Review of the Literature

Semester and Year	FA 2010
Course Number	CORE-GG2115
Section	001
Instructor
Days
Time
Units	3.0
Level	G
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Deadline for submitting proposal is Monday, Sept 13.

Description

Before starting the thesis, students are required to conduct an independent study—usually with their adviser— in which they find, read and critique a substantial body of scholarship related to the thesis. The purpose of this independent study is to ensure that the student is familiar with the previous scholarly work that forms a context for the thesis. The required work for Review of the Literature is a critical essay and a bibliography. The aim of the essay is to identify the categories of pertinent studies; report on major concepts, theories, debates, trends, and gaps in the field; and place the thesis topic in relation to earlier studies. The adviser sets the length of the paper, but it is typically more than 25 pages. Students may take Review of the Literature before the Master’s Thesis Seminar as a way of exploring the broad literatures in the student’s field or topic and to use the study as a way of generating a researchable question for the thesis. It is also possible to take Review of the Literature simultaneously with the Master’s Thesis Seminar when the student is fairly clear about the research question, but may need some background development and can use Review of the Literature as a way of deepening knowledge in the specific domain of the thesis. A student may also take Review of the Literature after the Master’s Thesis Seminar when he or she already has a well-developed research question and wants to dig deeply into the specific literatures related to that question. For more details about Review of the Literature, please visit Gallatin's website.

Course Type

Graduate Core (CORE-GG)