Literature Review Assignment
All academic research projects start with a lit review, which is just a term paper - in it you synthesize and summarize existing research on your topic, where you answer the question what do we know already about the topic. In research, we do the reading first, write up the results of that reading and then decide what questions to answer and set up the rest of the project. Here's an example literature review (as a word doc) from a prior class.So - now its your turn to write a lit review and it will be due on February 21. This is an individual project, not a group one.
Pick some topic related to computer games. You might pick effects of computer games on kids or innovations in audio and video content of games, or what kinds of people are playing online multi-player games, or how computer game genres relate to literary genres. You might find a topic from our two textbooks that intrique you enough to want to find out more.
You need to use academic research articles like the ones we looked at in class. Chapters from academic (not how to or popular trade or fiction) books are good too. Read broadly - there isn't much research on computer games yet, so you might have to look for articles about television or advertising involving your topic. For example, if you're interested in product placement in computer games, you might look for articles about product placement in television shows and movies.
Academic articles are found in academic journals like we looked at in class. They may also be found on conference websites, individual professor websites. You can also use chapters from academic books about your topic. Be sure to look at their bibliographies - you can find other articles that you can use there. Specifically you need to have at least 10 sources for a C, 12 for a B and 15 for an A. To get the most points in each range, more than half of the sources have to be articles from academic journals. Remember - the class website has some sources you might want to check out to help you find articles and book chapters. The number of sources doesn't guarantee the grade - it's just that you can't get the grade without at least the required number of sources.
You can also use news stories, trade journal articles, or articles and commentary from magzines like Wired or Salon. Look for current information. Look for good quality sources - not people's home pages or stories from little town newspapers or wire stories.
Your lit review should be between 5 and 7 pages long. You are not going to just summarize each article one at a time. Instead, look for some big issues covered in several of the articles. Use the articles to describe and analyze those issues. You want each section to be a coherent whole. Be sure to put in an introduction and a conclusion. You have to include a bibliography. Put citations in your lit review just like the academic research journal articles you read - using the APA style. I prefer citations like this: (Smith, 1999) where Smith is the author and 1999 is the year the article was published.
I will write a lot of comments on this paper and all of them that you turn in. That does not mean a bad grade. I want you to be a better writer. Writing, getting comments, editing - that's the process that leads to being a better writer. No matter what job you get, you'll have to communicate - in writing and orally. Your grade comes from you meeting the requirements, finding good info, organizing the info clearly. If you want you can give me a rough draft before the due date and i will mark it up - it could be a paragraph, a page, a section, the bibliography, the whole paper - whatever you feel comfortable with. If the paper is going to get less than a B, I will give it back to you to be redone. The best grade you can get on the redo is a B+.
Here are the guidelines for how i want the paper formatted and what I'm looking for.
- Turned in on time - no late papers will be accepted unless approved by me ahead of time. Late = 0 points. No excuses. No "the printer ate my homework" or "my disk crashed" or "I got a virus". Save it in a couple of places. Save it often. Print out drafts in case you have to retype it if the disk is corrupt. Don't wait till class starts to print - that's too late.
- The paper should show evidence that you have synthesized information from a variety of sources. One way to show this is to have multiple sources on each topic - not one single source for a section of the paper. One way NOT to show this is to have lots of quotes from different articles - that doesn't show that you have synthesized the material, just cut and pasted it.
- Writing shows results of some analysis - talk about the numbers in your tables. Tell what the numbers mean - by themselves and in relation to other numbers, findings in other articles. Don't just make list of facts - show evidence of some thoughtfulness
- Correct bibliography style - and use in-text citations. I am going to be a stickler about this this semester. You need to know how to do these for classes you will take later on in Park. So learn proper bibliography style and learn it now.
- After style - the quality of the bibliography is important. Meet the minimum number of (high quality) bibliography items - more is always better
- Correct length (not too short, longer is ok)
- No grammar or typing mistakes - proofread, spell check, print out and edit - don't turn in first drafts as final products.
- The paper should be double spaced (not triple), in 12 point or smaller font, Times or Times Roman. One inch margins all around (not 1.5 inches that for some reason Word thinks is standard - learn how to change margins.) Staple the paper in the upper left corner - no paperclips, no dog eared corners - look professional. No folders or plastic covers - just a title page with project name and group members. Be sure to include page numbers. These criteria are important - they're not magic - but you have to learn to follow directions because clients may have very specific production requirements that you will have to follow. So get used to it. These things will be checked first - if they're not met - you'll get the paper back to be redone.
This page last updated 15 January 2005 by Kim Gregson
