Successful completion of a doctoral dissertation requires significant amounts of independent reading on the research topic. This allows the doctoral learner/researcher to become familiar with the scope of the topic and to identify gaps or tensions within the existing literature on the topic. These gaps and tensions become the source of the dissertation research. In this assignment, you will read and annotate potential sources in your dissertation field of interest. Those demonstrating the most merit to the best of your understanding of the topic at this time should be added to your RefWorks list for potential inclusion in the literature review section of your dissertation.
General Requirements:
Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:
- It is strongly recommended that you engage in this activity throughout the duration of your program. You will be adding to this document to begin building a runnnig literature review. You will have five sources in your list by the end of this assignment.
- The College of Doctoral Studies recognizes the diversity of learners in our programs and the varied interests in research topics for their dissertations in the Social Sciences.
Dissertation topics must, at a minimum, be aligned to General Psychology in the Ph.D. program, Leadership in the Ed.D. Organizational Leadership program, Adult Instruction in the Ed.D. Teaching and Learning program, Management in the DBA program, and Counseling Practice, Counselor Education, Clinical Supervision or Advocacy/Leadership within the Counseling field in the Counselor Education Ph.D. program.
If there are questions regarding appropriate alignment of a dissertation topic to the program, the respective program chair will be the final authority for approval decisions.
Specifically, although the College prefers a learner’s topic align with the program emphasis, this alignment is not “required.” The College will remain flexible on the learner’s dissertation topic if it aligns with the degree program in which the learner is enrolled. The Ph.D. program in General Psychology does not support clinically based research.
- Instructors will be scoring your submission based on the number of unique sources identified in the list submitted.
- Download the resource Literature Review Resources Tool and use it to complete the assignment.
- Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
- Refer to the resource, “Preparing Annotated Bibliographies,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style.
- You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
Directions:
Read at least five empirical articles in your general dissertation field.
In the “Literature Review Resources” document, provide the following for each source:
- The APA formatted citation.
- A brief annotation of the key points of the source.
- An indication of whether the source has been added to (Y) or excluded from (N) your RefWorks list.Running head: SHORTENED TITLE 1
TITLE GOES HERE 2
Title Should Suggest the Topic
Your Name
Grand Canyon University
<Date>
Literature Review Resources
One of the most important aspects of your research will be how you organize your resources. RefWorks is an optional citation management software tool you can sign up to use that helps organize your citations. To find out more about how to sign up for your free, optional RefWorks account, review the information here:
http://libguides.gcu.edu/refworksandendnote.