Research Project: Literature Review
Your research paper topic should be based on the question: Does IQ measure the level
of intelligence of humans?
You must use a minimum of five sources in a “literature review” to consist of at least two
course readings (None of the Above: What IQ Doesn’t Tell You About Race, by malcom
glawell. And Critique of The Bell Curve by Gould, J. Stephen), two scholarly sources
from the Library databases, and one additional source that may be from the course
anthology, other course readings, the library databases, a credible website or page of a
website, or a documentary or YouTube video. Finally, at least one source from the
databases must be a scientific article found in the Web of Science Core Collection,
Science, or Science Direct—or any of the other databases we have reviewed in class,
including, in particular, ProQuest Research Library. A complete, double-spaced, 6-8-
page draft, using APA 7 format and citations
GeAng started
1) Develop your own argument,
2) Show what is known (or the current thinking) on a topic,
3) Evaluate research or work that has been done on a topic, and
4) Provide context for your own research and/or wriOng on a topic.
Tips for wriOng the literature review
1) Be objecOve. A literature review is an analytic piece of writing, e.g. it remains as
objective as possible and does not include personal opinion. Be fair! At the same Ome, a
literature review almost always contains an argument: you are supporOng your argument by
means of summary, analysis, and criOque of your sources.
2) Include relevant literature. A literature review includes sources that apply to your
research question. If they are not relevant, you should exclude them from your review.
(What should you do if only four of your sources apply to your topic? I will accept a
literature review with only four sources, provided the review is still at least 5 pages
long.)
3) Focus on a central insight into the literature. A literature review will synthesize the
included literature, providing some sort of central insight into the surveyed literature.
Your review should not read as a haphazard catalog of everything you read. It should
not read as a series of five long book reviews.
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4) Summarize, evaluate and analyze, and criOque all sources. You should summarize
whatever ideas in the source best meet the needs of your review’s purpose. When you
evaluate, analyze, and critique your sources, you should identify any problems or
information gaps in them, paying special attention to any questions that have not been
addressed or answered by your sources. Additionally, you should pay attention to any
conclusions your sources have made that might not be warranted.
5) Consider audience. When writing the literature review, you should be mindful that you
are writing for an audience so you should plan on organizing the review in some way
that makes the central insight readily apparent to a reader who knows nothing about the
topic. As you summarize and evaluate your sources, you should be careful to present
this information in a way that makes it easy to understand. Avoid using jargon,
undefined terms, and other confusing vocabulary! Consider your tone, striving to avoid
being too informal or too formal when demonstrating your expertise. When you present
your own conclusions, you should be careful to show how you reached your
conclusions. If you do not, your reader may well assume you are biased!
6) Be organized. Assume your audience knows nothing about your subject so make it
easy for them to understand your review.
• A literature review starts with an introduction. It should:
o Introduce the general topic from which the texts are drawn.
o Contain a one-sentence statement that provides your central insight on your
synthesis. Your entire review should remain focused around this insight,
giving your review a strong sense of purpose.
How do you write a central insight statement? First write your research question, then
synthesize the information from your sources, making connections between them
whenever possible. How do you synthesize? You can compare and contrast sources,
looking for similarities and differences. You can look for any themes and patterns, or
things they all left out, or a few left out, or everyone covered. You could consider what
the author of one source might think about the other sources. When you have
synthesized your sources, write your answer. Your answer is your central insight or
controlling focus statement.
Why should you synthesize your sources? Synthesizing sources is the final step in
thinking about your sources fully: first you located them, then you read them, then you
analyzed and evaluated them, and now you put all of that work together for your reader
so they need not do it. And you point out things in the literature which they might never
see.
• The body of the literature review should be organized in a way that supports your
central insight statement.
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You can organize by theme, point, similarity, or aspect, etc., of the topic. Your
organization will be determined by the patterns you see in the literature you are
synthesizing. It helps if you make a list of all of the main ideas or points that support
your central insight. You may want to reread your sources in order to see which ideas
support your central insight statement.
• Each paragraph should:
o Begin with a sentence or phrase that states the main idea in the paragraph.
o Most likely include information from more than one source.
o Clearly indicate which material comes from which source, using in-text or
parenthetical citations.
o Show the patterns, similarities, or differences between your sources so the
essay is as informative as possible. Remember to use lots of examples!
o Represent the texts fairly, even if doing so may eventually weaken your final
argumentative essay.
• The conclusion of the review could:
o Remind readers of the most significant themes you found and the way these
themes connect to your topic.
o Suggest further research or comment on things where it was not possible for
you to discuss them in the main body of the essay. Yet you should strive to
remain objective in your comments!
7) Edit for clarity and precision. No one has time to read confusing, vague, and wordy
reviews, so edit your prose carefully. If you allow even one or two sentence-level errors
in grammar, sentence construction, spelling, or punctuation, then you lose credibility as
an expert! Allow plenty of time (usually at least 30 minutes per page) for proofreading,
and proofread by reading your review aloud many times!
8) Document and cite all sources precisely and accurately. Your reader may want to track
down and read your sources, so show them where to go!
• Use APA 7 citation style • Include an APA 7-style title page
• Attach an APA 7-style reference page (lists only the sources in your review)
Special Tip: The biggest mistake people make? Just cutting/pasting each critical analysis
into the document and failing to organize the review around a central insight statement.