Your paper will take the form of a literature review, which will include a statement
of the problem, a review of the major issues covered in previous research, as well as
a discussion of the relevant policy/program issues related to the topic. Each of these
sections should be clearly identified in your paper.
Statement of the problem
• In the statement of the problem, you should define
what you are studying and why it is important to do so.
• This is intended to “hook� the reader – this is where you get the reader’s
interest and convince them that this topic is worth consideration and why.
• This is, essentially, the introduction to your paper.
Review of the literature
• In this section, you should present the findings from research conducted by
others in this area or related areas. Questions that might be relevant are:
• What have others said about this topic?
• What theories have been used to account for this
issue?
• What research has been done?
• Are the findings consistent or inconsistent?
• What flaws exist in the previous research?
§ A literature review should NOT include your opinion or
thoughts on the topic – this is only about what others have
said or researched on the topic.
§ You should include a minimum of eight
academic research studies in this section.
The literature review should be organized in some meaningful fashion that is
appropriate to your topic. Don’t just detail one study after another – try to integrate
the studies together somehow. Possible ways to organize a literature review are:
§ by date of the studies being reviewed – if there has been some change in the
topic historically or if research on the topic is different in one time period
than another, this might be a good way to organize your literature review
• by themes – if there are a few themes that consistently emerge in the
research, then this might be a good way to organize your literature review
• by context – if there are a few different contexts in which the previous
research takes place, it might make sense to organize the literature review
around those
• by findings – if there are inconsistent findings in the past literature, you
might want to organize the literature review around findings that are
supportive, not supportive, and neutral (or whatever groupings might be
relevant).
When discussing a study in your literature review, you want to be sure to include
the key findings and the methodology used in the study.
Try to be current in your literature review – while older studies can be informative
and are often essential, you always want to make sure to have the most current
studies included in your review as well.
Policy/program issues
• Based on the literature that you have reviewed, what suggestions have been
made by others regarding policies or programs related to your topic? What
suggestions would you make regarding policies or programs related to your
topic? All suggestions should be somehow tied to the studies that you
referenced in your literature review – don’t contradict your literature review
in making suggestions.
• This is essentially the conclusion to your paper
The paper must be a minimum of five full pages of text (i.e., not including the cover
sheet, references) and include at least eight academic research studies.
• Non-academic sources can be used to supplement the academic sources if
necessary, but should be used sparingly.
• The font should be 12 point.
• The margins should be no bigger than 1 inch.
• The paper should be typed and double-spaced.
• Number the pages.
• Provide a cover sheet.
The paper should be written using APA format. The paper will be graded as to how
well it fulfills the above requirements as well as on the quality of the review,
grammar, writing style, proper citation and reference style, etc.