U.S. Policy Literature Review

Objective

Students will learn how to construct a professional academic literature review about the nature of American Politics during a single year in history. 

Instructions

Each student focus their literature review on a single year in American political history (i.e., 1968).  They can narrow their research within a single year by looking at any of the institutions or concepts discussed in class or covered in the course textbook (i.e., composition of the U.S. Supreme Court and key decisions made that year, U.S. involvement in foreign affairs or conflicts, the state of American public opinion toward government, etc.).

Once you select your research topic, each student needs to collect a sample of the social science literature addressing that topic. These must be scholarly articles as described in the Teaching and Learning Center’s “Reading Scholarly Articles” handout available on Canvas and at http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/teaching-and-learning-center/writing-resources-0.  Your sample of the literature must consist of at least 10 scholarly articles.

Once you have your sample of the literature, you must write an academic literature review as described in the Teaching and Learning Center’s “The Basics of a Literature Review” handout available on Canvas and at http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/teaching-and-learning-center/writing-resources-0.  The literature review must be 7 to 8 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1” margins). You must include at the end of your literature review a works cited page that follows the standard citation rules for APA, MLA, or Chicago style.

Please organize your literature as follows:

1. The Introduction should be no more than 1-page.
2. The body of your literature review must be at least 5-pages.
3. The Conclusion should be no more than 1-page.
4. The works cited page beginning on a new page following the conclusion (this does not count toward the 7-8 page minimum).

Due Dates:

Annotated Bibliography of your 10 sources—Friday, May 10th by 11:59 pm (submit on Canvas)

Final Literature Review—Friday, June 7th by 11:59 pm 

Grade breakdown for Final Literature Review

Content follows TLC instructions=15 points

Proper writing mechanics & citation (APA, MLA, or Chicago)—5 points

Annotated Bibliography—5 points