You will write a literature review of your own on the topic for your final paper. Remember, your literature review must do more than just summarize the information. A literature review discusses previously published information about a particular topic or issue in order to accomplish one or more of the following tasks:
show readers what has been written about a topic, so that they can understand a particular development of ideas concerning that topic
explain to readers why certain ideas or theories concerning a topic are being challenged or reexamined by researchers
help readers understand more about why a topic is being examined by a researcher in a particular way
Its important to understand that a literature review is not the same thing as an academic research paper. A research paper supports your own argument or position about a topic; a literature review is written to summarize and synthesize other peoples ideas and perspectives about a topic. A free-standing literature review, which is what you are writing here, has a thesis statement. However, remember that the focus of that thesis statement is on the sources. A thesis statement for a literature review must have as its subject the literature. For example, an appropriate statement for a literature review on tax code reform might be as follows: Although, historically, some economists have discouraged a flat tax, a large number of recent publications are making the case that such a strategy is a beneficial option.
Structure of Literature Review: Your literature review should have a clearly organised structure with an introduction and conclusion. Note that your literature review is not a summary of studies in your field presented one by one, paragraph by paragraph. Instead, you need to structure the body of your literature review in themes or ideas, synthesizing information from various sources.
Your review should discuss at least ten (10) current, credible, and relevant sources. Only one of your sources may be a website. The majority of your sources should be peer-reviewed and academic in nature.
Format: APA style 7th edition, at least 8 full double-spaced pages of text.
