Use the articles you have identified for the topic statement assignment as well as additional ones as needed, to write a review of the literature. If this is your first time writing a literature review, you are encouraged to seek assistance from the Writing Center, which is a free service to all SDSU students: https://writingcenter.sdsu.edu/ I strongly encourage you to begin writing the literature review early so that you may seek assistance as needed. Since this is a research class, we will not cover the basics of writing a literature review, therefore, you’ll need to seek assistance, if needed, through the Writing Center. Additionally, every research article you review will consist of a literature review, pay close attention to how the authors synthesized the literature. The content of the literature review should be focused on the description of the topic, its causes, and consequences. In writing your paper, follow the outline below: 1.Identify your topic and provide a brief introduction of the topic area. 2. Problem Overview – Provide an overview of the problem area. How prevalent is the problem? How is the problem defined in the research that you read? What are some of the consequences or impact of the problem? 3. Causes – What are some theories about the causes of this problem, including contributing factors? Are there different or competing theories related to the topic? 4. Based on your literature review, end with a research question you would like to answer. 5. Make sure to identify the type of research question you have included (e.g., descriptive, exploratory, etc.). Also, identify the independent and dependent variables that are part of your research question(s). Section 2 – Methodology This section follows the literature review where you ended with a research question to answer. In this section, you’ll propose the steps you’ll take in developing a research study to answer your research question. The methodology (i.e., methods) section of a research proposal allows the reader to understand how the data will be collected. It should be detailed enough for a researcher to be able to replicate the study from reading the methods section. Since you will not collect actual data, you 1 M.Villagrana, PhD SW 391 – Fall 2019 will propose the steps you would have taken had you collected data to answer your research question. Since every methodology will vary in terms of the steps taken, the page number for this section should be minimum 4 pages. This section should include the following: 1. What research design will you use? (e.g., cross sectional, pre/posttests, experimental, etc.) 2. Operationalize and conceptualize your variables (i.e., IVs and DV). 3. What measurement tool(s) for the data collection will you use? Part of the data collection is identifying the measurement tool (e.g., survey, questionnaire, etc.) you will use to collect data. In identifying an appropriate measurement tool, include research literature (minimum of 2 research articles) that supports the use of the measurement tool you have identified for your study. 4. Participants: Who will you recruit into your study? a. Provide details such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. b. Include any criteria that needs to be met by the participants and how you will determine whether the criteria are met. For example, homeless military veterans with PTSD. c. Number of participants. 5. Procedures: Include the type of sample used (e.g., convenience sample, random sample, etc.) NOTE: It’s important to show the order in which things will occur. a. How will the sample be identified? b. How will the sample be contacted and/or recruited? c. What method will be used to recruit them? For example, flyers in local grocery stores. d. Who will collect the data? e. Where will activities take place? For example, data will be collected at a school, agency, church, etc. Or at the participant’s home. f. What process or activities will participants engage in? For example, will participants be surveyed, interviewed, etc. Will participants take a test or view a film, etc.? g. Will data collection take place more than once? h. How long will whatever activity (e.g., survey, interview, etc.) take? i. Other important details to include – if using interviews, will the interviews be recorded? Will data collection take place at a certain time of day? Will participants receive an incentive (e.g., money, gift card, etc.)? 6. End with how you will store the data (e.g., questionnaire answers will be inputted into an excel sheet and questionnaires stored in a locked file cabinet or destroyed, etc.). FYI: It’s important to pay attention to the research articles you have reviewed for the literature review, and in identifying a measurement tool, as these research articles will have examples of how the authors/researchers developed their study. Pay attention to the 2 M.Villagrana, PhD SW 391 – Fall 2019 methodology, or methods, section of these articles in writing your own methods as these will serve as sample methodology sections. Section 3 – Limitations This is a brief discussion (i.e., 1-2 paragraphs) where you discuss the potential limitations of your proposal, had the study been conducted. These are factors that are out of the control of the researcher and/or restrictions imposed by the researcher that may potentially influence the results of your study. For example, if you propose to survey only social work students at SDSU, this will limit the generalizability to only SDSU social work students, where you can’t generalize your findings to all social work students. The following link explains what limitations should be include: https://www.edanzediting.com/blogs/how-write-about-your-study-limitations-without- limiting-your-impact Section 4 – Contributions and Implications All research studies need to have been designed to answer a research question or questions that will have an impact and/or contribute to the field of social work. Therefore, you should wrte a paper that describe the potential contributions and implications of your research proposal to the field of social work. The research articles you have used up to this point should all include a last section where the authors/researchers discuss their study’s implications/contributions.