What is the Lit Review assignment
The Literature Review, or Primary Research Report, is the longest paper you will write for the semester.
It is a cumulative exploration of all the research you have done this semester with your chosen semester topic.
On the Genre Analysis assignment, you looked at how someone else uses the rhetorical appeals, now you are using rhetorical appeals that I will analyze for effectiveness.
Assignment requirements?
- The paper should be 8-10 pages long
- It must include a title page, Abstract, and References page, however, these three pages do not count toward the page requirement.
- You should use 7-10 sources.
- The paper should contain a variety of sources. At least 4 different types. Such as books, articles, newspaper articles, websites, video clips, films, or government documents, to name a few.
- You must include 2 images within your paper
- You may use the visual from the Genre Analysis.
- You can use images, photos, charts, graphs, or whatever visual will help your topic.
- You can even include a self-made chart or graph based on your primary research results.
- Do not just throw the images in the paper
- They should include a caption and figure number.
- They should use text wrap well. (Google it!)
Structuring the paper?
Make absolutely sure you include an introduction and conclusion in your paper.
Your introduction should have the thesis statement at the end of that first paragraph. No subheading. Your conclusion should be separated with a subheading.
The main body of your paper should be broken down into four sections based on your research questions. These may be along the lines of: definition, importance, current policy, and policy change or plan of action.
The research questions will serve as subheadings in your paper. Remember that the subheading itself is centered and in bold.
Section 1: Definition
The first section of your paper may be defining your topic. Consider what your audience already knows about your topic so you do not define every unnecessary detail. Examples: If you’re doing teen pregnancy, you do not need to explain what teen pregnancy is. However, you may include statistics and facts related to teen pregnancy that your audience may not know.
If you’re doing domestic violence, you may want to define the different types of abuse. Ex: physical, verbal, emotional, psychological, financial, and sexual. If you’re doing human trafficking, your audience may not know much about your topic at all.
Section 2: Importance
Why is your topic important? Why should your audience care? If your audience does not care about your topic then you won’t have an audience to read it. What types of people does your topic affect? Who is currently being affected? Who could be affected? Give your audience evidence of why this topic might apply to them or to someone they know.
Section 3: Current Policy/Status
What is currently being done about your topic? Is anything currently being done about your topic? Examples: If you are doing a topic on concussions in football, you might address the current changes being made in helmets or the policy on when someone should be pulled from a game. If you are doing a topic on Facebook addiction, you may consider that there is no form of monitoring available except for personal monitoring, so a person cannot gain help for addiction until their addiction is bad enough that they need treatment in an addiction center.
Section 4: Policy Change/ Plan of Action
What should/can be done about your topic? This is the whole point of your paper. It is the progression of your argument. This is what you are raising awareness for and what you want your audience to care about. If there is already a policy in place with your topic and it could be improved, then what is your proposed policy change. If there is no policy in place or nothing currently being done for your topic, then what is your proposed plan of action. Example: If you are doing a topic on recycling, you might look locally at El Paso. We currently do not have recycling dumpsters for apartment buildings. We also do not have the capabilities to recycle glass or most other plastics. These are plans that could be implemented in town to help the recycling locally.
More examples: If you are doing a topic on animal abuse, you may consider what laws can be passed to prosecute offenders, but also maybe the access to free or cheap spay/neutering to cut down on the pet population and strays running around that might be abused by cruel people.
If you are doing sex education as a topic, you might consider what programs are proven to be effective and how those programs could be implemented in more schools and possibly more grade levels.
Format
Please, use the format template that I provide, please!
You can create the different parts of the assignment outside of template and move it over (copy/paste) in the end before submission
Times New Roman, 12 pt font, 1” margins, double spaced
Make sure you check line spacing options, under Spacing à After à you may see “10pt” which you should change to “0pt” [Super Important!!]
Make sure your last and page number are in the top right corner.
Revision
Once you have your intro, conclusion, and the other four sections of your paper, go back and revise! Grammar and mechanics are extremely important!!! Make sure you proofread everything! Double-check spelling, punctuation, and word usage. Check sentence structure throughout and make sure it is clear and avoids run-on sentences. Make sure you paper sounds professional and does not include slang or contractions. Triple check that you did not use 1st or 2nd person perspective. Only 3rd person unbiased is allowed!
- Do NOT use 1st person (I, me, my, us, we) or 2nd person (you, your) point-of-view
- Do NOT offer your opinion on the subject
- Do NOT use slang (legit, thru)
- Do NOT use contractions (don’t, isn’t, shouldn’t)
- Watch for improper use of homonyms (through or threw) (their, there, and they’re) (two, to, too)