Dave Ballard, formerly of the School of Criminal Justice

To be able to accomplish the literature review and produce work product for phase two of your project, you will need to follow the directions and examples herein. You have just identified three themes from your 10 articles and we will discuss how to turn these into research questions and/or as the basis of the three supporting sections of your written literature review.

Once you have identified these themes and listed them on your matrix, bring your articles up to my desk and we will discuss your project. You will then use them to organize your writing and research questions, albeit ones that are informed by the literature. Use the following mock format to help you (feel free to modify as you need to this is offered only as a sample).

(THIS IS A SAMPLE INTRODUCTION TO YOUR LIT REVIEW)

The research on (insert your particular topic) indicates that gender (use your own themes), race and geographic location are related to problem gambling (use citations for articles related to each of the themes and make sure they are in APA style). The literature suggests that males are more likely to be identified as problems gamblers (citation for this particular idea). Likewise, Anglo Americans have been identified as the most likely to engage in persistent gambling activities (citation for this idea). Lastly, the research indicates that those who live in urban centers have a lower incidence of gambling than do suburban dwellers (citation for this idea).

(THIS IS A SAMPLE SUPPORTING PARAGRAPH -- YOU WILL WRITE THREE SUPPORTING SECTIONS IN TOTAL -- ONE FOR EACH THEME)

Smith (1996) (your first theme listed in the opening should be discussed first) notes that male college students are 700 % more likely to be involved in gambling than females. The author of this study notes that males seem to engage in this risk seeking behavior as compensation for lack of self-esteem.
Granell (2001) recently identified similar patterns in suburban high school students in Massachusetts. This study found that male high school students gambled on sports, used adult surrogates to purchase lottery tickets, and once they became addicted, stole from parents to support their addiction.

(Continue to your write up of the first theme and use one quote if needed, discuss the articles and their findings that exhibit this theme. A good rule of thumb is not to use more than one quote per page.).

(THIS IS A SAMPLE CONCLUSION)

The research on gaming indicates that several themes are important to understanding why individuals engage in behavior that can be categorized as problem gambling. These include gender, race, and geographic location. Specific expectations for relationship between these factors, and that will used as the basis of this research project, include the following:
Research questions: One: Males will more likely be involved in gambling. Two: Those of Anglo decent will more likely engage in this behavior. Three: These problem gamblers will more likely be from suburban environments. In order to test these propositions, this study will conduct a self-administered survey of 800 college students. The purpose of using these research questions in this project is to explore the dynamics of problem gambling as related to these factors. The unit of analysis will be the individual and the expectation is that quantitative analysis will be conducted on the results of this survey. Descriptions of the patters in the data and of the cross tabulations of each relationship will be tested to determine if any relationship exists between these factors and the college students of a small regional state university in the upper Midwest.

(NOTE THIS SAMPLE HAS THREE DISTINCT PARTS: A SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU STATED ABOVE; A LISTING OF WHAT PROPOSITIONS YOU WILL BE USING; AND THE FINAL STATEMENT THAT INDICATES YOUR METHOD OF OBSERVATION, PURPOSE, UNIT OF ANALYSIS, TYPES OF ANALYSIS, AND LOCATION).

PEER REVIEW OF THE LIT REVIEW WORK PRODUCT

Your name ____________________________

Today we will judge the quality and content of the literature review they have done for class. We will use the peer review process to see if they meet selected criteria for the project as specified in the two handouts.  

Sample matrix.