Instruction HEW 411 Assignment: Literature of Public Health Issue 25 percent of your final course grade. Due date: TBA Overview: Literature Review Provide a descriptive summary of research on a public health topic. The purpose of a literature review is to inform readers of the significant knowledge and ideas that have been established on a topic and possible gaps in the literature. Its purpose is to compare, contrast, and/or connect findings that were identified when reviewing researchers' work. Oftentimes, literature reviews are written to ground a study in a particular context of what is known about a subject in order to establish a foundation for further research on the public health. The purpose of this assignment is to facilitate your abilities to research a public health topic so you can learn to (1) identify and formulate an inquiry question regarding a public health topic, (2) apply your knowledge on reading research that you've learned during the first half of this course, (3) analyze information found in public health journal articles, (4) synthesize new knowledge into a written literature review, and (5) identify implications of your findings for public health practice and future research. Assignment Description: For this assignment, complete a literature review on a public health of topic of your choice. Locate at least 8 public health peer-reviewed journal articles on your topic and write an 7- 9 page literature review (does not include reference or title pages). Suggested steps to complete your public health literature review: 1. Choose a public health topic that you are interested in studying. 2. Formulate an inquiry question or describe what would like to investigate about your public health topic. 3. Using the library databases, search for and locate journals that include your topic's information. 4. Find articles, read the abstracts, and skim the articles to determine if they correspond well to your topic and inquiry question. 5. Select journal articles and print hardcopies of them for your project. 6. Read your articles and begin to sort and classify them according to their findings. 7. Organize your articles by sorting and classifying their findings in a meaningful way (i.e., major categories, subcategories), always considering your original topic or inquiry question. Look for themes, debates, and gaps and note or highlight them. Look for implications for public health practice and suggestions for further research and highlight them for later use. Color-coding or post-it notes may be helpful. 8. Write an outline with categories and subcategories or heading and subheadings for your literature review. 9. Write your review. Outline for writing your literature review: 1. Introduction The introduction is used to establish the context of your review to the reader. To establish the context, it is important to do the following: a. Define the topic of your study and provide any background information that helps your reader to understand the topic. b. Explain the public health importance for reviewing the literature on this topic. c. Discuss the scope of the public health problem you will review. d. State the objective or inquiry question for this review. e. Suggest new insights you will draw from the public health literature 2. Body This section of your paper begins with an explanation of how you have organized your small-scale literature review and describes findings from articles that provide answers to your inquiry question. Before you begin this section, be sure that you have sorted your articles into different themes based on the articles' findings (sometimes called results). After you sort your articles, it is important to give your sorted groups a descriptive name. The names of the sorted articles will become the topics for each of the paragraphs that you write in the body of your review. To write the body of your literature review, it is important to include the following: 1. Write an introduction paragraph for the body of your review. This paragraph tells the reader specific information on how many articles you reviewed, any supplemental materials you have included, and how you sorted the articles into common themes based on the findings (results). 2. This will be a paragraph that describes the first theme that you identified and compare, contrast and/or connect* the articles you've selected. As you write, you can follow these tips (see example from notes). o Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole o Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers— add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole o Critically evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources o Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts 3. This will be a paragraph that describes the second theme that you identified and compare, contrast, and/or connect the articles you've selected. (See tips in 2. above). 4. This will be a paragraph that describes the third theme that you identified and compare, contrast, and/or connect the articles you've selected. (See tips in 2. above). Repeat as needed… * supplemental materials may be useful here. 3. Conclusion This is the last section of your public health literature review. a. In this initial paragraph(s), it is important to summarize the main findings from the articles that you reviewed and emphasize their significance*. In other words, discuss the implications of your findings from your investigation. Connect what you found from your investigation that was particularly important or significant to the health topic identified in the first paragraph of your review. Connect back to your initial investigation or inquiry question. b. Next, describe the implications for public health. Provide practical suggestions/recommendations for practitioners. c. Last, make suggestions/recommendations for future research based on gaps you identified. * supplemental materials may be useful here. 4. References This is the last page of your review. It serves as a listing of all references that you mentioned in your paper. Include only references with in-text citations. Use APA style when completing this list.