instructionsassignment 1 – final project literature review B u s i n e s s F i n a n c e

Assignment 1 – Final Project Literature Review, due Tuesday, Week 2

This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade.

For this step of your final project’s development, you will write a literature review on what you have learned from your research and understand about the communication theory that you plan to use in your final project. You should be able to use the material that you develop here in your final project. Before you tackle this exercise, please make sure you have read the Week 2 course materials.

Objective: To demonstrate a thorough understanding of your communication theory and how it relates to your workplace* communication problem.

Skills: This assignment will help you refine your abilities to execute the following skills for professional-level research:

• identify and formulate research questions that clearly define and focus what you would like to investigate in school or on the job;
• locate authoritative information in library and internet resources;
• analyze and assess the relevance of information to a research question, and
• synthesize new knowledge and establish context for your inquiries.

Background: Please begin this assignment by reading the following information carefully.

A literature review is a critical summary of what subject matter experts have to say about a question or topic. In your case, you will write an account of what scholars have published in peer-reviewed journals about the communication theory that you have determined to be relevant to the communication issue in your workplace.*

Occasionally, you will be asked in school or on the job to write a literature review as a stand-alone report. More often, you will use a literature review to establish the context for a larger business report or business proposal, or for a scholarly report. In your case, your literature review will become a part of your report’s introduction where it will help your readers to understand why the theory is applicable to your workplace communication problem. You will use your literature review to disclose the knowledge and ideas that already have been established on your theory. However, it must not be just a description of the information available. To gain a better understanding of what a literature review is and is not, watch this video from UMGC’s Effective Writing Center at https://youtu.be/2IUZWZX4OGI .

(*Remember, if you are not employed or cannot discuss your workplace, you should be using a communication problem from another organizational setting in which you are involved for your final project, such as school, church, or a community group.)

Steps:

• Begin by reviewing the list of communication theories in the Week 1, Overview 1.1, “Introduction to Theory, Theory Building, and Communication Theories.” Click on the links for any theories that you think may address your workplace* communication problem. The links will take you to entries about that theory in the < Encyclopedia of Communication Theory >.

• Once you have reviewed the theories, select a communication theory that appears to be related to your paper’s research question. Then click on Resources > Library in the navigation bar across the top of your classroom screen or go directly to the UMGC Library at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-examples for guidance on how to format your references according to the latest edition of the APA’s style manual.

  Resources to support this activity:

  The following resources can provide you with guidance on how to analyze, write, and format a literature review.

  • “Writing a Literature Review Section” at https://vimeo.com/kinglibrarysjsu/lit-review-section
  • “Locate and Evaluate Scholarly Articles” at http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/articles.cfm
  • “Secrets of My Research Success: Article Selection” at http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/research_tutorial_articleselection.cfm
  • “Is My Source Credible?” at http://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/credibility.cfm
  • “How to Read a Research Study Article in a Scholarly Journal” by UMGC Faculty in the Week 2 learning resources
  • Sample format for an APA-style paper at https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/apa_sample_paper.html

  Our library also has videos on how to format an APA-style paper according to the latest APA rules at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-document-formatting-7h and on how to create your APA-style references page at https://libguides.umgc.edu/apa-references-list-formatting-7h

  Grading: For insight into your instructor’s expectations for this assignment, scroll down here to click on and review its grading rubric.

  Due Date: Submit your literature review as a Word .doc, .docx, or .rtf attachment only in its assignment folder under the Assignments link in your classroom by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday of Week 2. Do not submit your assignment in .pdf, .Gdoc, .Pages, or other format. See the Course Schedule in the syllabus for the exact final due date for this assignment.