English 5376
Mini Literature Review (Article Synthesis)
Audience: Fellow professionals
Purpose:
To identify important professional conversations related to your writing project.
One of the most important scholarly genres in any field is the literature review. Usually, these reviews don't stand alone; they are part of larger projects, such as a thesis/dissertation or a scholarly article. The lit review demonstrates that you understand the background of the topic you are addressing, that you have researched what others have said about the issue before you dive in with your own perspective. The literature review helps to establish your credibility to talk about this issue and connects you to the scholarship of your field. It shows your views are part of an ongoing conversation among fellow professionals. It's a way to help set up your own point.
Literature reviews are usually rather extensive, and many of you may be doing one as part of (or the whole of) your writing project. But everybody needs practice in identifying the professional conversation, articulating it to an audience, and stating how you connect to it. Thus we have this assignment, which is a literature review in miniature.
Assignment:
Find three journal articles related to your writing project that take different
positions on or approaches to a relatively similar topic. Write a 5-7 page essay
in which you identify the central issue under discussion, discuss how each of
the three articles addresses this issue, and then provide your own take on this
conversation (what is your stance?). Be sure you don't simply summarize each
article. You must put them in conversation--show how they relate to each other
and to the issue at hand.
You may cite other sources if it will help, but keep the paper focused mostly on these three.