August 7th, 2020 
You have a lot of flexibility in terms of exactly how you want to word your question. The most practical approach is to let the literature tell you how to address the topic. If you would like to approach your question in such a way as to look for limitations in the existing literature, you may do so. This is the approach I took with my literature review, which is one of your readings. However, unless you notice large gaps in the literature or methodological limitations, you do not need to address anything like that in your paper.
This document contains a brief overview of the format that I would like you to follow (loosely) for the Literature Review Project in PSYC-421. Unless otherwise specified, you should use formatting standards from the 7th ed. of the APA Manual (I have provided some information on this in Blackboard)
In addition to the body of your paper, you will need a title page, abstract, and references. These do not count toward your page minimum.
Introduction to your paper: In the first couple of paragraphs of your paper, say what your question is. Why is it important to ask this question? What are the ramifications to society of answering or not answering this question?
This is where you would also give background information. For instance, if your topic were Autism, this is where you would say how its diagnosed.
Statistical information also goes here. For instance, how many people are diagnosed with autism.
If your question were How does raising a child with a disability impact families? this is where you would talk about how many families are raising disabled children. You would talk about the various disabilities (stick with the most common ones in the literature). You might also say if you are talking about physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or both.
Once youve introduced your question and provided the background, you move to the body of your paper. This is where you present subtopics that are guided by the existing research. Each subtopic must relate to answering your question.
You will need a minimum of 4 subtopics
Introduce each subtopic with a level 2 heading
You dont need to describe the studies the way you did in 311 (e.g., number of participants, materials used, etc.). You do need to present the findings that are relevant to your question and be clear about how these studies relate to one another and to your question
At the end of each subtopic you pull together all of the studies youve cited in that subtopic to make a statement about your question.
o For instance, if I were writing about the impacts of raising a disabled child, I would first talk about multiple studies. Then I would conclude that subtopic by saying something like, Based on the studies presented here, the impacts of having a brother or sister with a disability depend on the severity of the disability and the childs age. Siblings are more impacted when their brother or sisters disability is more significant (cite). As children get older they are less impacted by their siblings disability, except when the non-disabled sibling is girl (cite). In this situation, older girls exhibit greater stress related to their siblings disability.
You will do something like this for each subtopic
o Make sure that you arrange your subtopics in a logical order (it thats relevant)
o Make sure its clear how each subtopic relates to your question
o You can have subtopics within subtopics (use Level 3 headings)
If you have a subtopic on how raising a child with a disability affects families, in your subtopic on impacts to parents you might have sub-subtopics on (1) impacts on marital relationship (2) impacts on parents mental health (3) impacts on parents ability to deal with their other children
After you present all of your subtopics, youll begin your conclusion
Conclusion is usually 2 or 3 paragraphs.
You recap the findings from your subtopics and use the information to answer your questions
For your conclusion, I would like you to use a level 2 heading that actually says conclusion This is not APA format, but it helps the TAs with grading.
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