Lit Review

A good literature section covers the severity of the problem in more detail than the problem statement, discusses prior studies of the problem and their methodologies, and conclusions. There should be a sufficient number of references to let one believe that the issues related to the study have been covered in detail. The reader of the literature review should know a great deal about the subject after reading your work. This paper should be 10 pages, double-spaced and in APA format. Your paper should also contain 8 or more sources. Please include a title page and reference page (title page and reference page are not considered part of the 10 page requirement). Format for the literature review is as follows:

Introduction 2 pages

• History of the Problem
  
  
  
  
  • Brief history of agency and clientele it serves
  
  
  • Brief history of program/problem as it pertains to the agency
  
  
  • Prior research and data you have looked at that supports the need to study this problem 
  
  
  
  


• Statement of Problem to be Studied


• Your actual research question goes here


• Reasons why your research question should be studied (as it pertains to agency and/or clientele)

Literature Review (This is the body of the paper. It contains subheadings [topics or themes] to organize the structure of this section) 7-8 pages

Rather than merely presenting a summary of each source, a literature review should be organized according to each subtopic discussed about the larger topic. For example, one section of a literature review might read “Researcher A suggests that X is true. Researcher B also argues that X is true, but points out that the effects of X may be different from those suggested by Researcher A.” It is clear that subtopic X is the main idea covered in these sentences. Researchers A and B agree that X is true, but they disagree on X’s effects. There is both agreement and disagreement, but what links the two arguments is the fact that they both concern X.

Conclusion 1-2 pages

(What are the contributions of this literature you reviewed to the field?)

• What are the overall strengths?


• What are the overall weaknesses?


• What might be missing?


• What are some next steps for research? The next steps should explicitly address how to “correct” for strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.