Verbal abuse in romantic relationships

The primary purpose of a review of literature is to provide a rationale for the proposed research question(s) and/or hypothesis(es). A literature review should represent a synthesis of existing theory and research literature that argues for the research question(s) and/or hypothesis(es). The process of constructing a literature review acquaints the researcher with the studies already done in a particular area and allows the researcher to build/extend the existing knowledge. The key to writing a good literature review is synthesis. The following questions may help to guide your reading and paper organization processes:
1. Which research articles come to similar conclusions?
2. Which research articles disagree with one another or have contradictory findings?
3. Are certain theories consistently used to frame studies on the topic?
4. How does your thinking about the topic relate to, differ from, and/or add to the previous literature?
Guidelines:
1. Identify a topic for research that focuses on communication behavior (i.e., verbal and/or nonverbal messages in some capacity). Identify a question that you have about the particular communication phenomena. (You may have a question in mind OR you may find a question by examining the literature and identifying gaps). Please make sure that your topic is in fact appropriate to the Communication discipline. This will likely already have been accomplished through the topic that you presented in your topic proposal. The project should build upon the research that you have already started.
2. Read relevant primary sources on the key topic and related issues. Make notes as you go that identify key ideas, variables, and definitions. Avoid using direct quotations as much as possible–paraphrase ideas from others. You will need to read more material than you will end up citing in your paper in order to find useful and topic-relevant sources. You should have 10 sources referenced and cited in your final draft of the paper. You should primarily utilize the sources from your annotated bib, but a few additional sources may be necessary. You will be penalized if you do not have the appropriate number of references and they do not meet the requirements. The journal articles should all come from peer-reviewed sources. Additionally, please make sure that you are submitting original work. Submitting work that has been submitted for another class is considered (self) plagiarism.
3. Based on the literature you have read and your own perspective on the topic, create an outline to organize the ideas for your paper.
4. Write the paper. Components of the paper include the following:
1. Title page (this should fit the APA components of a title page with a header, page number, and author information)
2. Introduction (1-2 pages). You should begin the introduction with an attention-getter- something that draws the reader in and makes them want to read more. This should be something from the literature and not a hypothetical or anecdotal story. Throughout the entire literature review, you will avoid first- and second-person language. This includes the introduction section. Additionally, you need a research rationale. The function of a research rationale is to justify a further examination of the topic. Why is it important to communication research? Make sure that you justify examining the topic further.

The paragraph where you provide your research rationale will conclude with your thesis statement. Your thesis statement will be the general point or purpose of your paper. Please start the sentence with, ‘The purpose of this paper is to…’. This will help us identify your thesis statement. The thesis statement should be a reflection of your hypothesis/research question. This will help you to focus your paper on providing evidence to support your hypothesis/research question. Finally, you should end your introduction with a preview statement. This preview will inform readers of the areas of literature that you will be discussing in the paper.

Essentially, revise your topic proposal to serve as your Introduction (be sure to remove the H/RQ and variables at the end and adhere to the above standards).
3. Review of current literature on the topic that begins generally (often with a theory or theoretical perspective) and gradually becomes more and more specific until you propose your specific H’s and/or RQ’s (approximately 4-6 pages). Think of a funnel that starts wide and gets narrower as you go down. You will incorporate all relevant research into the discussion of your topic.

Remember that this should serve as an argument supporting your hypothesis/research question. You will need to utilize previous research findings in order to support the hypothesis that you are proposing. Please do not use arguments that do not deal directly with your hypothesis/literature review. Also, make sure that the literature that you use is appropriate and complete enough to make your argument. (At least 10 sources from peer-reviewed journals; more sources are fine, but 10 is the minimum).

The literature review should begin by conceptually defining each of the concepts that you are interested in. You will give a broad conceptual definition so that the reader understands the focus of your paper (if you have ever taken a conflict class, you know that a multitude of definitions exist for this concept; therefore, it is important to tell your reader how you are conceptualizing/defining conflict). Each paragraph of the literature review should have a topic sentence. Then, the body of the paragraph should work on supporting the topic sentence. All of your topic sentences should work together to support your central thesis. When you are constructing your outline, keep in mind what main arguments you need to make in order to support your thesis.

Please, do not provide a study-by-study summary of the literature. This paper should go beyond an annotated bibliography. The purpose of a focused literature review is to synthesize what scholars know about your topic, thus you should have multiple citations per paragraph and oftentimes per sentence. All constructs, variables, and theory components (if you use theory in your paper) that are relevant to your study should be defined and explained using scholarly sources (e.g., integrative conflict strategies are defined as….). When completed, your literature review should resemble the content and structure of published journal articles. This means that you should cite scholarly sources whenever an idea is not your own (so you don’t plagiarize!). For a better understanding of what this should look like, read the literature reviews from the articles that you chose for the annotated bib.

4. Propose research questions and/or hypotheses that emerge logically and clearly from your literature review. You should present your hypothesis/research question at the end of the literature review. You will often times have a lead-in paragraph that ties the research together and makes a final argument for your hypothesis/research questions. Additionally, you need to have at least one hypothesis or research question, but you can have more than that (don’t get too carried away). These should be set aside as per APA format. You will be graded on the quality and logic of the questions/hypotheses you posit.
5. Your reference page: This needs to be in APA format and should contain everything that you reference in the paper. If it is in your writing, it belongs on the reference page; if it’s on the reference page, it belongs in your writing. Be sure to double-check this.
6. Submit your paper online via Canvas by the due date. No late assignments will be accepted.
7. A few of my pet peeves. First, don’t use first- or second-person language in the paper. It should maintain a professional tone, and this is an easy way to do it. Second, don’t use hypothetical situations to illustrate a point. I don’t want to read about a case study, as this is not the point of the assignment. Third, check your references! Make sure that you have the required amount and that they are peer-reviewed journals. They should be cited in your paper and in the reference page; if it’s in text, it should be on the reference page, and if it’s in the reference page, it should be in your paper.