This assignment is designed to help you practice how to:
• locate research articles and books using Summon or EBSCO, the main journal and periodicals
indexes of BGSU Libraries
• understand the function of indexes such as Summon and EBSCO, particularly the differences
between journal indexes and general internet searches
• understand the differences between scholarly and non-scholarly sources of information
• closely read a research source
• summarize a research source
• paraphrase secondary source material
• synthesize source material by using it to explain key points instead of reporting its content in an
Article A, Article B format
• properly acknowledge a research source by citing it in a discipline-appropriate style (in this case,
ASA or APA)
Steps to completing the assignment:
1. Find and read one of the scholarly articles listed below using Summon or EBSCO Get complete
bibliographic (citation) information for it in its original journal source. (You must cite the article
using the journal in which it was originally published, not as a pdf on a website or similar.)
2. Find TWO other scholarly articles on the SAME TOPIC. Read those. Get their citation
information. I am giving you a lead on one article. To finish the job, you must find two others.
3. Summarize each article. You are taking on the responsibility of accurately and completely
communicating the core points of each study to your readers; take your time with this step.
4. Read through your summaries, or ask a classmate to help you, in order to identify two or three key
points—topics, similarities, things to discuss in your review.
5. Write your literature review. DO include:
an introduction that ends in a thesis statement
two or three headings that tell the reader the topic of each section
a discussion of each heading topic that uses the sources to explain, illustrate, or give
evidence for your points
proper source citation in the text of your paper
a clear topic sentence to begin each paragraph
paraphrasing of all secondary source material (all “other people’s research”) instead of
direct quotation
a conclusion that draws your points together, for example that discusses implications of
this research, or directions for future research
a References page or section that uses proper source citation for complete entries for all
sources
a title for your paper that indicates the content of the paper
DON’T include:
“reader interest” techniques (e.g., “Have you ever wondered why…”?)
overgeneralizations (e.g., “Since time began…”)
humor or slang – not professional enough for academic or professional writing
references to our class – write for a reader who does not know you and does not know any
thing about your topic
direct quotation, unless very brief and high-impact
wordy references to sources – use the citing guide
6. Length: the complete review should be about 3 dbsp pages in length, 4 maximum.
7. Citation style: ASA (style modeled in citation guide) or APA.
Articles – Get the complete citation information! Just enough is provided here to enable you to find the
article using Summon
“Role Conflict and Identity Salience: College Athletics and the Academic Role,” Adler & Adler
“Sober as Deviant: The Stigma of Sobriety and How Some College Students ‘Stay Dry’ on a ‘Wet’
Campus,” Herman-Kinney & Kinney
“Passage to Adulthood,” Furstenberg
“Managing the Trans
ition to Adulthood,” Johnson, Gans, Kerr & Lavalle
“Civil Engagement and the Transition to Adulthood,” Flanagan & Levine
“Religiosity and Spirituality During the Transition to Adulthood,” Barry, Nelson, Davarya & Urry
“More Than Just a Game: Video Game and Internet Use During Emerging Adulthood,” Padilla-
Walker, Nelson, Carroll & Jensen
“The Military and the Transition to Adulthood,” Kelty, Kleykamp & Segal
“Accounting for Women’s Orgasm or Sexual Enjoyment in College Hookups and Relationships,”
Armstrong, England & Fogarty
Formatting requirements:
? Times New Roman 12 font, double-spaced, entirely black ink appearance, 1” margins all
around
? Consult “What are the format requirements?” in Course Policies for details.
? Save the file to your computer using the filename: Yourlastname SocRschRev.doc or .docx
? Consult “Submitting work to Canvas” in Using Canvas for details.
? Submit the completed assignment to Canvas before class AND bring a copy on paper to class
on the due date.
Tips for using Summon effectively:
? If you know that you want only scholarly articles, check the “limit to articles from scholarly
publications” box on the left and the “keep search refinements” box under the search box. If
you don’t click this “keep refinements” box, you will lose your scholarly, subject, year, etc.
restrictions every time you enter a new search term.
? On the other hand, if you are writing a paper on a topic you don’t know much about (and so
you need to learn what research to look for), or you are looking for recent examples of a
phenomenon, or you want to see how the media talk about a topic, then you would not want to
restrict your search to “scholarly only.”
? Keep your search terms general at first, until you see how many results you are dealing with.
? Make a note of each successful and unsuccessful search-term strategy in your notebook. It is
hard to re-create these after the fact.
? Change the “results on page” choice from 10 to 50 (the maximum) to scroll instead of page.
? Use “advanced search” at the top to add restrictions such as a specific word in the title. But if
you get too few results, you may need to find other strategies.
? When you find a great article, look at its keywords and use those. In most fields, scholars tend
to use the same terms for what they study, for example “adolescents” is more common than
“teens.”
? Continuing with that example, consider variations in the keywords an author or editor has
used to categorize the article. For example, “adolescen*” will generate results for both
“adolescence,” the lifecourse stage, and “adolescents,” the people in that stage.
? In many cases, many results will be for book reviews. A book review can lead you to a book.
But it cannot be substituted for a book. Listing the book and reading the book review for
information about the book is fabrication, a form of academic dishonesty.
? Books are listed at the bottom of the page.
? If a book is not “held by” (owned by) BGSU Libraries, in many cases, you can still obtain it.
Request it through OhioLink/ILL (interlibrary loan). This service is free, included in your
tuition. You will get an email when the book is ready to pick up.
? You can also request an ILL copy of a journal article that is not in a BGSU-subscribed journal.
In this case, the copy will be available to you electronically; you’ll get an email note.
? You can make an appointment with a Reference Librarian for individual help. This service is
free and worth doing. The librarians are experts in library-resource use and can show you
many strategies that would take much more time to discover on your own.
