Literature Review (Part 2!)Week 8

Class Overview1. What your literature review grade means2. In-class writing assignment3. Open questions discussion about literature

reviews4. Common Literature Review Mistakes

One last reminderDraft 1.2 is due on Tuesday, March 19 by 11:59:59.

Literature Review GradesA – good paper, but you have to make

revisions to make an ‘A’ again.

B – While your essay did include synthesis, you probably summarized a bit too much in some areas and/or injected your own opinion.

Literature Review GradesC – Little synthesis. Summarized and focused

on the topic too much. Injected own opinion into the essay. Included way too many quotes.

Literature Review GradesD – Almost no synthesis. Spent most of the essay summarizing and focusing on the topic rather than the debate. Little to no citations.

F – Demonstrates a severe lack of understanding of a literature review.

In-class writing 1. What questions do you have about the literature review?

What do you still not understand about this assignment?

2. Read your partner’s homework. What advice could you give them after reading their thesis statement and topic sentences all in one paragraph? In other words, how do you think they can improve their literature review now? Hint: If you say “There can be no improvements,” you both will receive a 0/10 for this assignment.

3. Help your partner revise the wordiest sentence in their homework assignment. Write down the wordy sentence, and then show me the revision underneath it.

What questions do you have about the literature review? What do you still not understand about this assignment?

Common Literature Review Mistakes

1. The Works Cited does not count towards your word count.

The minimum word count is 1500 words, but try not go over 1600 words.

Common Literature Review Mistakes2. Don’t turn your books back in to the library; renew them instead.

Common Literature Review Mistakes3. If you didn’t cite at the end of your sentence, you need to ask yourself, “Why?”

Exceptions: topic sentences, sentences in your introduction, sentences in your conclusion, sentences in which you provide a quick background about something related to the debate.

Common Literature Review Mistakes4. Topic sentences are your BFFs.

Is this a topic sentence for a lit review?Privacy is something hard to come by for your average Hollywood starlet, when they choose the life in the spotlight, most can agree that they know what they are getting themselves into.

Is this a topic sentence for a lit review?Research shows that arguments can be made for or against the need to improve the current state of the advanced warning systems. 

Is this a topic sentence for a lit review?One of the major areas of concern researchers consider is the musculoskeletal effects that gaming has on the gamer’s body.

Is this a topic sentence for a lit review?We know that in everyday life, literacy is an extremely large part of our lives. We could not become successful adults without this vital skill that we learn and retain at very young ages.

Common Literature Review Mistakes5. You must use 8 sources on your literature review. This also means that you have to actually talk about those 8 sources in your literature review.

Common Literature Review Mistakes6. By all that is holy, please do not inject your own opinion into the literature review!!!!!1

Does this belong in a lit review?For the sake of the privacy of the person of interest, are we willing as a public deny the basic right of our press that is clearly stated on the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution? Most of the press would agree that since these celebrities asked for this life in the spotlight, this is one of the consequences they will have to endure the rest of their lives. Celebrity status has been around a few decades, but the freedom of the press has been a divine right given at the birth of our constitution.

Does this belong in a lit review?Now that I have presented the introduction all of the sources agree that taking performance enhancing drugs are damaging to a players health. They will shrink testicles because the body produces less testosterone. Their voices will become higher and they become more moody. The heart will also experience murmurs and irregular beats. Testing should also be done on the brain as in the way the NFL tests for concussions. This is a brief summary and synthesis of what I researched for my literature review. It is more so an abstract than an actual literature review. Here are my sources!!!! 

Common Literature Review Mistakes7. Seriously, if you aren’t synthesizing…

Common Literature Review Mistakes8. Stop focusing on the topic. Tell me what the research has to say about your topic instead.

This focuses on the topic:

Common Literature Review Mistakes9. Avoid using quotes as much as possible. Stick to paraphrasing. Make sure that you cite after you paraphrase.

This is unacceptable:Jeong Woo Shin’s paper “Stress of University Student” shows us tells us that students go under many troubles while preparing for and taking tests. He talks about how students cannot get out a certain cycle. “When test term is coming, students study all day or cram for an exam. They do this because of their grades so they cannot sleep enough. Therefore, they drowse in their lecture. As a result, they cannot get good grades so they are trapped in a vicious circle. This vicious circle causes the stress for students(2).”

More unacceptable: However, practitioners have hence thrown out such older beliefs, and have found that traditional acupuncture sites align with junctions in the peripheral nervous system. Studies have found that through acupuncture, pain relief is possible because “Acupuncture is known to stimulate A delta fibres entering the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. These mediate segmental inhibition of pain impulses carried in the slower, unmyelinated C fibres and, through connections in the midbrain, enhance descending inhibition of C fibre pain impulses at other levels of the spinal cord. This helps explain why acupuncture needles in one part of the body can affect pain sensation in another region” (Acupuncture).