In this Assignment, you will make additional entries in the Literature Review Matrix tab of your Expanded Literature Review Matrix document and develop a plan for using the matrix as you continue to narrow your focus throughout your doctoral program

What is your top ten list of favorite films? Or books?

Try to answer one of these questions and then reflect on how you narrow down a list. First, you probably start by trying to remember as many films or books as you can. You need to know that you’ve included every possible option so you can confidently justify your list. Second, you probably start to assign some qualifiers. Maybe you consciously or subconsciously sort your list by best writing or acting, favorite genres, emotional connections, authors or directors, technical achievements, and so on. Third, you might use those qualifiers to narrow down your list and select the films or books that best meet the parameters you’ve set.

The process you used for narrowing down a top ten list is a simplified version of what you do in your literature review for your DSW capstone or PhD dissertation. First, you must collect as much literature as possible. As you do so, you’ll build a set of qualifiers to help you narrow your topic and focus your research interests. Then, finally, you’ll select from your library of literature to make sure you have the best sources to present your argument, or a gap in the research.

A Literature Review Matrix is designed to guide you through this process. As you collect and document your literature in this format, you will be able to quickly reference specific details of your literature and sort information to help determine the best parameters based on your research topic.

In this Assignment, you will make additional entries in the Literature Review Matrix tab of your Expanded Literature Review Matrix document and develop a plan for using the matrix as you continue to narrow your focus throughout your doctoral program, leading to your dissertation or capstone project.

To Prepare

·        Open your Expanded Literature Review Matrix document that you have been updating throughout the course and select the Literature Review Matrix tab.

·        If you need a refresher from Week 7, watch the video walk-through, Entering a Source into the Literature Review Matrix: A Walk-through, in the Learning Resources.

·        If you need a refresher from Week 5, review the resource, Library Guide to Capstone Literature Reviews: Role of the Literature Review, from the Learning Resources.

·        Locate five additional empirical research articles related to your potential research topic for your capstone or dissertation. Search for new articles—articles you have not already located throughout the course—to expand your knowledge on your potential topic.

By Day 7

Complete the two-part Assignment.

Part 1:

Submit your Expanded Literature Review Matrix document.

·        Your Expanded Literature Review Matrix document should include six sources in your Literature Review Matrix tab—one source from Week 7 and 5 additional sources for this Assignment.

·        Your Expanded Literature Review Matrix should include the complete information in the Discipline Tracker tab from Week 7.

·        Save and upload your up-to-date literature review matrix document with your new entries.

Part 2:

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

·        In 3–5 sentences each, explain how each of the five additional articles relates to your potential research topic.

·        Describe your process for entering the sources into the matrix. What changed since your first entry in Week 7? For example:

o   Which columns/headings did you enter first? Why?

o   How did you determine what specific information to include under the results and recommendations headings?

o   How did this process of documenting/tracking influence the way you thought about your research article?

·        Analyze any new connections or emerging trends you see from your entries. For example:

o   Aspects of the authors’ research

o   Similar results from key word searches

o   Trends across a journal or database

o   Conflicting findings or conclusions

o   Missing or incomplete information across specific elements of the matrix

·        Do these observations give you cause to rethink your potential topic? If so, why? If not, how do the observations further support your current topic?

·        Describe actions you will take to continue to organize your knowledge and prepare for the literature review. How will you know when you have found the gap?