- Consider using about 15 sources / references
- The paper should have a simple cover page with no graphics
- Double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 12 pt.
- One-inch margins on all sides
- No extra spacing between paragraphs. That is, the line spacing between paragraphs should be the same as the line spacing between lines within the paragraphs.
- Paragraphs indented 1/2 inch on the first line
- APA citation / bibliographic style
- Use the heading styles in MS Word for all headings, other than those on the cover page. Refer to the APA writing standards for how to do headings and heading levels.
- Avoid using bulleted lists and numbered lists. Listing a few items should be done “paragraphically”. If you have many items to list, consider putting them into a table.
- Avoid contractions (e.g., do not use “don’t”, “can’t”, “it’s”).
- Avoid first person (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours)
- Avoid second person (you, your, yours)
- You will be reviewing the concepts of several documents. It is important to ensure that you do not write a paragraph about one source, and the next paragraph about another source, and the next about still another source, and so on. This would result in a very uninspiring paper, a very uninspired marker, and a very unsatisfying mark. Consider concepts, findings, issues, hypotheses, concerns etc. in each of the documents you are reviewing, and interleave related concepts, findings, issues, hypotheses, concerns etc. from multiple papers. That way you are reviewing concepts and have the opportunity to compare and contrast instead of just listing. A paper that just lists findings can technically be called a literature review, but it is not what is being sought for this paper, which is supposed to be an analysis as well. Please see the reference paper on how to write a literature review paper.