Political Science Literature Review
Directions:
Literature Review Directions
- You may have one or more articles. Adjust your organization to that number. I want ONE unified review. Do not write a separate response for a 2nd article. You may have the option to read additional articles for extra consideration, but you then must write MORE. IE, still a detailed evaluation of each article, NOT a superficial response to more articles.
- What you write must be about the reading(s). I do NOT want an essay on the topic that the article is about. I want a response to/evaluation of the reading(s). (I don’t want an essay of your opinion with just an occasional reference to the article(s) if they support your point. I want a review of the article(s) and how they prove THEIR point, tied together with a theme.)
In the INTRODUCTION
Find unifying theme for the articles. What is that “Big Paper” about? Set up the article(s) – What is the topic? Why is it relevant? Why is it important? Why are we reading THESE articles?
In the BODY paragraphs:
- Identify and Summarize the reading: Title, author, premise/thesis. What is the thesis?
- Choose a key or essential argument, statistic, etc. from the reading and explain it. What are the most important ideas, theories, or data sets? Are there references to other theories/studies that are important (Dunning-Kruger effect, Hofstader, Gilens and Page…)?
- Evaluate the argument. Strengths? Weaknesses? What would you add? What did author fail to see? Focus on the big picture, not minutiae.
- Repeat b and c for same article and then subsequent articles repeat a,b,c. The more depth the better.
In the CONCLUSION:
Evaluate the sum of the arguments. What is the impact/importance of this data? Does it MATTER (what are the implications if true)? Why/Why not? How does it contribute (or not) to our understanding of the main subject? Connect back to your specific questions and ideas in the intro. Restate them. Then “close the circle” and provide answers or insights based on the readings.
- Try to apply ideas and theories presented in the Textbook!
- Should have paragraph developmental sequence. Typically should be 7 paragraphs as pretty much a minimum. DOUBLE SPACE. 12 point font. You do not need title info at top – Canvas gives me your name, the date submitted and it is automatically submitted under the correct assignment.
- YOU “frame” your discussion based on ideas generated from the class chapters or current events. Try to make CONNECTIONS between the article and what is going on in American politics, but the FOCUS is the ARTICLE!