Mini-Literature Review: Mini-Literature Assignment
Summarizing, Evaluating, and Synthesizing Research
Core Article: You need one core article.
Follow-up articles
In addition to the core article, 3-4 supporting articles of your own choosing – choose articles whose main findings either (a) provide additional background or supporting evidence for the main article, or (b) highlights a limitation of the main article that leads to your summary/evaluation.
Additional Readings and Resources
APA Manual (7th Edition), as specified below.
Sample article summary and evaluation
Initial Draft Instructions
For this assignment, you will summarize and synthesize 2 research reports.
Your paper will be 4 pages, including abstract, body and conclusion, written in APA style.
Your paper should include:
A brief introduction describing the main theory being tested in the core article and your thesis (how well supported the theory was after synthesizing the core and follow-up articles).
A summary of the Core article written in two paragraphs. The first paragraph begins with a topic sentence that describes the main point/purpose of the study (1 – 2 sentence), then summarizes and the main methodology employed to test the hypotheses (~3-5 sentences).
The second paragraph summarizes the main results (~2-4 sentences) and the authors’ discussion and conclusions (~2-3 sentences). The conclusion should address the primary purpose or question of the article.
Briefly summarize 2 – 3 articles that either provide additional background or supporting evidence for the main article, or highlights a limitation of the main article that leads to your summary/evaluation.
Describe a limitation of the core article that leads to what was done in the follow-up article. Then, summarize the follow-up article as described above.
Doing this goes beyond just summarizing and works on evaluation and synthesis skills.
A brief conclusion/discussion that summarizes the “state” of the theory based on the two studies reviewed.
End with stating your hypothesis.
Reference section
Use your APA Manual and pay special attention to the following aspects of APA style:
Citing References in Text, APA 6.00 – 6.21 Numbers, APA 4.30 – 4.38 Writing Clearly and Concisely, APA 3.04 – 3.11 Especially passive vs. active voice
Final Draft Instructions
You will receive feedback from instructor. If instructed, you will also have received feedback from other resources. Make relevant revisions, paying special attention to those aspects noted by the instructor, and consulting the APA manual as directed. Please “track changes” as you make your edits. If the edit marks are distracting, select “no mark-up” in the Review tab of Microsoft Word