I've taught Research Methods so many times that I forget that different
teachers can have quite different advice to their students on how to write
a literature review for an APA research paper. Here's what I tell
students. Please let me know what you think of it or what you do instead.
As far as summarizing an article in the lit review, I tell my students to
take a little from the introduction section of the article (what was the
study about, what was the hypothesis), a little from the methods section
(briefly describe the method used to investigate the hypothesis), a little
from the results section (what did they find?) and a little from the
discussion section (what did they conclude?). The result (when well
written) is about a paragraph that makes me feel comfortable that the
student actually read the article and can explain it. I also feel that my
approach maximizes the chances that the student is learning about the
research process. I know that this is often not the way a lit review in an
actual published article is written, but again, I want to make sure that
the my students have read the entire article (not just the abstract), have
learned something about research methodology from it and can explain it
succinctly. I ask them to follow this basic structure for all the
articles in their literature review, so long as they are leading the reader
up to the article that is most relevant to their particular study. Of
course, the lit review ends with a statement of their hypothesis.
Any feedback?.........Mike
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Michael A. Britt, Ph.D.
Psychology Department
Dyson 339
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 12601
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
tele (914) 575-3000 x2972
fax: (914) 575-3965
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