Overview
Assignment 3: First Draft Introduction/Literature Review DUE Friday
November 7 This First Draft (5-6 pages) of your literature review will include a one paragraph Introduction and specific aims, concluding with a clear hypothesis (expanded/revised from your initial proposal). Here, you are to provide a brief reasoning behind your research question and a statement of the research topic and questions. Your Background and Significance will include 1-2 paragraphs describing why your topic is sociologically interesting or significant, and 4-5 pages of analytic literature review. Here, you are to briefly discuss the theoretical frameworks and findings of previous research (what we know and what we don’t know), and most importantly identify/develop the essential themes (2-3) related to your research question. The literature review/background will provide a critical integration (compare and contrast) of your ten supporting articles to summarize “what is known” about the topic. You might note important similarities or differences in theoretical orientation, conceptual definitions, sampling, methods/operational definitions, data analysis/results, conclusions, strengths and limitations. Taking the articles together, what do you now know overall about your research topic, what are the main issues in investigation of this topic, and what gaps in existing knowledge remain? Specific details from an article should be provided only when such details clearly support the essential themes. This section is not a collection of reports on each article. At the very end of the background, you are to state your hypotheses (what you expect to find, what you are testing). Note: there should be no unsubstantiated claims in your paper; provide citations for assertions and information.