TAKE-HOME ESSAY #2 --> LITERATURE REVIEW
For the purpose of our research project, we are going to define the genre of literature review as a genre
of writing similar to the critical review/analysis essay. Just as in the case of a critical review, the goal of a
literature review is to overview, assess, and evaluate scholarly articles, books, and other relevant
publications that support your research project. The length, organization of parts, and the depth in which
the reviewed sources are engaged may vary, but the overall purpose is to provide the reader some
breadth of knowledge in the area addressed by the research project. In your case, that area addressed is
the focus of your critical review/analysis, in other words the point of your particular interest in the article
you are reviewing in Take-Home Essay #1. For example, if I am working on a research project on body
image and my specific point of interest is body dissatisfaction, then my literature review would be a review
of recently published articles on the topic of body dissatisfaction. (See Library Research Practice Exercise.)
Number of sources required in a literature review likewise vary. In the case of your literature review, you
are required to find and briefly review TWO peer-reviewed journal articles that support your focus.
Write a well-organized, informative, and insightful LITERATURE REVIEW of TWO secondary sources that
support your research focus and question. Your literature review must be approximately 400-500 words
in length. It must contain a brief summary and evaluation of TWO peer-reviewed journal articles. In the
evaluation portion of your review, you must clarify what makes each source relevant to your research
project. In other words, you must explain how each source supports your focus. Your Works Cited must
provide full bibliographical references to the two sources reviewed. Please see samples of Take-Home #2
provided in this document as models of what the essay should look and read like. Also consult the
template for writing Take-Home Essay #2 and follow it closely when drafting this essay.
Due Date: Check Course Schedule on Canvas
How to Submit: Electronic submission on Canvas
Length: 400-500 words
Format: MLA
Value: 10%
HOW TO PREPARE THE LITERATURE REVIEW ESSAY?
 Specify the area of your research interest, in other words your focus; consider attentively your
research question. Make sure your focus is adequately developed. What does that mean? It
means you found a point of particular interest in the target article and you considered that point
carefully by reading and studying this point attentively. List relevant critical vocabulary that
represents that focus; organize those terms logically, for example using a concept map.
 Go to the Alexander College electronic library, get on the EBSCO database and conduct advanced
search for useful sources that support your focus. Consult relevant resources on conducting
library research posted separately.
 Find TWO peer-reviewed journal articles that best support your focus and research question.
 Read, annotate, analyze, and evaluate both articles; for each article clarify what specifically makes
it a useful article in the context of your research; list all points/evidence you plan on
using/commenting on in the body of your review.
 Write a brief review of each article. Review of each must be approximately 200-250 words in
length.
 Your literature review must not be based on the Abstract provided by the author/publisher on
the first page of the article. You must read the articles, at least skim read them to find relevant
information on your own.
 Remember that what makes a summary of an article effective is concision. Your summary must
be brief: 3-4 sentences that capture just the main point and key supporting points of the article.
Most importantly, you must find the thesis statement of the article, and make sure to highlight
that thesis and be able to paraphrase it. Then look at the organization of parts of the article to
extract relevant supporting points to complete your summary. Consider attentively the Discussion
section of the article as it provides the overview of the main argument of the article and lists
findings/evidence that support the main point.
 For the evaluation part, you need some specifics. Here you will be looking for particular findings,
such as examples, claims, expert opinions, data, statistics, facts, results of experiments to be
further discussed in the Take-Home Essay #3. You want to highlight most important of those, 3-5
most important findings of each article.
 With these highlights you are ready to write the literature review and to present this material in
class.