Literature Review Assignment
The literature review section is a very important part of any research project. In order to determine what information is needed, a researcher must first understand what information is already available to lay the groundwork. Essentially, you have already written several literature reviews since you have probably written research papers that use library or internet research.
Based on the topic that you have already selected, find at least 10 resources (donât stop there if there is more information) and write at least a 8-page, double-spaced, 1 inch margins, Calibri 11 point font, literature review. The literature review should use APA style in text citations and include a bibliography. In addition, the literature review should include a cover page with the title of the research, member(s) of the group, date of submission, and course and instructor information. The cover page and references page(s) do not count toward the 8-page minimum.
Guidelines for professional writing:
1. No use of personal pronouns (we, our, us, me, my, I, etc.).
2. The first word of a sentence should not be any of the following: this, that, those, these, they, them, there, theyâre, their, and, then, or it.
3. A numeral (e.g. 47) should not be the first thing in a sentence, if that is the only way to structure the sentence it should be spelled out (e.g. Forty-seven).
4. Casual writing is a problem for a lot of college students; a professionally written paper should not use casual language. Instead, information should be presented in a very formal and professional manner. Casual words are words that are not descriptive, examples include thing and done.
5. Do not use etc. in a professionally written paper.
6. Numbers under 10 should be spelled out, example six.
7. Do not use contractions in a professionally written paper.
8. A paragraph should have more than one sentence.
9. Parentheses should be reserved for citations, if you have material that you want to put in parentheses see if you can use commas both before and after instead.
10. Each section should have an introductory and conclusive paragraph.
11. All items used from another source, which is what this paper is, should be cited, even if you are paraphrasing.
12. Paraphrasing does not mean that you copy several sentences from a source and change a couple of words. Paraphrasing is when you read the whole paper or section of the paper and then put what you remember into the paper.
13. If including a direct quote, it must be within quotation marks with a citation directly following.
14. Use of a personal pronoun on a non-personal entity (calling a university âtheyâ or using âtheirâ for an office or company).
15. As a rule, each paragraph should have at least one citation, if the whole paragraph comes from the same source and there are no direct quotations, put the citation at the end of the paragraph.
In text citation for APA style:
For a direct quote:
âAlternative hypothesis. A statement that is the opposite of the null hypothesis, where the difference in reality is not simply due to random errorâ (Hair, Wolfinbarger, Ortinau, and Bush, p. 335, 2008).
Please note: need a page number if it is a direct quote.
Regular citation: An alternative hypothesis assumes any changes in the dependent variable are due to a relationship with the independent variable and not due to random errors (Hair, Wolfingbarger, Ortinau, and Bush, 2008).
If your citation is a website, donât include the URL in the in text citation, instead use the title of the website and make sure that is the first item of that citation in the bibliography.
Website in text citation: âNorthwest also recycles aluminum, plastic, paper, cardboard and other materials all across campusâ (A Green Campus, 2009).
Bibliography entry for same citation:
A Green Campus. 2009. Northwest Missouri State University. https://www.nwmissouri.edu/
admissions/greencampusinfo.htm
If your source does not have a year then you should use n.d. as the date in the in text citations. Example: (Toomey, n.d.). No citations should just be a name.
Remember, punctuation goes after the citation, not before.
