Literature Review: Issues and effectiveness of government support of elite athletes.
Comprehensive Self-Editing Checklist for Refining the Final Draft
Importance or Significance of the Topic
_______ Is your topic important, either from a theoretical or a practical perspective?
_______Does it present a fresh perspective or identify a gap in the literature (i.e. does it address a question not previously addressed)?
_______ Is your topic’s significance or importance demonstrated and justified?
_______ Is this an appropriate topic for your field of study?
_______Is the topic timely in terms of what is being reported in the research literature?
_______ Does the title of your manuscript adequately describe the subject of your review?
Organization and Other Global Considerations
_______Does your review include an introduction and a discussion and conclusions section?
_______Did you include a reference list?
_______Does the length and organization of your review follow the criteria set forth by your instructor.
Currency and Relevance of the Literature Cited
_______ Does your introduction describe the scope of the literature you have reviewed and why the topic is important?
_______ Did you describe in your introduction the general structure of your paper?
_______Does your introduction identify the line of argumentation you have followed in your manuscript?
_______ Does your introduction state what will and will not be covered, if this is appropriate?
_______ Does the introduction specify your thesis statement or point of view, if this is relevant?
Currency and Relevance of the Literature Cited
_______ Did you review the most current articles on the topic?
_______ Are the studies you reviewed current?
_______ If you have included older articles, did you have a good reason for including them?
_______ Have you explained why you have described some findings as being strong?
_______ Have you explained why you have described other findings as being weak?
_______ Did you identify the major patterns or trends in the literature?
_______ Have you identified in your manuscript the classic or landmark studies you cited?
_______ Did you specify the relationship of these classic studies to subsequent studies they may have influenced?
Thoroughness and Accuracy of the Literature Reviewed
_______ Is the coverage of your review adequate?
_______ Have you noted and explained the gaps in the literature?
_______ Have you described any pertinent controversies in the field?
_______ If you answered yes to item 30, did you make clear which studies fall on either side of the controversy?
_______Have you checked the draft for parallelism?
_______ Have you noted and explained the relationships among studies, such as which ones came first? Which ones share similarities? Which ones have differences?
_______ Did you indicate the source of key terms or concepts?
_______ Are there gaps in the body of your manuscript?
Coherence and Flow of the Path of the Argument
_______ Does each study you reviewed correspond with a specific part of your topic outline?
_______ Have you deleted citations to studies you decided not to include in your review because they do not relate to the path of your argument?
_______ Is the path of your argument made clear throughout the manuscript?
_______ Does each part of your review flow logically from the preceding part?
_______ If you have used “meta-comments”, are they essential?
_______ If you have used subheadings, do they help advance your argument?
_______ If you have not used subheadings, would adding them help advance your argument?
_______ Is your manuscript coherent, or would additional transitional devices help to clarify how it holds together?
Effectiveness of the Conclusion
_______ Does your conclusion provide closure for the reader?
_______ Does your conclusion make reference to the line of argumentation you specified in the introduction?Accuracy of Citations and the Reference List
_______ Have you checked your style manual’s guidelines for citing references in the narrative (e.g. when to use parentheses, how to cite multiple authors, and how to cite a secondary source)?
_______ Have you checked each citation in the manuscript to make sure that it appears on our reference list?
_______ Have you checked all entries on the reference list to make sure that each one is cited in your manuscript?
______ Have you eliminated all entries from your reference list that are not cited in the manuscript?
_______ Have you checked for accuracy and consistency between the dates in your manuscript and the dates in your reference list?
_______ Have you checked for accuracy between the spelling of the authors’ names in your manuscript and in your reference list?
_______ Are most of the dates of the studies included in the reference list within the recent past?
Mechanics and Overall Accuracy of the Manuscript
_______ Did you read and edit your manuscript carefully?
_______ Did you perform a final spell-check of the entire manuscript?
_______ Are you margins set appropriately?
_______ Did you number all the pages?
_______ Is you manuscript double –spaced?
_______ Did you include your full name, school and professors name?
Appropriateness of Style and Language Usage
_______ Have you carefully reviewed the appropriate style manual for your field?
_______ Have you checked your manuscript for consistency with your style manual?
_______ Are you headings formatted in accordance with the guidelines specified in the appropriate style manual?
_______ If you used Latin abbreviations (i.e, e.g.,etc), are they in parentheses, and have checked for the required punctuation?
_______ If you have used long quotations, are they absolutely necessary?
_______ Does each quotation contribute significantly to the review?
_______ Can any of these quotations be paraphrased?
_______ Did you avoid the use of synonyms for important key terms and concepts?
_______ If you have coined a new term, is it set off in quotations?
_______ Have you avoided slang terms, colloquialisms, and idioms?
_______ Have you avoided using contractions?
_______ Have you included any annotations that are not linked to the path of the argument of your review?
_______ Have you avoided using a series of annotations?
_______ Have you spelled out all acronyms on first mention?
_______ If you have used the first person, is it appropriate?
_______ Have you avoided using sexist language?
_______ If you used numbers in the narrative of your review, did you check to see if you spelled out the numbers zero through nine?
_______ If you used a noun followed by a number to denote a specific place in a sequence, did you capitalize the noun?
_______ If you used a number to begin a sentence, did you spell it out?Grammatical Accuracy
_______ Did you check your manuscript for grammatical correctness?
_______ Is every sentence of your manuscript a complete sentence?
_______ Have you avoided using indirect sentence constructions (as in, “In Galvan’s study, it was found….”)?
_______ Have you been consistent in your use of tenses?
_______ Have you checked for the proper use of commas and other punctuation marks?
_______ Have you attempted to avoid using complicated sentence structures?
_______If you have any long sentences, have you attempted to break them down into two or more sentences?
_______ If you have any long paragraphs (e.g., a page or longer) have you attempted to break them down into two or more paragraphs?
Additional Editing Steps for Non-Native English Speakers and Students with Serious Writing Difficulties
_______ If you proficiency in English is not at a high level, have you asked a proofreader for assistance?
_______ Have you checked the entire manuscript for the proper article (e.g., a, an, the) usage?
_______Have you checked the manuscript for proper use of prepositions?
_______ Have you checked each sentence for proper subject-verb agreement?
_______ Have you checked the manuscript for the proper use of idiomatic expressions?
Guidelines Suggested by Your Instructor
