WHAT

For this project, imagine yourself as a journalist reporting information you researched.

Write a literature review on the topic you selected for your proposal project (2B) in the form of a newspaper article. First, identify at least 4 sources about your topic. Then pick 2 best ones, and compose a news article in which you explain the information in them as a newspaper article for a general audience. Out of final 2 sources you select, 1 must be from a magazine or newspaper (print or online) and 1 from an academic source (textbook, article, or scholarly book). The news articles you write should contain elements of a news piece: headline, lead paragraph, major details and minor details, and quotations. Provide a works-cited page following MLA conventions at the end of your article. Altogether, your article you be between 500-600 words.

WHY

At work and in your daily life, you will experience a situation in which you must accurately and thoroughly explain a complex idea, situation, or process to help another person do a task, learn a concept, or accept your argument. Doing that well requires many interconnected skills:

  • understanding context and background
  • comprehending the issue
  • crediting people and sources
  • distinguishing among major points, relevant details, and less important information
  • summarizing
  • paraphrasing.

This literature review project helps you refine those skills. It also allows you to learn to write for a general audience.

HOW

  1. Use the skills you learned about how to distinguish between credible and non-credible sources to pick 4 texts from library research. Select the best 2 out of 6.
  2. Read and annotate each source, and use Cornell notes or graphic organizers to help you understand the texts.
  3. Identify pivotal quotations from each source. Include them in the news article you will write.
  4. Compose a news article that contains a headline, a lead paragraph (the first paragraph that clarifies who, what, when, where, why), body paragraphs that explains the details of the article, and pivotal quotations.