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Sociology Literature Reviews

Databases

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Evaluating Resources

  • Scholarly:  sources that you discuss in your literature review have to be scholarly--articles from peer-reviewed journals, books from university (or other well-respected) publishers, etc.  (Email me if you aren't sure about a source!)
  • Date of publication:  old doesn't mean 'bad', necessarily, but you have to look at the date and think critically about how that might affect the author's treatment of the topic.  
  • Relevance:  this might be the most important factor.  Is the source truly relevant to your topic, or is it tangential?   
    •    When thinking about relevance, think about how the persuasiveness of the argument and the value it adds to the body of literature
  • Author:  who wrote the source?  What are their credentials?  Have they published other information on the same topic?

Abby Juda

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Abby Juda
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