PERF104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Dont, Thesis Statement

Literature Review

Words: 500

Article Chosen: THE MAGICAL AGE OF 10

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1002006521067

https://tomocarroll.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/the-magical-age-of-10/

Guidelines

Guide only, feel free to organise however else you like to as long as you address the learning outcomes and elements in the rubric.

* Introduction

Introduce the general issue and its importance

Identify key trends or perspectives

Identify the specific focus of this literature review (your identified issue)

Give a brief outline of the structure of the body

* Body

Cluster your literature around common themes or threads of ideas. Structure your writing thematically and not author by author. This allows you to compare, contrast, and make sense of the different authors’ perspectives on one point./ And if you find there are a lot of authors with some contribution to one point, then maybe that point needs to be teased out into sub-themes

Try not to hide behind what the literature is saying. Remember, it is up to you to interpret it and make sense of it for your reader. Listing what they have found or believe is part of a literature review, but in itself is not enough, you need to clarify what the reader is to take away from this body of research

Never be afraid to narrow your topic. You have a word limit, which is enough to make one meaningful point, but not to include detail for its own sake. It is better to dig deep into a topic rather than be broad and superficial

You may have to limit your question many times before you finalise your draft. Spend time considering your question/topic, because this provides the guidelines for your writing and your research. You need to have clear guidelines so that you can research with purpose and efficiency, even if these guidelines are modified later. Otherwise a lot of time and energy will be wasted, either, looking at irrelevant material, or material that cannot fit into your review

* Conclusion

Summarize the major contributions, evaluating the current position, and pointing out flaws in methodology, gaps in the research, contradictions and areas for further study

Conclude by summing up and identifying the significance of the topic in relation to the literature

* Please ensure that you write succinctly to avoid wasting your word count. Note that unnecessary words weakens your argument. You should keep within +/- 10% of your word count

* Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Loosing marks from errors that could be addressed through editing is not worth it.

* Make sure that all references are correctly referenced using APA style

* Refer to Unit Guide for more information about the unit requirements