MPA Capstone Project

The Literature Review

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Capstone Outline

Introduction Problem Assessment

Literature Review Stakeholder Assessment

Options Specification Options Assessment

Recommendation

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Project Schedule

Week Assignment

2 Project Definition Worksheet

3 Memorandum Outline, Memorandum Introduction Section

4 Literature Review

5 Stakeholder Assessment, Options Specification

6 Options Assessment

7 First Draft of Complete Memorandum

8 Executive Summary, Presentation Slides

9 Revisions of the Project

10 First-Round Grading Submission

12 Second-Round Grading Submission (if needed)

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Capstone Seminar

Three Basic Questions

• What is known about the local problem?

– Reports, agency studies, independent studies, news articles

• What is the state of scholarly knowledge?

– Peer-reviewed journal articles

– Scholarly books and professional studies

• What are best practices in other jurisdictions?

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Capstone Seminar

Literature Review in a Policy Analysis

• The purpose is to brief your client.

– Your client has limited time and attention.

– Your Capstone Project has limited space.

• A literature review for a policy analysis is different than a literature review in a term paper

• Let’s explore the differences…

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Literature Review Term Paper versus Policy Analysis

Term Paper Policy Analysis

Length No limit Limited by client’s attention span

Scope Scholarly Articles and Professional Studies

Scholarly Articles, Professional Studies, Local Information, and Information About Best Practices

Depth Cover each source Select most important sources, quote and cite other literature reviews

Structure Conceptual and Comprehensive

Responsive to the Client’s Question

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• Take advantage of bibliography and citation management tools.

• Microsoft Word has a powerful Citation/Source Manager

– Simplifies completing citations of sources.

– Automatically generates a bibliography.

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Capstone Seminar

CUNY Software Resources

• CUNY offers a range of discounted and free equipment and services at the “CUNY Mall” which can be accessed from CUNY Portal the CUNY website (http://www.cuny.edu).

• To reach the CUNY Mall, log in in the same manner as accessing Blackboard and you will see the link to the CUNY Mall.

• The Mall offers: – Student discounts on computers; – Free and discounted site licenses to Microsoft Windows and

Office products and other software; – Discounts a clothing outlet stores, fitness centers, and financial

services; – Discounts on cell-phone services.

• As a rule of thumb, never buy any computer or related software without checking the CUNY Mall.

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• When you are ready to insert a citation…

• Under the “References” tab, Select “Insert Citation” and “Add new Source.”

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• Select the type of source and fill in the information.

• In this case, “Book” has been selected.

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• There are many other types of sources.

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• Add the page number for numbers for your citation.

• Insert it into your document.

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• Be sure to select APA citation format.

• It’s automatically completed for you throughout your paper!

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

• When your project is complete, insert your bibliography at the end of your memo.

• It is completed automatically in APA format!

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Capstone Seminar

Bibliography and Citation Management

Remember… • Cite your sources.

• Be sure that quoted material is in quotations.

• Your bibliography goes at the end of your primary memorandum.

• It is included in the 12 pages.

• It does not need it’s own page.

• If you add another reference, be sure to reinsert your bibliography.

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Capstone Seminar

Citing Your Own Work

A Warning… • You are allowed to use material from term projects you

completed for prior MPA courses.

• Be sure that material was properly cited.

• Be sure to get permission of the professor in any class that you are currently taking.

• For example, parts of your capstone project, submitted to Turnitin in the 9th week, might show up in the Turnitin report for your term project in the other class in the 15th week.

• If the other professor did not give permission, this may be considered plagiarism by the other professor.

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Capstone Seminar

Three Basic Questions

• What is known about the local problem?

– Reports, agency studies, independent studies, news articles

• What is the state of scholarly knowledge?

– Peer-reviewed journal articles

– Scholarly books and professional studies

• What are best practices in other jurisdictions?

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Capstone Seminar

Three Basic Questions

• What is known about the action-forcing event?

• What is known about the local problem?

– Reports, agency studies, independent studies, news articles

• Why did the action-forcing event take place?

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Capstone Seminar

Three Basic Questions

What is the state of scholarly knowledge? – Peer-reviewed journal articles

– Scholarly books and professional studies

– Consider literature reviews and bibliographies from other policy studies on your topic. They may point you to scholarly articles.

– Scholarly articles usually have extensive literature reviews that may also point you to professional studies and reports.

– If you find an author or organization with expertise on the topic, what else has the author or organization written?

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Capstone Seminar

Three Basic Questions

• What are best practices in other jurisdictions?

• What strategies have been attempted to try to resolve or mitigate the problem?

• Can this part of the literature review help to identify the policy options that you will be considering in your project?

• Ideally, each of your policy options should be examined in your literature review.

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Capstone Seminar

A Literature Review in 3-4 Pages?

How do you accomplish this is 3-4 pages? • Write concisely.

• Rely on other literature reviews.

• Group common studies and discuss them together.

• Do not just list studies and comment on each one.

• Target your client’s question.

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Capstone Seminar

Summary

• Your literature review covers three basic questions:

– What is known about the local problem?

– What is the state of scholarly knowledge?

– What are best practices in other jurisdictions?

• Use the citation management system built into your word processing program.

• Carefully cite the works you rely on.

• Take no more than 3-4 pages.

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