process, you may have seen patterns in the scholarly literature in the topic on which you conducted research. For example, consider the following examples:
- You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found that there are varying opinions on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.
- You may have researched studies in psychology and found that counseling strategies for victims of domestic abuse tend to fall into four categories.
- You may have researched articles on gerontology and found studies that answered three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for physical performance.
- You may have researched articles on environmental management and found studies on climate change. You noticed that various demographic factors influence whether individuals believe in climate change and, if so, whether they believe it is caused by human activity.
In the synthesis essay, you will focus your research efforts in a particular area, as a response to what you found while writing the annotated bibliography and in constructing the
four-source and six-source essays. You will then conduct more research and synthesize your
findings in this literature review.
Please note that the annotated bibliography, the four-source essay, and the six-source essay
represent a journey in your research.
You might decide to disregard several of the articles you analyzed in the critical annotated bibliography or in the following two essays because they do not speak to the specific area on which you have decided to write your multiple-source literature review.
How to organize the multiple-source essay:
You will divide the essay into categories. Each category will be labelled with a heading.
For you to see this concept with a real-life example, you can access a sample synthesis or literature review from a psychology student by clicking here, or you can find it in in Week 7
Content/Resources under PSYCHSampleLitReview.
The student authors her paper on the following topic: Emotional Eating: The Perpetual Cycle of Mood-Food Influence. She her literature into the following categories, which are used as headings throughout the paper:
- Influence of Mood on Eating Behavior
- Gender Differences
- Influence of Eating Behavior on Later Moods
- Chronic Stress Response Network
- Notice how she synthesizes and integrates the research into the distinct categories, labeled by
- headings.
- Strategies in Developing Categories
- When you have focused on your topic, determine how you will divide the literature. In other words, consider the following examples we described above:
You may have researched studies in criminal justice and found that there are varying opinions
on how to respond to criminal behavior among youth.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
- Category 1: “A” view on responding to criminal behavior.
Category 2: “B” view on responding to criminal behavior.
- Category 3: “C” view on responding to criminal behavior
- Category 4; “D” view on responding to criminal behavior.
You may have researched articles on gerontology and found studies that answered three basic questions on how older adults respond to training for physical performance.
You might divide the paper as follows:
Introduction
Body
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Conclusion
You may have researched articles on environmental management and found studies on
climate change. You noticed that various demographic factors influence whether individuals
believe in climate change and, if so, whether they believe it is caused by human activity
Point of View
For this essay, you will use third-person point of view.
Please do not use first person point of view (e.g., “I,” “me,” “we”) in writing this essay.
In addition, please do not use second-person point of view (“you” or “your”) in writing this essay. For example, instead of “Smith argues that, as a director, you have a duty to coordinate cybersecurity efforts…” you would write, “Smith argues that directors have a duty to coordinate
cybersecurity efforts.
APA STYLE
Week 3 will be a helpful resource. In summary, you should observe the following:
- Use one-inch margins.
- Double space.
- Use size 12 Times New Roman font.
Include a running head.
- Include page numbers.
- Include a title page.
- Include a “References” page on which you list the articles in APA style
Do not include an abstract. This paper is not long enough to warrant an abstract.
