Hypnosis – in regards to overcoming addictions.
This is a LITERATURE REVIEW. The literature review must be at least 8 pages of text and include at least 10 references.
Literature reviews do more than summarize an area of research. They synthesize information and evaluate research in a particular area. Literature reviews are difficult and time consuming, but by the end of the semester you should have the tools you need to complete this endeavor. Below I provide additional information about these assignments.
Writing the literature review:
To begin the literature review, first chose a topic. Your topic should be current, well studied, and specific. Make sure it sufficiently narrow so that you can review the research on it thoroughly.
Find scholarly research articles on your topic (these must come from primary, scholarly sources only; most of your sources should be empirical peer-reviewed journal articles). Evaluate each article your find in terms of its currency. Decide if the publication is outdated (is it an important “classic” study or is it just old?) and if the publication meets the need of your topic and paper. Is it relevant? Does the article provide new information about your topic.
Students should use articles published in the last 5 to 10 years. Older papers should be avoided unless they are “classic” or “important” papers on the topic. “Classic” papers are those that seem to be cited by everyone else in the field or research area.
Summarize and analyze each article. Paraphrase important content. Paraphrase the main claims and the main evidence used to support the claims. Take your time with each article (re-read it several times) to make sure you understand it well and can explain it in your own words.
It is common for students to read a empirical article 3 times before feeling comfortable enough to write about it in their own words.
Synthesize the content. Once you fully understand all of your source material, organize your knowledge by topic or subtopic. Draw connections and correlations between the various research studies. Examine points of contradiction and hypothesize the reasons for these discrepancies. Be skeptical of the claims presented—does the evidence support each claim? Your paper should be organized by ideas, claims, or arguments.
Write the review.
Include an introduction and body.
Provide a context by defining general topics or issues.
Explain the organization of the review and why certain literature is not included in your review.
Discuss trends in what has been published about the topic.
Discuss disagreements in theory, methodology, evidence, and conclusions
Discuss gaps in the research.
Include conclusions that provide insight into the relationship between topics of the review and the larger area of study.
The literature review format.
Write the review using SPA style formatting.
Include a title page, abstract, body (with heading and subheadings only as needed for organization), and reference section.
Include at least 10 references in the reference section.
The length of this review should be more than 8 but less than 15 pages of text (this excludes the title page, abstract, and references). To achieve this length, streamline your paper and make sure you state your ideas simply and succinctly.
Keep in mind,
Your literature review should:
Place your study in the context of other work that has already been done in the field.
Inform the reader about the main theories in the area or field.
It may establish the need for the future research by identifying gaps in knowledge.
Don’t
Simply paraphrase an existing literature review.
Use more than one or two quotes in the entire paper.
Rely heavily on secondary sources (use primary articles published in peer reviewed scholarly journals)
Include anecdotal information.
Discuss each article separately as if writing an abstract on each.
