Assignment #1: Study of Interest / Conducting a Literature Review

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is to illustrate the process of coming up with an initial idea for a research study of interest, conducting a literature review, identifying and reading some published research that pertains to this topic, synthesizing this literature so that you can summarize what is known about the topic, and decide whether or not you want to pursue research about it, or revise what you initially had in mind.

Objectives

After completing this assignment, you should be able to:

• Identify a topic of initial interest and be able to articulate why you find it to be of potential value to you professionally or personally.
• Conduct a focused literature review on a specific topic in academic journals.
• Read published research articles to obtain a sense of what has been found about that topic.
• Summarize the research findings about a topic, determining where they are consistent or inconsistent, and where the gaps are.
• Revise the initial topic to reflect the state of summary of published research about the topic.

Instructions

Choose a topic or interest that is meaningful to you professionally or personally.  Then conduct a literature review about that topic. Use the following summary formats for each article you find.

Article Summary Format for Each Article

Title:
Authors:
Where published: name of journal, year, volume number, page numbers
Purpose of Article:
Methods of Data Collection:
Research Findings:

Format for Final Literature Review Summary

Literature Review:
• What is already known about your topic from the current literature

Problem Statement:
• Identify a gap in the current literature,
• Determine where the current research findings are consistent or inconsistent

Once you have located, read, and summarized 3 articles, a final summary should be written, reflecting a general review of the articles indicating what has been learned about the topic.

Reference

 Blankenship, D. C. (2009). Applied Research and Evaluation Methods in Recreation (1st ed.). Human Kinetics.