Provide a correct bibliographic citation using a standard format of your choice.(1 pts each)
Assignment 4 .
Project instructions:
Writing Exercise #4
Preliminary Literature Review (25 points)
Due by 4pm October 1, 2014 (use the link on Blackboard to upload your paper)
Format: 11 or 12 point font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced. Please upload all of your assignments for this course as either a Word or a text file (so that I can
comment directly in the body of your paper). Do not use zip files.
Expected length: approx 1-2 pages, plus the table (at the end of this document) and the abstracts
The overall goal of this short assignment is to identify relevant literature (i.e. previous research) that will be the basis for the Literature Review section of your
final proposal: Steps 1-4 below will help you critically review the existing academic research (in sociology) related to your topic and
? Identify sources for a brief literature review related to your topic that will help you describe what is currently known about your topic.
? As you read what has been written about your topic, critically evaluate the existing research and consider if there any gaps in what is known. If there are gaps or
unexplored areas, discuss how your research will fill those gaps. Are there any controversies which your proposed research would address/resolve?
Step 5 describes how you should write your short paper.
Step 1. Find 5 articles related to your topic that have been published in academic journals and that each summarize one specific research project. We will review these
sources in class.
? Use an on-line search database such as SocAbstracts, PsycINFO or MedLine (Available online through U of L?s library web-page). If you have questions, see me for help
in selecting one.
? Do NOT use Google. If you do, you will find non-academic sources. This assignment asks you to examine the academic literature and Google will not be the most helpful
source for you.
? Use the search function in the database and search by key terms related to your topic. Think like a social scientist and use terminology which researchers would use!
? Some of the abstracts will not be relevant to your topic and you should omit these. Other abstracts, however, will be relevant to your topic. You will need to get
copies of those articles.
The articles must meet the following criteria. If any of your articles do not meet all of the criteria, they will not count toward the 5 required (i.e. you will
receive 0 points for that article)
1. Each article must present data from a specific social science research study, i.e. it should be an actual study that was conducted ?an ?empirical research study?.
It can NOT be a review of the existing literature, a meta-analysis, a policy analysis, a theoretical or analytical discussion, or an opinion-piece. The methods the
author(s) used should be one of the ones we discuss.
2. Each article must address a research question similar to the one you wish to investigate.
3. Each article must include some of the same independent and dependent variables as yours.
4. The article should be current ? no older than 10-15 years (e.g. not published before 1999).
5. The research in each article must have been conducted in the U.S.
6. The research in each article must have been conducted in a similar setting as the one you will propose (e.g. if you are looking at crime in rural areas, do NOT use
articles which report on urban crime.)
7. The article should be published in an academic, peer-reviewed journal.
? Do not use popular magazines, e.g. Time, News Week, U. S. News and World Report, Psychology Today, Family Circle, Readers Digest.
? Do not use blogs, wikis, or other non-academic sources.
Step 2: When you find a relevant article listed in the database, obtain a copy of the actual article. There are several ways to obtain a hardcopy of the article
including
? through an online link in the abstract to a pdf version of the file;
? through U of L?s electronic journals (the link is found on the U of L library web-page)
? from a (hardcopy) journal held by the library; or
? through an interlibrary loan (photocopy of the article).
Step 3: Read the articles! Do not rely on the abstract alone. Although the article appeared to fit with your topic, after you have read it, ask yourself if it is a
relevant article. If not, find another!
Step 4: Consider adding additional references/sources to your literature review.
Do the initial articles you found reference other important studies which you should also include in your paper? Do not omit well-known or key articles just because
you have reached 5 articles! You will need to include additional sources for your final paper.
Step 5: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT:
Answer A and C in complete sentences:
A. Introduction: Tell me which databases you used; what keywords or subjects you included (be specific about how you worded your ?search terms? and whether they were
keywords, subjects, found anywhere in the article, etc.); and other limitations you imposed on your search (e.g. English-only; timeframe; country, etc.) (3 points)
B. Provide a correct bibliographic citation using a standard format of your choice.(1 pts each)
C. Conclusions: After you?ve described your 5 articles in the table (described below), answer this question: Based on what you?ve discovered through your preliminary
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