Intelligence

Assignment 2: Literature Review

The second component of this research project is a literature review. Your literature review should be 5-6 pages (not including your title and references page) and should synthesize the body of literature that is important to your case study.

All research projects include a literature review to set out for the reader what knowledge exists on the subject under study and to demonstrate how the study being conducted with help fill current knowledge gaps. A good literature review is a thoughtful synthesis of important information that pertains to the current study. Literature reviews are arranged thematically, and typically reference more than one source within each paragraph. At the end of your literature review, you should discuss some of the clear gaps in knowledge and explain how your research will help fill this void and further our knowledge of the subject under investigation.

Developing a clear and concise literature review can be challenging. For this reason it will be important for you to review the following documents: 1) literature review tip sheet and 2) synthesis matrix. Together these documents will give you everything you need to carry out a successful literature review.

How many sources should I review?

This is a common question asked by students. Essentially the key to an excellent research paper is the research that helps back up its arguments. While this might be an unsatisfactory answer for those in need of a clear “magic number” a few additional observations can be made. Students writing a course paper 15-20 pages in length should expect to cite 15-30 peer-reviewed sources within their papers. Though in order to get to this point they should expect to read 25-50 peer-reviewed sources. For this assignment you should have 8-10 or more scholarly sources.

Format: Your literature review should include a title page, body, and reference page. Your paper should have 1-inch borders on all four sides, use times new roman-12 point font, be double spaced, and not have an extra space in between paragraphs. (You may need to turn this off in MS word by going to paragraph and clicking “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style). Since this is an INTL course you need to use the Turabian parenthetical citation style with a references page.

In addition to this guidance you have also been provided with a grading rubric, a synthesis matrix to help you take notes as you read, a journal article with a clearly marked “literature review” section to help you see how this section is written in terms of tone and style, and a formatting guide for your paper (something you’ll also be able to use for your final case study assignment.)