Your first writing assignment focuses on one of the central skills of the course: reviewing scholarly
literature. As we have read and discussed, such a review is critical to designing, executing and
eventually reporting on any kind of sociological research project. It provides the foundation of what is
already established about our topic, and allows us to formulate further research questions in the
context of existing literature. Therefore, our first formal assignment will be a brief review of the
literature that we have read together. You will use some or all of that review in many of the other
assignments later, including in the formal research report at the end of the course.
Guidelines (based on steps and distinctions discussed in class sessions):
Drawing *only* on the seven articles we have read in the course, and thoughtfully considering all
seven, review the literature on the sociology of poverty and the narrower literature on beliefs,
narratives, and framings of poverty in the US.
• This requires stepping back from the literature to develop a synthesis across sources to identify
some overall patterns, claims, themes, terms, debates, etc.
• Organize your review around those patterns, claims, etc., rather than organizing it by article.
That means you should *not* summarize one article and then the next, but instead synthesize
the articles into themes, patterns, claims, etc. If you think about the grid worksheet from class,
that would mean reading across the rows for what arises in more than one article.
• As you work on this task, the following resources should be helpful: 1) the grid worksheet;
2) the outline worksheet; and 3), as models, the literature reviews within our readings *and*
the sample literature review from a past course topic.
• The task is limited to the literature; you should not yet extend beyond it to ask questions
about later events or suggest future research questions. We will do that in later assignments,
but first we’ll focus on the foundational skill of careful synthesis of existing literature.
You should write for an audience that has not read the articles you review (just as the literature
reviews in our various readings did not assume you had read all the other literature they reviewed).
And you should offer an argument for which the literature provides evidence, which may include
claims about the literature and claims about the broader topics it addresses.
• In the first paragraph you should state that argument/preview those claims; then organize the
rest of your review into sections and sub-sections (with some headings) that develop your
argument/claims and support them with specific citations from the literature reviewed.
• The final paragraph should be a brief conclusion summarizing the key claims and argument.
Format and requirements:
• About 3 pages of double-spaced text; plus a references section with full citations to all seven
of the articles using ASA Style; in-text citations should also be in ASA Style.
• 1” margins; 12 point font; pages numbered; carefully edited and proofread.
• Uploaded to Lyceum as PDF (it’s easy to save other formats as a PDF after you write).
• Due by date/time noted on syllabus; 1 point/day late deduction if not submitted on time.
Evaluation criteria: Rubric available on Lyceum, and includes degree to which requirements above
are met, with main focus on clarity, specificity, and accuracy of claims/argument based on synthesis
across sources; as well as writing mechanics, writing organization, academic integrity, & formatting