What to do

1. In 1-3 sentences, restate your interest area.  (It may have evolved since the last assignment.)
   
2. Spend some time thinking about your interest area to identify its components and sub-topics.  Also think about broader topics that it fits under, and what areas it is closely related to.  It may help you to draw a picture on a whiteboard at this stage.
   
3. Search for relevant literature.  Carefully record your process - search terms, lists, databases, etc. to help you keep track of this complex process.
4. You need at least 16-20 relevant articles to form the basis of your AP literature review.  More may be needed later - this can only be determined by the topic and your project.
5. Aim to find approximately half of this number among the research literature.  In other words, half of your bibliography should consist of research studies (as opposed to essays or prescriptive pieces). 
   
6. As you read, create an annotation that includes:
• Citation in APA format
• 1-2 paragraph overview or abstract (which can be quoted from a professional source, or the article itself; make sure to use quotation marks is so).
• Clearly identify what "type" of piece this is: conceptual/theoretical/essay; research report; prescriptive; literature synthesis/review.
  
• 1 paragraph or set of bullets that establishes the connection to your project, or the "so what?" answer
• A final set of bullets that reduces each reviewed article down to its critical and basic relevant ideas.  In most cases, this should be 1-3 "facts" (or assertions) per article.
7. Submit your bibliography as described below.  However, you are not finished - as your AP progresses, make sure to update this tool as your reading continues.  Keep it up to date in your Researcher's Virtual Notebook as well.
   

Components

• A single file containing 16-20 annotations
• 1-3 sentence restatement of your interest area
  
• Each annotation contains citation, type identification, overview/abstract, connection, reduction
• Rubric at end with self-assessment
  

Hints
Research articles can be recognized by data collection and reporting of results.  Unfortunately, many articles in professional journals are self-reports of educational projects, loosely described.  These can be useful - but do not count them in your 50% research article proportion.

Pay careful attention to APA citation formatting, using the manual or other authoritative guides. I won't always pay such close attention to them for the sake of time.  However, some early energy spent on citations will carry through your entire AP.

Books can be useful to any AP, but seem overwhelming to review for an assignment like this.  It's most likely that you won't find an entire relevant book, but instead portions may be relevant.  Include if useful. A book counts as one annotation, unless each chapter is by a different author. In such a case of an edited book, you may count each chapter you review as a different source.

Types of formats of scholarly materials are broadening.  You may even find relevant and useful materials in such new formats as blogs. (Good luck with APA with new formats!)  I am open-minded. Use your critical thinking skills to decide if something is academically valuable.   Ask me about items you are unsure about.

What if you can't find much or any relevant literature?  Broaden your search to related areas. 

What if you find too many relevant articles to review? If your searching results in 50 articles or more, this is a hint that: a). there is much interest in this topic; b). it may have already been "done to death;" c). you will need to create a tight focus for your study, or a highly specific application.  Do not assume that everything possible is already known about this topic.  While we in the SLM faculty are a bit tired of certain topic areas, there are few (if any) topics in all of education about which everything is already known.

Submission Format

• Submit as a document in the appropriate WebCt dropbox, using my filenaming rules.
  
• Post within your Researcher's Virtual Notebook.