4 pages (single spaced) Challenges of Chinese Silk Road?
I’m stuck on a Political Science question and need an explanation.
Overview: You will be responsible for finishing a literature review for your research paper. We
have previously talked about what makes a good literature review, and it would be beneficial to
go back to this section and figure out what this looks like. Looking at how previous scholars and
I structured our literature review may help you figure out how to address your own review.
Goal: To specifically address the research around a problem, what has been done, what is
missing in the research, and the plan of your research to either fill a research gap or replicate
previous findings.
Specific Instructions:
structure your Literature reviews to tackle big ideas first and then narrow down to
smaller or more specific ones, in the context of your research topic.
o Chronologically: How have scholars changed how they have viewed your
research topic/question over time?
o Thematically: How have different explanations or “schools” come to explain the
most important factor in explaining your research question? Sometimes
researchers focus on different factors that play a role. Either of these work.
your paper will fill the hole you found in the literature or how you will re-examine some
view of the literature.
length of your literature is dependent on the literature you are investigating. I will
reward thorough reviews. However, literature reviews DO NOT explain entire articles
and are not annotated bibliographies.
o As discussed in class, it may be helpful to prepare a mind-map or flow-chart of
your literature review before you begin writing. This will help you have a clear
overview.