Sample Literature Review

In the writing guide, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science, the author, Professor Lisa A. Baglione, illustrates the proper way to establish a research question, write a literature review, and present a polished research paper. Using Baglione’s checklist for each step of a research paper, I will evaluate the effectiveness of a research paper written by a previous student. First, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the research question by using the checklist provided by Baglione.
According to Baglione, it is crucial that a research question is short, to the point, and a feasible task to complete in the assignment’s allotted time. I would argue that the author’s research question, a case study in the decision-making during the Yom Kippur …show more content…
The author addresses this criteria directly. In the paragraph marked “Decision-Making Theory and This Study”, the author states that his intention is that others, scholars and policymakers, will expand upon or make new hypothesis in regards to crisis decision making.
Another point that is worth mentioning is Baglione’s criteria for the wording of a research question. Baglione suggest that a research question should begin with words such as “why”, “how”, “to what extent” and, “under what conditions”. By examining the author’s research question, I would argue that the author did not do this. The author could have said, for example, “To what extent did the crises during the Yom Kippur War influence the decision-making of Henry Kissinger.” Next, I will evaluate the author’s literature review using Baglione …show more content…
Baglione expands by saying that the author should also address the strengths and weakness of each school of thought. Upon review of the research paper, I do not believe that the author adequately does this in the literature review. The author does a good job of explaining the components of traditional decision-making theory and the scholars who proposed the theory. The author then goes further to explain the weakness of traditional decision-making theory by saying that one cannot prediction human behavior, or what he terms “actor rationality”. Nevertheless, where I feel that the literature review is lacking is the application of decision-making theory to the Yom Kippur War. Simply, this literature review could not stand independently of the preface and the case study, which is an essential characteristic of a literature review. Next, I will evaluate the author’s research design by using the criteria provided by