assignment review 2.1 (practice)

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Common Assignments: Literature Reviews

Basics of literature reviews.

A literature review is a written approach to examining published information on a particular topic or field. Authors use this review of literature to create a foundation and justification for their research or to demonstrate knowledge on the current state of a field. This review can take the form of a course assignment or a section of a longer capstone project. Read on for more information about writing a strong literature review!

Students often misinterpret the term "literature review" to mean merely a collection of source summaries, similar to annotations or article abstracts. Although summarizing is an element of a literature review, the purpose is to create a comprehensive representation of your understanding of a topic or area of research, such as what has already been done or what has been found. Then, also using these sources, you can demonstrate the need for future research, specifically, your future research.

There is usually no required format or template for a literature review. However, there are some actions to keep in mind when constructing a literature review:

• Include an introduction and conclusion . Even if the literature review will be part of a longer document, introductory and concluding paragraphs can act as bookends to your material. Provide background information for your reader, such as including references to the pioneers in the field in the beginning and offering closure in the end by discussing the implications of future research to the field.
• Avoid direct quotations . Just like in an annotated bibliography, you will want to paraphrase all of the material you present in a literature review. This assignment is a chance for you to demonstrate your knowledge on a topic, and putting ideas into your own words will ensure that you are interpreting the found material for your reader. Paraphrasing will also ensure your review of literature is in your authorial voice.
• Organize by topic or theme rather than by author. When compiling multiple sources, a tendency can be to summarize each source and then compare and contrast the sources at the end. Instead, organize your source information by your identified themes and patterns. This organization helps demonstrate your synthesis of the material and inhibits you from creating a series of book reports.
•  Use headings . APA encourages the use of headings within longer pieces of text to display a shift in topic and create a visual break for the reader. Headings in a literature review can also help you as the writer organize your material by theme and note any layers, or subtopics, within the field.
• Show relationships and consider the flow of ideas. A literature review can be lengthy and dense, so you will want to make your text appealing to your reader. Transitions and comparison terms will allow you to demonstrate where authors agree or disagree on a topic and highlight your interpretation of the literature.

Related Multimedia, Social Media, and Other Resources

Randolph, J. J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation , 14 (13), 1–13. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1219&context=pare

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2.2: Practice Assignment 2

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Assignment Introduction

This essay is more challenging than the argument summary & response you were assigned for essay 1 (the assignments continue to build in difficulty throughout the term). This time you must write a specific type of argument essay: an argument of definition. While it will take some hard work and deep thinking, I know you can do it!

Please ask questions and send me drafts of thesis statements or essay ideas when you want some feedback!

With arguments of definition, student writers practice the skills required to think critically about people, places, and things in the world and the definitions or categories we unthinkingly ascribe to them.

Commonly accepted definitions are often inadequate and based on uncritical acceptance of formal dictionary definitions or operational definitions.

There are many reasons why it may be critically important to change or clarify the meaning, explanation, or usage of a term:

• Society can outgrow a definition as technology and culture change the word in which we live (for instance we've had to adapt new meanings for "Google" and "Zoom," and even the way we are using the words "quarantine," "global pandemic," and "social-distancing" have changed very recently and require new modern definitions).
• Definitions can be harmful to people (as in the case of stereotypes or racial slurs that hurt people and require modifications to be more politically and socially correct--the controversial term "Hispanic," the changing terms "American Indian" and "queer," and the creation of the gender-neutral term "LatinX" and pronouns "ze" and "zir" come to mind)
• Without change, definitions can outlive their use (the idea "primetime" has become obsolete in the age of internet broadcasting on demand--and the meaning of "racist" has had to grow and evolve to keep up with the changes of the times)
• Definitions can mislead (as when "intellectual property " is given the same rights as real property; when corporations are given the status of "individuals" without being beholden to the assumption that individuals have ethical obligations.)

The Writing Process for This Assignment

1. Conduct some research in order to explore topics that hold your interest:

• Begin by questioning the definition of a few significant terms that appear frequently in the modern media you consume
• Complete some internet research on where, when, how, and why the words are regularly used. What do they usually mean and what else do they imply to readers? In what ways can you more clearly explain the terms and offer some additional meaning?
• Why are some writers using the word "rioters" and some using the word "protesters"?
• Why does the word "terrorist" or "terrorism" appear in some articles and not in the articles that take an opposing view of the same situations?
• Is it even possible for a philosophy such as "anti-fascism" to be categorized as a "terrorist organization," as it has been called by Trump recently?
• See the previous page: "Learn to Write an Argument of Definition" for additional ideas
• Search The Perspective website to see two opposing perspectives of current events and ongoing local and word debates
• questions that can be answered by looking at a dictionary or other reference make poor topics. Your point needs to be modern, significant, and arguable. Your ideas and persuasive essay should be important for society to read because there will be some people who disagree with your ideas and require a careful explanation.
• papers about the definition of love or friendship tend to be weak because people are used to thinking of their characteristics a matter of personal rather than public preference. Discover a topic more significant to what's going on in the world and join a critical, modern conversation.
• For example, while "abortion is murder" is a definition argument, it's not a good topic for a college essay. You can't address the definition of life and the definition of murder in such a short essay and you are likely to run into problems with logical fallacies and "bad arguments" with such a topic." Stay away from these clichéd topics. Stick with arguments that people are likely to disagree about or have never thought of but still can be persuaded by.
• For example: "sweatshop labor is bad" is a poor topic, but "sweatshop labor is slavery" is a better topic choice. Whether you define sweatshop labor as slavery or not will certainly matter. People already feel that is bad, so if you can convince people that sweatshop labor is slavery, you've won your definition argument and people will hopefully disapprove of sweatshop labor as they disapprove of slavery.

2. Conduct additional research to build your ideas and make a final topic selection:

• Explore accepted dictionary definitions
• Explore people's assumptions about the definitions—ask your friends and family members their definition. Are the definitions the same as yours or each others'?
• Look in books about the topic to see how people are using the word or category
• What does the accepted definition exclude?
• Example: Cheerleading isn't often thought of as a sport,but similar activities such as rhythm gymnastics have Olympic events, so cheerleading should be considered a sport.
• Will you be able to find more examples that support your ideas?
• Can you find some use examples that show what you consider to be lacking in the current definition and usage and more examples that demonstrate a better usage or meaning?
• If you are making a comparison of two terms, can you explain and provide examples for both terms?

3. Create an argument with a new definition, category, or explanation of the word or term you chose:

• Identify the ways in which the accepted definition or category ascribed to a term is lacking or doesn't hold up to critical inquiry.
• Identify what's at stake. Why should people care about the definition at all? What are the consequences of people's misunderstanding?
• Identify modifications to the definition that will help the readers define or categorize the term in a way that is more useful.
• Main claim (pattern for operational argument): Although [topic] is usually considered to be a [category] , it's better categorized as a[different category] .
• Main claim (pattern for formal argument): Though [topic] is usually defined as [standard, uncritical definition] , a more accurate definition is [your new definition based on inquiry into the "true nature" of the topic]

4. Outline your ideas and examples

• First – In your introduction, summarize the details of the problem: Why isn't the basic definition good enough at explaining the term? What's missing? End your introduction with a thesis that presents your claim for a new definition, explanation, or category.
• Second – Provide detailed explanations of the idea you want to add as part of the "new definition" of the term. Include supporting points.
• Third – Present detailed support for all your points with a focus about how your claims works in the world. Include real examples and evidence to show your claim.
• Fourth- (Optional) Consider a negative example. Can you include an example of what this term is not in order to help your readers understand what it is? Are there examples in the media of it being used in a way you disagree with?
• Fifth – Finally, in your conclusion, summarize the main points of your claim and relate your issue to the bigger picture. Make it clear to your audience that a new-found understanding of the issue leads to a better understanding and support for your claim. Add the"so what?" to help connect your topic ideas to society and to your readers' real-world.

5. Construct your first essay draft:

• This can be messy and have ideas. Don't worry about it. Relax and just get something down on paper so you can begin to fix it up.
• Consider your audience of professors and other college students
• Include strategies to build your authority and credibility
• a personal anecdote (very short story) about how you or others connect with the term in the real world
• an expert quotation relevant to your ideas (but NOT a simple dictionary definition--assume your readers already know what basic words mean and that you are adding a NEW layer of explanation)
• relevant facts, statistics, or logical information
• opposing views: Is there a counterargument or counter example that can be addressed as part of you convincing your audience?
• cultural implications or the impact of your idea on the greater society

6. Edit and revise your work carefully to fix errors and check for clear understanding:

• Be sure that all your ideas support your main point, you have explained your ideas clearly, and you have provided support and/or examples for each one.
• Check that you've began in an interesting way, connected your ideas to a meaningful concept that matters to a particular community or society as a whole, and ended with powerful wording.
• Have at least one other person read your work. Trade papers with a classmate, see a tutor, or have a friend read your essay. Have that person point out places that don't make sense, need more explanation, or aren't clear.
• Edit your sentences and words, and proofread for accuracy and correctness. Make sure you have complete sentences and correct punctuation and capitalization.
• Format your essay according to MLA guidelines.
• Read it again and again. Make sure it's your very best work before you turn it in!

Additional Tips for Completing this Argument Essay:

• Make absolutely certain to avoid plagiarism of any type. Main ideas and arguments need to be your own. Find a unique way to join the conversation by contributing some piece of your opinion, knowledge, and experience to the topic you choose. The words in your essay need to be completely your own (other than the few word or sentences you choose to quote).
• There's no need to feel shy about expressing your own opinion in an argument essay. While you must have researched, real-world examples to support your ideas, you may also build your authority and credibility by explaining a personal connection with the topic or a related narrative based on your life experience (if you have one). In this case, you may have some parts of your essay written in first person and use "I" or "my."
• Although an MLA Works Cited Page is not required for this essay (it's optional--if you're already comfortable with the strategies), it is necessary for you to include the TITLE and author/speaker of ANY source you reference. Introduce and carefully integrate any quotations, summary, or paraphrase from a source into your writing. See the page: "Learn to Integrate Quotations into Your Writing (quote sandwich)" for a review of these writing strategies.

The Grading of a Practice Assignment

What goals/skills should I focus on in order to do my best? Your goal is to show your current ability in the following areas that are considered entry-level skills for basic essay writing.

• Understand the reading assignment and explain the author’s ideas briefly and clearly as you reference the text in your essay.
• Follow the prompt directions. Keep all your ideas tied to the general topic introduced in the reading. *If you don’t understand the prompt question in class, ask questions!
• Follow the basic American-essay guidelines of organizing sentences into logical paragraphs, and paragraphs into an essay. Try to write a clear intro, body, and conclusion (beginning, middle, and end structure).
• Reveal your skill in critical thinking and your ability to clearly express an idea of your own. Add something of your own to the conversation topic.
• Include a clear thesis statement that builds on or challenges the ideas of the text. Then offer effective explanation and support for your ideas.
• Edit and revise with enough accuracy that all ideas are clear and easy for readers to follow. Any errors should not distract from your main point or make your sentences unreadable.

If any part of the above criteria feels new to you, don’t worry. Your instructor will assess your skills, look for the positive in your work, and then help you by providing the best guidance and support to move your education forward and get your writing skills to the next level!

If you get a score of "Not Yet," you will need to edit and revise:

Revising your paper is not skimming a paper while watching TV. Revising is focusing on many elements in your draft. While you should edit for sentence-level and grammatical errors while you revise, editing is only a small part of what needs to be accomplished in a revision. You should revise your paper several times before turning it in for a deadline. To revise for a final submission, you may need to completely over-haul your essay to prove that you deserve a better score than you got on a previous draft. Show that you have really become a better writer. If all you do is fix a few grammatical errors, it will likely not result in a significant grade increase, and if your essay still contains other major concerns, you might not receive an improved grade. Learning how to improve your writing through a thorough revision process will not only increase your essay score, but will make you a better writer, which will benefit you in upcoming writing assignments and far beyond the end of this course. Here is a partial list of things to consider while revising an essay.

Refer to the grading rubric. How do you think your essay measures up? What could be changed to improve your rubric score? If you already have feedback from the professor, read it carefully and address ALL of the concerns. If you need to do more studying to address the concerns please try the Purdue OWL website, your recommended text books, and your class notes.

Once you write a complete draft of your essay, you revise it--adding material, deleting material, and making corrections. You then continue the revision process by revising your paper again...and then again. Have several other people (trusted peers AND tutors from DVC) read and discuss your essay with you. They cannot make changes for you or tell you what to write, but they can discuss elements of your paper that are not clear, disconnected, or need more work. Fresh eyes and an outsider’s perspective will do wonders for your writing!

You will need to submit it to Canvas before the revision deadline which will be approximately one-week after you receive your score. Be careful to submit to the correct assignment or it will not get scored! You can still earn a "Pass" for the essay by showing that you have developed skills with the required writing criteria.

Most importantly, don’t lose confidence in your ability to work hard and continue learning. The more essays you write (and re-write/revise) the more your skills will be developed and refined. This is a learning opportunity for you and a chance for you to complete your work at an elevated level!

If you get a score of "Pass," you will not need to edit and revise:

This means your writing demonstrated the skills for basic essay writing at a satisfactory level for the assignment. Unless otherwise noted in the assignment directions, this will be determined by the ENGL-122 writing rubric. Students whose writing matches the "meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations" criteria will receive a grade of 100%. You you will be asked to reflect on what you did well for this assignment and what your goals are for improvement. You will need to then apply your new knowledge and goals to your future writing. It means you are ready to move on to the next writing task in this course. Please continue to develop additional writing skills and advance your writing with deeper ideas. The writing assignments in this class will continue to get more advanced and more challenging!

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5.2.1: Practice Problems- Reaction Stoichiometry

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PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Write the balanced equation and determine the information requested. Don't worry about state symbols in these reactions.

• The number of moles and the mass (in grams) of chlorine, Cl 2 , required to react with 10.0 g of sodium metal, Na, to produce sodium chloride, NaCl.
• The number of moles and the mass (in milligrams) of diatomic oxygen formed by the decomposition of 1.252 g of mercury(II) oxide.
• The number of moles and the mass (in g) of sodium nitrate, NaNO 3 , required to decompose and produce 128 g of diatomic oxygen, where NaNO 2 is the other product.
• The number of moles and the mass (in kg) of carbon dioxide formed by the combustion of 20.0 kg of carbon in an excess of diatomic oxygen.
• The number of moles and the mass (in kg) of copper(II) carbonate needed to decompose in order to produce 1.500 kg of copper(II) oxide, where CO 2 is the other product.
• The number of moles and mass (in grams) of C 2 H 4 required to react with water to produce 9.55 g C 2 H 6 O.

\(\ce{2Na}+\ce{Cl2}\rightarrow \ce{2NaCl}\)

0.217 mol Cl 2

15.43 g Cl 2

\(\ce{2HgO}\rightarrow \ce{2Hg}+\ce{O2}\)

0.00289 mol O 2

\(\ce{2NaNO3}\rightarrow \ce{2NaNO3}+\ce{O2}\)

8 mol NaNO 3

680 g NaNO 3

\(\ce{C}+\ce{O2}\rightarrow \ce{CO2}\)

1666.67 mol CO 2

73.3 kg CO 2

\(\ce{CuCO3}\rightarrow \ce{CuO}+\ce{CO2}\)

18.87 mol CuCO 3

2.330 kg CuCO 3

\(\ce{C2H4}+\ce{H2O}\rightarrow \ce{C2H6O}\)

0.207 mol C 2 H 4

5.81 g C 2 H 4

*Apologies for the brief phone ringing*

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{2}\)

I 2 is produced by the reaction of 0.4235 mol of CuCl 2 according to the following equation: \(\ce{2CuCl2 + 4KI \rightarrow 2CuI + 4KCl + I2}\) .

• How many molecules of I 2 are produced?
• What mass of I 2 is produced?

1.28 × 10 23 molecules I 2

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{3}\)

Silver is often extracted from ores as K[Ag(CN) 2 ] and then recovered by the reaction

\(\ce{2K[Ag(CN)2]}(aq)+\ce{Zn}(s)\rightarrow \ce{2Ag}(s)+\ce{Zn(CN)2}(aq)+\ce{2KCN}(aq)\)

• How many molecules of Zn(CN) 2 are produced by the reaction of 35.27 g of K[Ag(CN) 2 ]?
• What mass of Zn(CN) 2 is produced?

5.337 × 10 22 molecules

10.41 g Zn(CN) 2

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{4}\)

What mass of silver oxide, Ag 2 O, is required to produce 25.0 g of silver sulfadiazine, AgC 10 H 9 N 4 SO 2 , from the reaction of silver oxide and sulfadiazine?

\(\ce{2C10H10N4SO2 + Ag2O \rightarrow 2AgC10H9N4SO2 + H2O}\)

8.12 g Ag 2 O

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{5}\)

Carborundum is silicon carbide, SiC, a very hard material used as an abrasive on sandpaper and in other applications. It is prepared by the reaction of pure sand, SiO 2 , with carbon at high temperature. Carbon monoxide, CO, is the other product of this reaction. Write the balanced equation for the reaction, and calculate how much SiO 2 is required to produce 3.00 kg of SiC.

\(\ce{SiO2 + 3C \rightarrow SiC + 2CO}\)

4.50 kg SiO 2

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{6}\)

Automotive air bags inflate when a sample of sodium azide, NaN 3 , is very rapidly decomposed.

\(\ce{2NaN3}(s) \rightarrow \ce{2Na}(s) + \ce{3N2}(g)\)

What mass of sodium azide is required to produce 2.6 ft 3 (73.6 L) of nitrogen gas with a density of 1.25 g/L?

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{7}\)

Urea, CO(NH 2 ) 2 , is manufactured on a large scale for use in producing urea-formaldehyde plastics and as a fertilizer. What is the maximum mass of urea that can be manufactured from the CO 2 produced by combustion of 1.00×10 3 kg of carbon followed by the reaction?

\[\ce{CO2}(g)+\ce{2NH3}(g)\rightarrow \ce{CO(NH2)2}(s)+\ce{H2O}(l)\]

5.00 kg Urea

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{8}\)

In an accident, a solution containing 2.5 kg of nitric acid was spilled. Two kilograms of Na 2 CO 3 was quickly spread on the area and CO 2 was released by the reaction. Was sufficient Na 2 CO 3 used to neutralize all of the acid? (in this reaction, water and sodium nitrate are the other two products)

No, you will need 2.1 kg of sodium carbonate to neutralize 2.5 kg of nitric acid.

PROBLEM \(\PageIndex{9}\)

A compact car gets 37.5 miles per gallon on the highway. If gasoline contains 84.2% carbon by mass and has a density of 0.8205 g/mL, determine the mass of carbon dioxide produced during a 500-mile trip (3.785 liters per gallon).

1.28 × 10 5 g CO 2

Contributors

Paul Flowers (University of North Carolina - Pembroke), Klaus Theopold (University of Delaware) and Richard Langley (Stephen F. Austin State University) with contributing authors.  Textbook content produced by OpenStax College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected] ).

• Adelaide Clark, Oregon Institute of Technology