Literature Review Paper Outline Template (Page 4 of 5) in pdf

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ASSIGNMENT #3: Final paper

Due April 14

SOURCES TO USE FOR YOUR PAPER:

 You must cite at least 7 journal articles (you may use more of course) of primary research (publications that

are original research, rather than summaries/reviews of multiple studies). For your sources, you may also use

books, book chapters, government documents, and M.S. and Ph.D. dissertations -- but only 2 of the total 7

citations may be from this latter group.

 Articles from popular press sources such as Discover magazine, Time magazine, National Geographic or

newspaper articles do not count as 'journal articles'. Articles from scientific journals such as Limnology and

Oceanography, Hydrobiologia, Freshwater Biology, Water Resources Bulletin, BioScience, Science, Nature,

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, etc. do count. If you have ANY doubt about what counts,

please contact me BEFORE submitting your assignment! Your grade will suffer if I discover that you

misinterpreted something after you turn it in.

 Information from the Internet also may not be used for this paper, unless it is from an e-journal (a peer-reviewed

journal that is published on the web). Again, if you are unsure, please contact me before you turn in anything.

LITERATURE REVIEW PAPER GUIDELINES

Please use the following format when writing your paper.

* please attach the grade sheet from your outline to the back of your paper when you turn it in!

 Format: Typed, double spaced, 1” margins (please check the default on your word-processing software - usually

the default is set to 1.25" instead of 1"), single-sided, stapled, 11 to 12 pt font. PLEASE be sure to put page

numbers on each page.

 Length: 5 pages of text (not counting title page or the literature cited section; and NOT greater than 6 pages – I

will stop reading beginning on page 7!).

 Sections: You must include the following sections to receive full credit:



Title page (Title, name, date, course number)



Introduction

Brief introduction to the topic for a general scientific audience – why is the topic important? What is the

main purpose/objective of this paper?



Multiple sections summarizing the main points (2-3 additional sections, based on your synthesis)

It is a good idea to split your paper up into different sections (with subtitles) that break the paper up for the

reader. For a 5 page paper, you may want to think about having anywhere from 2-3 sections in addition to the

introduction and conclusion. The number of sections depends entirely on the subject matter and what you

choose to include in the paper.



Conclusions AND future research

Summarize the overall findings and make conclusions in your own words! Then, you must explain what 'we

don't know' about the topic and what needs to be done in the future to better understand the issue. For

example, you could suggest future studies that can be conducted to improve our understanding.



Literature Cited

Alphabetical order by author (use single space for this part of your paper, but separate each citation by 2

spaces). Use the standard scientific citation format (see Citing Information handout).

Literature Review Paper Outline Template Page 4

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