The final assignment for the semester is to construct a “literature review,” or a summary of some existing research related to a particular communication theory we have covered in the course. Normally, a literature review is one component of a research paper. For this assignment, however, your task is just to find three (3) scholarly sources (i.e. from academic journals) that have dealt substantially with one of the communication theories discussed during the course.
Your discussion of each of these sources should have two main parts. First, summarize the source in terms of its specific research questions (i.e. what the author(s) of the piece were investigating), the data and methods used to investigate those questions, and the major arguments or findings that emerge from the analysis. Second, consider how each article that you find contributes something to our understanding of the particular theory in question. Do the author(s)’s findings provide a new way of thinking about or applying the concept? Do they suggest that it has flaws? Does the source simply show the limitations of what the theory can and can’t explain?
Each entry will probably vary a little bit in length depending on the length of the source, but in general they should be at least a page.
Additionally, good literature reviews are not simply a series of summaries. Do your best to include an introductory paragraph (of a few sentences) that provides some overall characterization of the theory you decided to explore further (this can just be drawn from what we learned in class about it), how the sources you found compare and contrast with one another, and how they collectively contribute something to our understanding of the theory in question.
