This assignment is a DRAFT that asks you to construct a clear, evidence-based narrative of your topic by integrating:
- existing research
- theoretical perspectives
- patterns across sources
Rather than introducing new theory or methods, your goal is to show how different sources interpret evidence and how those interpretations can be organized into a coherent explanation of the issue.
This assignment builds directly on your previous work by asking:
- How does evidence become explanation?
- How do different interpretations shape understanding of the same issue?
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Core Task
You will use your sources (the ones from your annotated bibliography and two-to-three additions, if you choose) to:
Compare how different authors interpret similar evidence
Construct a coherent narrative of the problem
Show how theory helps organize and explain that narrative
Assignment Components
- Problem Framing (12 pages)
Define the issue clearly.
Then answer:
- How is this problem typically described?
- What assumptions shape how it is understood?
- Literature as Competing Interpretations (45 pages)
This is the most important section. It relies on the work you have done in your Annotated Bibliography. Do NOT summarize one source at a time. Instead
Organize your review around:
- patterns in the literature
- points of agreement and disagreement
- different interpretations of similar evidence
Ask yourself:
- Do different authors explain the same issue differently?
- What evidence do they emphasize or ignore?
- What assumptions shape their conclusions?
- Narrative Construction (23 pages)
This is the new piece. Construct your own explanation by answering:
- What is the most convincing interpretation of the issue?
- How do the sources come together to support that interpretation?
- What story does the evidence tell when organized coherently?
You are not inventing new data.
You are organizing existing evidence into a clear explanation.
- Connection to Theory (12 pages)
Briefly reconnect this new writing to your prior work. Explain:
- How your chosen theory helps make sense of the narrative you constructed
- Why this theoretical lens is useful for understanding the issue
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