Assignment Overview

  • Want more guidance on using the APA format? Check out the sample student on the Purdue OWL website.

  • Feel free to use a casual or personal voice in your writing. You can write in third person or first person. If you choose to write in first person, make sure you use active nouns, pronouns, and verbs.

Structure

Your critical review of literature assignment will have the following parts:

  1. A title page

    Please see the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) for an overview of the general formatting required for APA papers (spacing, margins, fonts, etc.), as well as information on how to format the title page.

    Note: You do not need to include an abstract.

  2. A brief summary of your topic (about 2 pages)

    Your summary should include:

    • An explanation of why you chose your topic
    • Your "hunches" about research methods that might commonly be used to study your topic - surveys, case studies, pre-test and post-test, etc.
    • References (in-text citations) to any relevant passages from the articles, websites, or other sources you have found on your topic

    Please see Purdue OWL's guidance regarding headings (your summary's heading should be a level 1 heading).

  3. A literature review (minimum 8 pages; maximum 10 pages)

    Your literature review should also use a level 1 heading.

    Since a literature review is a complex topic, we'll cover that in a later section of this guide.

  4. Your reference list (no page requirement / limit)

    Citations can be complex as well, so we'll cover this information in a later section too.