Literature Review

A Note to Instructors . . .

COMPSS (Composition Open Materials Promoting Student Success) is a collection of free, high-quality course materials—readings, videos, discussion prompts, group activities, and sample assignment guidelines—available to you as you design and lead low- or no-cost courses in any modality (face-to-face, online, or hybrid). Almost everything about COMPSS can be adjusted to fit the goals of your courses. COMPSS materials can be used instead of or in addition to traditional textbooks; like traditional textbooks, COMPSS materials supplement (but do not replace) the lectures, activities, and other content you develop for your course. 

This unit contains five sections, and each section includes materials for at least one week of instruction. Because one of the guiding principles behind COMPSS is choice, we have provided an abundance of content for you to sort, adopt, adapt, or reject at your discretion. Some sections include more materials than you might typically choose to assign; we invite you to make use of as many or as few of these materials as you like.

All materials created by the COMPSS team are licensed CC-BY and can be adopted, remixed, or shared at will as long as the materials are attributed (see items in bold font with the * symbol next to them); some linked materials may have stricter licensing guidelines, although they are all free to use.

One final note: Students who have already completed another COMPSS unit may already be familiar with some of the materials included here.  

We hope you and your students will benefit from using these free, high-quality OER!

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  Major Assignment: Literature Review

  This literature review assignment may be used as part of an ongoing research project, or it may be used as a stand-alone project. You are encouraged to adopt, adapt, or remix these guidelines to suit your goals for your class.

  • Assignment Guidelines

Students will. . .

• Identify research topics that genuinely interest them.
• Conduct preliminary research.
• Develop research questions.
• Design research plans.

• Readings
  • Major Assignment Guidelines: Literature Review *
  • "De-Coding Assignment Guidelines" *  
  • Literature review handout *  
  • "Identifying Common Academic Purposes"
  • "The Purpose of Research Writing"
  • "Narrowing and Developing"
  • "Reading Like a Professional"
  • "Art of Reading a Journal Article" 
• Videos
  • "Decoding Assignment Guidelines" *
    • Corresponding article: "De-Coding Assignment Guidelines" *
  • "Picking Your Topic Is Research"
    • Activity: See discussion prompts below.
  • "Developing a Research Question"
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Option 1: Topic Generator Activity *  
    • Initial post: Students complete the activity to generate a total of 25 potential topics.
    • Responses: Students select 3-5 posts with potential topics they think are most interesting and write 5 questions about each potential topic for a total of 15-25 questions.

   

  • Option 2: Topic Generator from Photos Activity *  
    • Initial post: Students complete the activity to generate a total of 25 potential topics.
    • Responses: Students select 3-5 posts with potential topics they think are most interesting and write 5 questions about each potential topic for a total of 15-25 questions.
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments  
  • Brainstorming Activity *
  • Research Plan *

 

Students will . . .

• Continue gathering, evaluating, recording, and engaging with information from sources. 
• Use research logs to organize and engage with information. 

• Readings
  • Students’ sources
  • Research Log Guidelines *
  • "Understanding and Using the Library and the Internet for Research"  
  • "Assessing Source Credibility"
  • "Evaluating Sources"
  • "Avoiding Plagiarism" *  
• Videos
  • "How to Read a Paper Efficiently"
  • "Evaluating Sources: See It In Practice"
    • Evaluation Checklist 
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Project Check-In *
    • Option 1: In 3-5 thoughtful sentences, address all of the following questions: What did you know about your topic before you began conducting research? What have you learned? What do you want to know more about?  

  • • Option 2: In 3-5 thoughtful sentences, address all of the following questions: What questions, ideas, possibilities, worries, etc. do you have at this point? What are your plans? What questions do you hope your sources will help answer? 
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Research Log with 3+ sources * 

 

Students will . . .

• Analyze the major claims, commonalities, and divergences in their sources.
• Compose drafts of their literature reviews.

• Readings
  • Source Analysis Mini-Paper Guidelines *
  • "Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources" 
  • "Integrating Sources" *
  • "Annoying Ways People Use Sources"
• Videos
  • "Organizing Body Paragraphs with the 'MEAL Plan'" *  
    • Corresponding handout: "Organizing Paragraphs with the 'MEAL Plan'"*
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Source Discussion *  
    • Share a brief description (6-8 thoughtful sentences) of one or two of your most interesting sources. (Don’t forget to tell us the title and author(s)!) Then, tell us how you found the source(s), what research questions they seem to be answering, and what you find most interesting about the source(s) in the context of this project.
      
      
  • Project Check-In *
    • In 6-8 thoughtful sentences (total), address all of the following questions:
      • What do you find most interesting or surprising about what we have learned so far?
      • What are you most interested in learning more about?
      • What questions or concerns do you have at this point?
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Source Integration Activity *
  • Source Analysis Mini-paper *
  • Begin or continue composing the literature review—a complete first draft will be due in the next section for peer review.
    
    

 

Students will . . .

• Submit complete first drafts of their literature reviews. 
• Engage in peer review.
• Revise their literature reviews.

• Readings
  • Literature Review Peer Review Guidelines  *
  • "Giving and Receiving Feedback" 
  • "How to Write Meaningful Peer Response Praise" 
  • "Revision" *
  • "Reverse Outlining" *
• Videos
  • "No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom, A Guide for Students"
    
    • Activity: Peer review—see discussion prompt below.
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Literature Review Peer Review *
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Reverse Outlining + Revision *  
  • Peer review of literature review—see discussion prompt above.

 

Students will . . .

• Reflect on their peer review and revision processes. 
• Edit and proofread their literature review drafts.
• Submit the final drafts of their literature reviews.

• Readings
  • "Editing" * 
  • "Proofreading" *  
• Videos
  • "The Magic of Revision"
• Discussion prompts and/or group activities
  • Discussion of peer review and subsequent revision experience *
    • Initial post: Consider your experience conducting peer review. In 5-7 thoughtful sentences, consider some or all of the following:
      • What specific element(s) did your peer reviewer help you improve in your draft?
      • What specific element(s) were you able to identify and highlight in your peer’s writing to help them improve, and how successful do you think you were in helping them improve?
      • In what way(s) did reviewing and providing structured feedback on your peer’s writing help you look at your own writing with fresh or wizened eyes?
      • What do you now understand or appreciate about the process, benefits, or challenges of peer review that you will carry with you as you tackle future writing assignments?
  • Response: Respond to the person you partnered with for peer review.
• Activities and low-stakes writing assignments
  • Letter to the Reader
• Major assignment
  • Literature Review: Final Draft *

These materials were compiled by the COMPSS team. All materials created by the COMPSS team (see items in bold with the * symbol next to them) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and are free to use: they can be adopted, adapted, and shared at will as long as the materials are attributed. Some linked materials may have stricter licensing guidelines, although they are all free to use.